Fencing in Cockatoo

After Ash Wednesday

Cockatoo was one of the worst-hit towns in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires: more than 300 buildings were lost and six people died. The former kindergarten on McBride Street has been the Ash Wednesday Bushfire Education Centre since 2017.

For fences, CFA gives advice rather than a rule. Near the home it favours stone walls or non-combustible fencing, no fence against windows, decks or eaves, and little that burns within 10 m of the house. It is worth weighing when you choose between timber and steel.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Cockatoo, Victoria and CFA: designing a fire-resistant garden.

The fence-line exemption

About 95% of Cockatoo is under the Bushfire Management Overlay. Along a boundary fence built before 10 September 2009, vegetation can be cleared 4 m wide, both sides combined, without a planning permit; where one side already has 4 m clear, the other side may clear 1 m. Clearing a fence line sets out the rest.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Vicmap Planning, the state's zone and overlay maps (DataVic), measured across the suburb and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.12 (bushfire protection exemptions).

Town blocks, farms and Wright Forest

Only about a seventh of the land is zoned for housing, mostly low density. Two fifths of the land is Green Wedge farming and a third is rural conservation. Between a farm and a house block the Fences Act takes the farm standard, usually post and wire, as the sufficient fence, and on a livestock block of 2,000 m² or more barbed wire may run along the road. Farm fencing covers both.

North-west of town, Wright Forest is a 161 ha fauna sanctuary managed by Parks Victoria. The Crown doesn't contribute to a fence with unalienated Crown land, so a boundary with a reserve like it is usually yours alone.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Cockatoo, Victoria, Vicmap Planning, the state's zone and overlay maps (DataVic), measured across the suburb, Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version 072 and Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), authorised version 031.

Heights and overlays

Check Cardinia's zone schedule for a front-fence height; without one, the building regulations apply: a building permit for a fence over 1.5 m within 3 m of the street (1.2 m in brick or concrete), or over 2 m on a declared road.

Three quarters of Cockatoo is under ESO1, and a fifth under landscape overlays such as SLO1 along the Puffing Billy line. These have no fence trigger, and nor do VPO2 or the hills townships' DDO2, so the state's fence exemption is the starting point under them. Nearly every house block also carries a vegetation and a design overlay, and some of those are VPO1 or DDO1, which we haven't read for fences; ask the council if your report lists either. Clearing native vegetation for a fence is a separate question from the fence itself.

Cockatoo has three heritage places. On one, a fence seen from a street or public park needs a planning permit, and Cardinia's heritage schedule names HO97 as a place where fence controls apply.

Get your free VicPlan property report before choosing a fence.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Vicmap Planning, the state's zone and overlay maps (DataVic), measured across the suburb, Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), authorised version 031, Cardinia Planning Scheme, schedules to Clauses 42.01, 42.02, 42.03 and 43.02, Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 62.02 (buildings and works), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay) and Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 43.01 (heritage places).

Around Cockatoo

Emerald, Avonsleigh, Gembrook and Nangana

All Cardinia: check the zone schedule for a front-fence height; the hills overlays have no fence trigger.

Macclesfield

The Yarra Ranges side, under SLO6, which doesn't require a planning permit for post and open-weave wire under 1.8 m but does for other fences.

Checked 25 October 2026 against Cardinia Planning Scheme, schedules to Clauses 42.01, 42.02, 42.03 and 43.02 and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedules to Clause 42.03 (SLO1–6, SLO22, SLO23).