Boat lifts · Guide 3 of 6 · Queensland
Mark 3 · Queensland
Queensland tidal works: what the code asks of a jetty or pontoon
In Queensland, a jetty, pontoon, boat ramp or seawall built in, on or above tidal land is a tidal work, and unless it falls in a short list of exceptions it is also a prescribed tidal work, which the local council assesses against a state code. The code keeps each structure in front of its own lot, leaves room for the neighbours to reach the water, and asks an engineer to certify that the structure is sound.
General information about Queensland only, not planning or engineering advice. Your council and the Queensland Government’s tidal works page are the places to check.
3.1
The words
Three terms that decide who assesses the work
- Tidal works
- Defined in the Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995: operational works in, on or above tidal land, including jetties, pontoons, boat ramps, seawalls, pipelines and bridges. The Queensland Government’s summary adds navigation channels and marina basins to the examples.
- Prescribed tidal works
- A subset of tidal works, defined in the Coastal Protection and Management Regulation 2017. They cover all tidal works except a short list that includes works in a state-managed boat harbour, works for port operators and certain public marine facilities, and work that creates or changes a navigation channel.
- Tidal area for a local government area
- Broadly, tidal water in a river, stream or artificial waterway from the high water mark to the middle of the waterway, and on an open coast, tidal water within 50 metres seaward of the high water mark. Prescribed tidal works inside it, and not on strategic port land, are assessed by the local government.
Where an application touches a state interest, it goes to the State Assessment and Referral Agency, which takes technical advice on maritime safety from Maritime Safety Queensland. Where the work is on State land, owner’s consent may be needed before the application is made; who gives it, and when it is not needed, is set out in approvals for waterfront structures.
3.2
The code
What the prescribed tidal works code is for
Councils must use the code in Schedule 3 of the Coastal Protection and Management Regulation 2017, so that assessment is consistent across the state and state interests are looked after, given that most tidal water lies over State land. The state’s guideline to the code lists its purposes. A prescribed tidal work should:
- suit the character and amenity of its surroundings;
- be designed and built to be structurally sound, and safe for its intended use;
- have the infrastructure it needs, such as water supply or sewage discharge;
- use only a minimal amount of State tidal land for a private purpose;
- not significantly harm public use of the shore and water, neighbours’ access to navigable water, the natural features of the waterway, or other structures.
The engineer’s signature
The code’s design and safety provisions must be certified by a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) or an interstate equivalent, and the guideline says the engineer should be experienced with tidal structures. For certain of those outcomes, it adds, the listed acceptable outcome is the only way to comply.
3.3
Your patch of water
The space rules, drawn
The guideline explains that each owner of land directly on tidal water has an assumed right of access to navigable water, and that the state supports private jetties and pontoons to provide it, much as a driveway crosses a public footpath. The code protects that right for everyone by making sure:
- owners build only in front of their own property, inside its side boundaries extended over the water;
- every waterfront owner keeps an unimpeded access corridor to the water at least 3 metres wide;
- works sit 1.5 metres back from the extended side boundary, so there is always a 3 metre corridor between neighbours;
- works stay out of mapped navigation corridors and do not reach past a quay line or far enough to affect safe navigation.
In natural waterways, outside canals, the code’s acceptable outcomes allow only one prescribed tidal work of each type on the water’s edge in front of a lot. In canals and other waterways alike, they do not allow works to be roofed unless the structure is the main access to land, such as a ferry terminal. The state also expects works to be no bigger than their purpose needs: a private pontoon sized for mooring, not for entertaining. The guideline adds that the right to occupy State land for the work is given at no cost when the development approval is granted.
The guideline says that in some cases there is not enough room for a pontoon or jetty, so an application cannot be approved, though a boat ramp or a shared structure may be an alternative.
Councils add their own detail. The City of Gold Coast’s booklet, for example, recommends a waterway allocation extending 12 metres from the revetment wall for pontoons, measured along the lot’s side boundaries, with the pontoon’s outer edge no less than 1.5 metres from the side boundary.
3.4
Upkeep
When maintenance needs no approval, and when it does
The state’s guideline on excluded work describes what can be done to a lawful structure without a development approval.
| Usually no approval needed | Needs development approval |
|---|---|
| Maintaining a lawful work in line with its approval or original construction details, such as replacing deteriorated piles under a jetty | Replacing or rebuilding more than 20% of the approved structure within 12 months, unless special circumstances exist |
| Adding or moving handrails, bollards or other safety items on an existing structure | Creating a roofed structure, such as a shed or gazebo |
| Changing the footprint, such as a larger pontoon unit, or changing the dimensions or structural capacity | |
| Anything that may affect safe navigable access, lighting included |
The guideline leaves it to the owner to decide whether work is maintenance, and says that anyone unsure, or wanting to go further, must contact the assessment manager (the council, or the State Assessment and Referral Agency). It also reminds owners that they need the landowner’s permission to enter and work on the land; for unallocated State land, including land under tidal water, that is the state.
3.5
One council’s checklist
Looking after a pontoon on the Gold Coast
The City of Gold Coast’s booklet on private structures gives owners a maintenance list. It is the City’s advice for its own waterways, summarised here:
Let it float
Check the pontoon floats at most low tides. One that sits unevenly on the canal bed loads its brackets and piles and can lead to early failure. Keep the rollers on the gangway and bracket lubricated, and replace them when they no longer roll up and down the pile.
Clean the piles
Keep piles clear of marine growth such as oysters, so the rollers cannot catch. Check piles are straight with a spirit level at 90-degree turns around the pile, and call a suitably qualified marine contractor if they lean.
Mind the skin
Holes in the pontoon’s plastic skirt let the foam inside become waterlogged, which reduces how well it floats. Check lighting works and matches the approval, so the pontoon can be seen at night.
The booklet also says a pontoon no longer used and falling apart must be removed completely, piles and gangway included. How the state now asks pontoons to stand up to floods is in storm tide and flooding, and how NSW handles the same structures in boat lifts and jetties in NSW.