Northern Beaches bush fire prone land check
Bush fire prone land on the Northern Beaches is mapped by Northern Beaches Council and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. The council publishes its certified map as four layers, one for each vegetation category and one for the buffer.
Type an address below to see which category, if any, the block is in on each map, with its source and date.
NSW addresses only. Free, and no sign up.
Is my Northern Beaches property bush fire prone?
It is if any part of the lot is on the certified bush fire prone land map, in category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation or in the buffer around it. The Site Checker above reads the NSW RFS certified map, Northern Beaches Council's own copy of the map, and the NPWS record of past fires, and shows each answer separately. A lot on none of them reads "Not on the bush fire prone land map", a statement about the map and nothing more.
Where is the Northern Beaches bush fire prone land map?
The map that counts is the statewide one the NSW RFS certifies, which you can search on the NSW RFS website or view on the NSW Planning Portal spatial viewer. Northern Beaches Council's bush fire prone land page gives three ways to check: download the map as a PDF, use the council's online mapping tool, or order a planning certificate.
Which Northern Beaches Council bush fire prone land map is current?
The current map was certified by the Commissioner of the NSW RFS on 7 August 2020, the council says, and every polygon in its copy carries that start date and no end date.
The checker reads Bush Fire Prone Land, Vegetation Category 1; Bush Fire Prone Land, Vegetation Category 2; Bush Fire Prone Land, Vegetation Category 3; and Bush Fire Prone Land, Vegetation Buffer from Northern Beaches Council's map service, checked on 24 September 2026, always beside the RFS map.
What do the categories on the Northern Beaches map mean?
Category 1 is forest, woodland, heath, forested wetland and timber plantation. Category 2 is rainforest and lower risk remnant vegetation. Category 3 is grassland, freshwater wetland, semi arid woodland, alpine complex and arid shrubland. The vegetation buffer is land within 100 m of category 1 vegetation or 30 m of category 2 or 3 vegetation, and there is no category 4. On the Northern Beaches, category 3 is a single strip of grassland along Narrabeen Lagoon, about 2 km by 6 km, so almost all the mapped land there is category 1, category 2 or the buffer.
Do I need a BAL assessment to build on the Northern Beaches?
Usually, yes, if any part of the lot is on the map. A Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) sets the construction standard for a new home under AS 3959, and a bush fire consultant or the NSW RFS assesses it for the site from the vegetation, the slope and the distance between them. Building on bush fire prone land must also meet Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019, which Northern Beaches Council or your certifier applies. The map tells you an assessment is needed, not the level, and the Site Checker never gives or estimates a BAL.
Why is my block mapped when no fire has come near it?
Because the map is drawn from vegetation, not from fire history: a lot is mapped for what grows on it or near it. The Site Checker shows the NPWS Fire History, the fire boundaries NPWS holds back to 1920, as a separate line, and no recorded fire is not proof that none has reached the lot.
What else do people ask?
Can the Northern Beaches bush fire prone land map change?
Yes. Councils redraw the map as vegetation and development change, and a new version takes effect once the Commissioner of the NSW RFS certifies it. The map in force on the Northern Beaches is the one certified on 7 August 2020. The council also holds a bush fire intensity study for deferred lands, which is a hazard study rather than the map, and the checker does not read it.
Does a buffer finding mean there is bushland on my block?
No. The buffer is land within 100 m of category 1 vegetation or 30 m of category 2 or 3 vegetation. A lot in the buffer is near mapped vegetation and does not have to carry any itself.
Is this the same as a section 10.7 planning certificate?
No. Northern Beaches Council's section 10.7 planning certificate states whether the land is bush fire prone, and it is the formal answer. Order one through Northern Beaches Council planning certificates.
Where does this information come from?
- Northern Beaches Council bushfire mapping, the map service the Site Checker reads
- Northern Beaches Council, bush fire prone land
- NSW RFS, check if you're in bush fire prone land
- NSW Planning Portal spatial viewer
- NPWS Fire History, wildfires and prescribed burns, on SEED
- Northern Beaches Council planning certificates
This page and the Site Checker are general information from published maps. They are not a Bushfire Attack Level assessment, a bush fire certificate, a section 10.7 planning certificate or a survey, and they do not replace advice from the council, the NSW RFS, a bush fire consultant, your certifier, a lawyer or your own designer.