In the ACT, section 1.44 of Schedule 1 to the Planning (Exempt Development) Regulation 2023 names an unroofed pergola or arbour among the developments that may need no development approval (DA), on conditions that all have to be met, alongside the general exemption criteria. In Queensland, schedule 1 of the Building Regulation 2021 is headed “Accepted development (self assessable)”, and its entry for other work for class 10 buildings or structures sets exclusions and limits that apply together.
General informationGeneral information summarised by Dotto, not building, planning or legal advice about any structure. In the ACT, ACT Planning’s page is the official place to check, and a building certifier can provide a formal exemption notice. In Queensland, the Building Regulation 2021 itself is the place to check, on the Queensland legislation site linked below.
Dotto is not a builder, an installer or a building certifier. Dotto holds no builder’s, electrical or other trade licence. It does not design, supply, build, install, offer, contract for or arrange any pergola or building work, and does not refer anyone to a builder or supplier. This is general information, not advice.
None of these definitions says whether a pergola with an opening roof needs a building permit.
The ACT: an exemption from development approval
ACT Planning’s page on whether a project needs a DA explains that some projects may not need one approved if they meet the conditions in the Planning (Exempt Development) Regulation 2023. For an unroofed pergola or arbour, the rule it points to is Schedule 1, Part 1.4, Division 1.4.2, section 1.44.
The conditions are printed below word for word, as the library holds them from ACT Planning’s page, because each one narrows the others. The two passages after the ellipses come from the general part of the same page.
“An unroofed pergola or arbour doesn't need DA approval if: it isn't an external deck or external verandah it has no roof or walls it isn't more than 3m above datum ground level. The structure can be as high as 4m above ground level if no part is higher than a 30° plane if the building has a floor and: the floor height isn't more than 1m above finished ground level, or 0.4m above datum ground level if it's within 1.5m of a side boundary or rear boundary of the block. Extra criteria apply if you're building 2 exempt class 10 structures within 1.5 metres of a side or rear block boundary. … To be exempt from DA approval, you must meet the general exemption criteria and specific criteria. … Note : Different exemption rules apply for rural leases, schools and other non-residential developments.”
ACT Planning, Check if you need a DA. © Australian Capital Territory, CC BY 4.0.
Read as a whole, then, the pergola has to meet every condition in that list and the general exemption criteria as well. Those general criteria sit at the top of ACT Planning’s page and deal with matters such as easements, protected trees, heritage and the number of homes on a block. Rural leases, schools and other non-residential developments follow different exemption rules.
Where a roof comes in
The condition that bears on a roof is that the pergola “has no roof or walls”. The same page lists carports, pergolas and shade structures under a different section, 1.43, and explains that carports and shade structures are class 10a structures with exemption criteria that depend on the roofing and level of enclosure. This guide does not set out section 1.43, and does not say which section, if either, a pergola with an opening roof falls under.
Planning approval, building approval, and who checks
A DA is a planning approval. ACT Planning’s page points separately to building approval (BA) exemptions for unroofed pergolas and arbours, which this guide does not hold.
Anyone may self-check whether a project might be exempt from DA approval, and a building certifier can provide a formal exemption notice. The DA Gateway Team gives advice but no exemption approvals, and ACT Planning leaves the assurance that plans and work are lawfully completed to a building certifier alone.
Queensland: accepted development for small class 10 work
Queensland’s Building Regulation 2021, current as at 14 August 2026, lists in schedule 1 the building work it calls “accepted development (self assessable)”, with a reference to section 4(1)(a). Section 4 also requires that work to “comply with the relevant provisions within the meaning of section 21(5) of the Act”. This guide uses the regulation’s own term for it and does not call it an exemption.
The entry read here is headed “Other work for class 10 buildings or structures”. It holds no definition of a pergola, and the regulation as read here does not use the word. Every limb is set out below, as at 14 August 2026, in plain words except where quotation marks show the regulation’s own.
| Limb | What it says | Its part |
|---|---|---|
| (1)(a) | Not for work within Wind Region C (tropical cyclone area), as mentioned in AS 1170.2-2011 on wind actions | Excluded work |
| (1)(b) | Not for a rainwater tank for a new building | Excluded work |
| (1)(c) | Not for a deck that is roofed, or that stands higher than 1 m above its natural ground surface | Excluded work |
| (1)(d) | Not for a regulated pool or its fence | Excluded work |
| (1)(e) | Not for a solar hot water system or a photovoltaic solar panel | Excluded work |
| (2)(a) | Plan area of no more than 10 m² | Requirement |
| (2)(b)(i) | Above its natural ground surface, a height of no more than 2.4 m | Requirement |
| (2)(b)(ii) | Above its natural ground surface, unless it is a rainwater tank, “a mean height of no more than 2.1m”, “worked out by dividing its total elevational area facing a boundary by its horizontal length facing the boundary” | Requirement |
| (2)(c) | No side longer than 5 m | Requirement |
| (3) | Subsection (1) does not apply where another section of the schedule applies to the work and the work does not comply with that other section’s requirements | Limit on the entry |
The only limb that mentions a roof is the exclusion for decks, and no limb mentions a pergola. Whether a pergola, with or without a roof that opens, is a class 10 building or structure for this entry, or falls under another section of the schedule, is not something this guide can say from the provisions read here.