DEVELOPMENT IN QUEENSLAND (Revised February 2007)

 The law

 Welcome to the most regulated and complex activity that you can undertake in Queensland.

 The regulation of developments in Queensland over the last 30 years has resulted from a desire by the community to achieve eccological and ecconomic sustainablility for future generations.

 The complexity of the system has been brought about by the decision of the Queensland Government some 10 years ago to adopt a single system to manage all development approvals in Queensland.

 The effect of this has been a largely complex and unwieldy system which tries to cater for managing Development approval for everything. It makes no difference if it is building works  for a lawn locker in Kurumba in the Northern Gulf OR building sky scrapers in Brisbane. From planning approval to realign a residential boundary to developing 20,000 allotment subdivison. From approval to pumping water from the local creek or changing a hospital to a hostel, -all under the one Act.

 Add to this a rapidly escalating amount of social and amenity controls currently being rolled out under contemporary planning schemes and you have a system that is now a huge Gordian Knot and no place for the faint hearted;

The administrative process of undertaking this activity is controlled by the Integrated Development Assessment System (IDAS)

This system is also supported by a plethora of other legislation

For example

§           Local Government Act 1993

§           Plumbing Drainage Act 2004  

§          Water Act 2000

§          Environmetanl Protection Act 1994

§          Transport Infrastructure Act 2000

Administrative process

  The Integrated Planning Act 1997 functions this way-