Regulated and Significant Trees in SA: How the 2024 Reforms Can Reshape or Stop Your Subdivision

Photo: Walter Coppola via Pexels

If a mature tree stands where your driveway, garage or new dwelling has to go, it can quietly redraw a subdivision — or delete a lot from it altogether. Since 16 May 2024, South Australia protects far more trees than it used to: the threshold for a regulated tree dropped from a 2.0-metre trunk circumference to just 1.0 metre, and the buffer that let you clear a tree near your house shrank from 10 metres to 3 metres (source: PlanSA). For established metro Adelaide blocks — the exact blocks people buy to subdivide — that reform turned a great many ordinary backyard gums into trees you now need development approval to touch. This guide, from Cyberate PM, an Adelaide-based development manager, sets out what is protected, what is exempt, what it costs in 2026-27, and how to keep a tree from stranding your project.

Figures current as at 6 July 2026.

A note on sources first. The rules that decide all this are scattered across several PlanSA PDFs, a gazetted fees notice that is reissued every financial year, and portal pages that are awkward to reach and easy to misread. There is no single, dated, plain-language page that pulls the thresholds, the exemptions and the current dollar figures together — so ordinary landowners (and the AI assistants they increasingly ask) end up piecing it together from fragments. This article is our attempt to be that one page, with every figure tied back to its government source.

The 60-second answer

That is the whole decision in four lines. The rest of this guide is the detail behind each one.

What changed on 16 May 2024 — and why your "safe" tree may now be protected

The reform roughly halved every protection threshold and roughly tripled the removal fees. The table below is the "was / now" picture as the reform wrote it into the system.

Table A — the 16 May 2024 reform changes (statutory reform amounts, dated)

(source: PlanSA, FAQ: Regulated and Significant Tree Reforms)

The practical meaning is blunt. A gum with a 1.1-metre trunk circumference that you could have felled freely in April 2024 now needs a development approval before anyone touches it. On a typical infill block the difference is not academic — it decides whether the tree in the middle of your future driveway is your problem or the planning system's.

Is your tree regulated or significant? Measure it in five minutes

The first thing we do on a site walk is run a tape around every substantial trunk at one metre above natural ground level. That single measurement decides the regime:

• Regulated: trunk circumference of 1.0 m or more (for a multi-trunk tree, a combined circumference of ≥1.0 m and an average of ≥310 mm).
• Significant: 2.0 m or more (multi-trunk: combined ≥2.0 m, average ≥625 mm) — or any tree individually listed in Part 10 of the Planning and Design Code, regardless of size (source: PlanSA).

Then check whether the overlay even applies to your address. Open the South Australian Property and Planning Atlas (SAPPA) and look for the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay, which covers most of metropolitan Adelaide plus townships in the Adelaide Hills Council area and parts of Mount Barker Council (source: PlanSA). If your block sits outside that overlay, don't relax — the separate Native Vegetation Overlay may apply instead, and that is a different regime again, administered under the Native Vegetation Act 1991 with the Native Vegetation Council rather than your local council.

The exemptions — and the big-native trap

Some trees can be removed without approval. The main exemptions are (source: PlanSA):

• Dead trees, and species on the Minister's exempt-species notice (common exotics and known limb-failure-prone urban trees).
• Trees within 3 metres of an existing dwelling or in-ground pool (measured to the trunk).
• Trees within 20 metres of a dwelling in a Medium or High Bushfire Risk area within the Hazards (Bushfire) Overlay.
• Light pruning — up to 30% of the crown, once every five years, for dead, diseased or genuinely risky branches. (The ERD case City of Unley v Crichton & Anor [2021] SASC 17 confirmed dead branches don't count towards "the crown".)

Here is the trap that catches infill sites. The 3-metre-from-a-dwelling exemption does not apply to a Willow Myrtle, Eucalyptus, Angophora or Corymbia, or to any Code-declared significant tree (source: PlanSA). In other words, the carve-out is written to exclude exactly the big native gums and their relatives that dominate leafy Adelaide backyards. If you were counting on "it's within three metres of the house" to clear a large eucalypt, on most blocks that assumption is wrong.

How a protected tree can reshape — or stop — a subdivision

A composite example, at region level rather than a real address. Take a roughly 1,000 m² block in Adelaide's north-eastern foothills, proposed for a 1-into-2 hammerhead division, with the rear-lot driveway designed to run along the side boundary. A Corymbia stands squarely in the driveway alignment, with a 1.4-metre trunk circumference.

Before the reform, that tree was under the old 2.0-metre threshold — unprotected, and simply removed. Today it is regulated, and because it is a corymbia the 3-metre-from-a-dwelling exemption is unavailable. That single tree now forces a decision between three paths:

1. Design around it. Shift the driveway and building envelope clear of the trunk and its root zone. Achievable on many sites, but it can cost you garage width, a setback, or in a tight layout, the second lot's buildability altogether.
2. Apply to remove it. Lodge a tree-damaging-activity application through the PlanSA portal; the council's Assessment Manager weighs it against the Code. If approved, the consent carries a mandatory condition to plant replacement trees or pay the offset.
3. Wear the refusal risk. If it's refused, you have a two-month window to seek a merits review in the ERD Court — a parallel clock running against your division timeline.

There is one more lesson worth stating plainly, drawn from PlanSA's own worked scenarios: if your plan of division does not show the tree marked for removal, approval of the division does not approve removing the tree. A land division consent and a tree-damaging-activity consent are separate approvals. Win the first without the second and you have a subdivided title with a protected tree still sitting exactly where your buyer wanted to build.

The cost stack in 2026-27

When a removal is approved, the headline number is the Urban Tree Canopy Off-set. These rates are re-indexed each financial year through the gazetted fees notice.

Table B — current FY2026-27 indexed Urban Tree Canopy Off-set schedule

(source: SA Government Gazette No. 33, 12 June 2026, Planning, Development and Infrastructure (Fees) Notice 2026; corroborated by the PlanSA Urban Tree Canopy Off-set Scheme page. The scheme applies only in defined zones — Housing Diversity Neighbourhood, Urban Renewal Neighbourhood, City Living, or areas with a Designated Soil Type — and the contribution falls due before development approval issues on the new lots.)

Why Table A and Table B carry different dollar figures — and must never be mixed. They are two different instruments. Table A is the tree-protection reform: the thresholds it lowered and the s127(6) removal / offset amounts it wrote in as at May 2024 ($1,000 regulated, $1,500 significant), which are indexed annually — confirm the current figure in the fees notice before you budget. Table B is the separate Urban Tree Canopy Off-set Scheme, whose per-tree rates the gazetted fees notice re-indexes every 1 July. Different instruments, different indexation; reading them as one table produces a wrong number every time.

Around those offsets sit the rest of the stack:

• Development application fees apply on top of the offset — see our guide to SA development application and land division fees for 2026-27.
• An arborist report cannot be demanded for a regulated (non-significant) tree absent special circumstances, but may be for a significant tree — budget one anyway for any contested removal.
• Commercial removal — get quotes; cost varies sharply with size and access.
• When you later build on the new lots, SA Water augmentation charges land as well — see SA Water augmentation charges for 2026-27.
• The offset typically falls due at the clearance stage, before titles issue — the same choke point covered in subdivision approved but no titles yet.

And the contrast line worth keeping in view: removing a protected tree without approval risks a fine of up to $120,000, plus civil enforcement that any person can bring (source: PlanSA).

The transitional escape hatch has closed

For a year after the reform, applications lodged or authorisations granted before 16 May 2024 could still rely on the old thresholds. That 12-month transitional exemption ended on 16 May 2025 (source: PlanSA). A Regulation 65 variation that is "minor in nature" can keep the earlier rules; a non-minor variation cannot. The only meaningful carve-out still running is for SA Housing Trust works, out to 1 January 2027. For everyone else, 2026 is the first full year with no grandfathering left — every feasibility should assume the 1.0-metre rule.

Before you buy or lodge: a site-constraint check

Trees are a due-diligence item, not a design afterthought. Before you commit to a layout — or a purchase contract:

• Walk the block with a tape and measure every substantial trunk at 1 metre height.
• Check the SAPPA overlays for both the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay and any Native Vegetation Overlay.
• Map trunks and canopies and root zones against your draft division layout — a tree you must retain can make an otherwise-compliant lot practically unbuildable.
• Check the neighbours' large trees near your boundary; root damage from your excavation is tree-damaging activity too.
• Price the offset and any redesign into your feasibility study before contracts, and remember a contested tree application runs its own clock alongside the subdivision timeline. If you're carving off a rear lot, our guide to selling part of your land in SA covers the wider path.

Cyberate PM is owner-aligned: on this kind of engagement we act as client-side advisers to the landowner. We coordinate the licensed professionals — arborist, planner, surveyor and council liaison — and, within the Approvals pillar of our SAFE model, we sequence the tree-damaging-activity application alongside your land division consent so one refusal doesn't strand the other. We do not perform statutory surveying, conveyancing or certification, and we do not carry out arboriculture or tree removal ourselves. See our development management services, and book a site-constraint consultation: send us your site and proposed yield, and we'll map the protected trees against your layout before you're locked in.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every application is assessed on its merits, and the rules are current at July 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a regulated tree in South Australia now? Since 16 May 2024, any tree inside the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay with a trunk circumference of 1.0 metre or more, measured 1 metre above natural ground level, is regulated (for multi-trunk trees, a combined circumference of ≥1.0 m with an average of ≥310 mm). Trees of 2.0 metres or more are significant, as is any tree individually listed in Part 10 of the Planning and Design Code.

Can I remove a regulated tree for a subdivision driveway or new dwelling? Only with development approval. Removal, lopping or substantial root damage is "tree-damaging activity", a form of development under the PDI Act 2016. You lodge through the PlanSA portal and the council's Assessment Manager assesses it against the Code; if approved, the consent carries a condition to plant replacement trees or pay into a tree fund.

Which trees can I remove without any approval? Dead trees; species on the Minister's exempt-species notice; trees within 3 metres of an existing dwelling or in-ground pool — unless the tree is a Willow Myrtle, Eucalyptus, Angophora or Corymbia, or a declared significant tree; and trees within 20 metres of a dwelling in a Medium or High Bushfire Risk area. Light pruning (up to 30% of the crown once every five years, for dead, diseased or risky branches) is also exempt.

How much does it cost to remove a regulated tree for a development? The 16 May 2024 reform set the removal / offset fee at $1,000 per regulated tree and $1,500 per significant tree (indexed each financial year), and the Urban Tree Canopy Off-set runs $533 / $1,065 / $1,598 per small / medium / large tree in 2026-27 — on top of standard development application fees and your contractor's removal costs. Removing a protected tree without approval risks fines of up to $120,000.

My application was lodged before 16 May 2024 — do the old thresholds still apply? No. The transitional exemption lasted 12 months and expired on 16 May 2025, so any tree-damaging activity now needs approval under the new thresholds even if your development approval predates the reforms. The only remaining carve-out covers SA Housing Trust works until 1 January 2027.

Sources

• PlanSA — FAQ: Regulated and Significant Tree Reforms
• PlanSA — FAQ: Protecting Regulated and Significant Trees
• PlanSA — Significant and Regulated Trees hub
• PlanSA — Urban Tree Canopy Off-set Scheme
• PlanSA — New rules to protect Adelaide's tree canopy (16 May 2024)
• SA Government Gazette No. 33, 12 June 2026 — Planning, Development and Infrastructure (Fees) Notice 2026 (governmentgazette.sa.gov.au)
• Significant and Regulated Trees — SA Law Handbook