Tweed bush fire prone land check
Bush fire prone land in the Tweed is mapped by Tweed Shire Council and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. The council publishes its current 2023 map, with its superseded 2012 map beside it.
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 Tweed 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, Tweed Shire Council's own copy of the map and its former 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 Tweed 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. Tweed Shire Council's bushfire prone land page points to three places: the council's online mapping tool, the RFS online tool and a planning certificate.
Which Tweed Shire Council bush fire prone land map is current?
The current map is Bushfire Prone Land 2023, which Tweed Shire Council said in a June 2023 media release was reviewed and certified by the NSW RFS Commissioner on 24 May 2023. Bushfire Prone Land 2012 is shown as a former map.
The checker reads Bushfire Prone Land 2023 and Bushfire Prone Land 2012 from Tweed Shire Council's map service, checked on 24 September 2026, always beside the RFS map.
What do the categories on the Tweed 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. The 2012 Tweed map has only categories 1 and 2 and the buffer, because it predates category 3; the 2023 map adds it, with 237 category 3 polygons.
Do I need a BAL assessment to build in the Tweed?
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 Tweed Shire 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 Tweed 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 Tweed map certified on 24 May 2023 replaced the 2012 map and brought in category 3 vegetation, which the older map did not have.
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. Tweed Shire Council's section 10.7 planning certificate states whether the land is bush fire prone, and it is the formal answer. Order one through Tweed Shire Council conveyancing applications.
Where does this information come from?
- Tweed Shire Council bushfire mapping, the map service the Site Checker reads
- Tweed Shire Council, bushfire prone land
- Tweed Shire Council, bushfire prone land map updated (June 2023)
- 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
- Tweed Shire Council conveyancing applications
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.