Two things 10/50 never makes safe
The 10/50 Code doesn't provide for clearing trees or other vegetation around power lines at all. If a tree is anywhere near a line, stop and call the network: Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy or Essential Energy. And the rule only says what's allowed, not how to do it. Bringing a tree down near a house is work for an insured arborist, never a weekend job.
What does the 10/50 rule let you clear?
10/50 is the NSW Rural Fire Service's clearing entitlement for homes in bushfire-prone parts of the state. Inside a mapped 10/50 entitlement area, the RFS says you can clear trees on your own property within 10 metres of a home without seeking approval.
Further out, to 50 metres, the entitlement only reaches underlying vegetation such as shrubs. Trees between 10 and 50 metres aren't part of it.
Both distances are measured from the external walls of a building approved with habitable rooms, such as a home, or of certain high risk facilities like child care centres. The RFS adds a trunk test too: under 10/50, a tree can only come down if part of its trunk, more than 30 centimetres around at 1.3 metres above the ground, is within 10 metres of the building's external wall.
10/50 at a glance
| Within 10 metres of the home | 10 to 50 metres from the home | |
|---|---|---|
| Trees | Covered, if the trunk test is met | Not covered |
| Shrubs and other underlying vegetation | Covered | Covered |
| Anything near a power line | Never covered | Never covered |
| Your neighbour's land | Not covered | Not covered |
| Heritage listings, covenants, consent conditions | Still apply | Still apply |
Is 10/50 a NSW-only rule?
Yes. It's NSW law and it stops at the border. Victoria's bushfire clearing exemptions sit in clause 52.12 of its planning schemes and go by the 10/30 rule, with different distances and building dates. The ACT protects trees under its own Urban Forest Act. Our bushfire clearing guide covers each state.
Even inside NSW it only works where the RFS tool puts your address in a 10/50 entitlement area. Outside one, the RFS says to talk to your council or Local Land Services, and the usual permit rules on our NSW tree permits page apply.
How to check 10/50 before anything is cut
Run the RFS tool on the day
Areas and rules can change, so the RFS says to check its online 10/50 tool on the day you clear, not the week before. Save or print the result and keep it with your quote.
Measure from the right place
Run the tape from the home's external wall to the tree's trunk, not to the edge of the crown (the leafy top). If the trunk straddles the boundary, every landowner has to approve its removal.
Find what 10/50 gives way to
Heritage listings, Aboriginal Places and scarred trees, development consent conditions, section 88B covenants, court or stop-work orders, critical habitat and critically endangered plants and communities all still apply. Your council can tell you which sit over your block.
Check the slope and the water
The Code excludes clearing within 10 metres of a lake or river at least 2 metres wide, mangroves and coastal saltmarsh, and slopes over 18 degrees unless a geotechnical report allows it.
Look up for lines and into the tree for animals
Anything near a power line goes to the network. Check for nests and hollows as well: the RFS warns that people using 10/50 can still be prosecuted under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 for harming protected animals.
Book an insured arborist for the tree work
The RFS recommends reputable tree services with trained, qualified operators who carry current workers compensation and public liability insurance. Ask to see both before work starts.
Does 10/50 mean you can skip the council?
Not really. The RFS says that if you follow the 10/50 Code, you aren't required to advise the council before clearing trees covered by a Tree Preservation Order. But the council is who knows about the heritage listings, covenants and consent conditions on your land, and 10/50 gives way to every one of them.
Some councils spell out their own limits. Blacktown says 10/50 doesn't apply to heritage-listed properties, land on the NSW Biodiversity Values Map or land on the conservation maps in its LEP 2015.
Outside the entitlement, NSW's 2026 changes tightened the rules. Protected dead and dying trees now need a council permit or Native Vegetation Panel approval, and the imminent risk exemption only works once the council has agreed in writing. So a dead tree that 10/50 doesn't reach still needs the council's approval.
What you can do, and what's arborist work
You can
- Run the RFS tool on the day and keep the result.
- Measure from the external wall to each trunk with a tape.
- Rake up leaf litter and cut back small shrubs with hand tools, where the entitlement covers them.
- Look each tree over from the ground for nests, hollows and nearby lines.
- Ask the council which heritage listings, covenants or consent conditions apply.
Leave to an arborist
- Taking down any tree, whole or in sections.
- Big limbs, leaning trees and anything over the house, shed or fence.
- Grinding out the stumps, once underground services are located.
- Nothing near a power line: that's the network's call first.
The NSW 10/50 vegetation clearing rule: what to do next
We'd run the RFS tool the morning the work starts and keep the printout with the quote. We'd still ring the council, because the rule gives way to heritage listings, covenants and consent conditions you may not know are there. And for anything bigger than shrubs, we'd have an insured arborist do the cutting, with any power line nearby going to the network first.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.