In Queensland, impact assessable development applications, and applications that include a variation request, must be publicly notified, and the applicant does the notifying. Anyone other than the applicant or a referral agency may make a submission, and only a properly made submission carries the right to appeal.
General informationThis page follows the Planning Act 2016 (section 53 and schedule 2) and version 3.0 of the DA Rules, as at October 2026. It is not planning or legal advice about any application or submission. The assessment manager’s notice for a particular application states how and when to make a submission there.
Why notification is there
The state’s guide gives two reasons for notification: to help people understand development proposed in their area, and to give them the chance to make a submission about it. For impact assessment, the applicant asks the community for feedback on the proposal’s impact, good and bad.
How the notice is given
Notification starts within 20 days of a point the Rules set, the day after part 3 of the process ends or an earlier one where no information request will be made, and the applicant tells the assessment manager the date it intends to start. For most applications, section 17.1 of the Rules asks for notice in three ways:
- a notice placed on the premises, left there up to and including the last day for submissions;
- notice to the owners of every lot adjoining the premises;
- a published public notice that meets the requirements stated in the confirmation notice.
The Rules also prescribe the size and content of the sign and the notices. If a changed application has to be notified again from the beginning, the 20 days run afresh, from the point the Rules set for changed applications. Notification is not optional once required: under the Rules an application lapses if the applicant does not carry out the notification, or give the notice of compliance, within the prescribed period, including any agreed extension.
How long submissions stay open
The notice states a day by which submissions must be made, and section 53(4) sets the shortest time it may allow.
| Application | Submissions close no earlier than |
|---|---|
| Most applications | 15 business days from when the notice is given |
| One that includes a variation request | 30 business days from when the notice is given |
| A type prescribed by regulation | The longer period, of more than 15 business days, that the regulation prescribes |
Where the Rules require notice in more than one way, the period runs from the day after the last notice is given.
What makes a submission properly made
The planning website sums it up as in writing, signed, specific and on time. The Act’s definition in schedule 2 is fuller. A properly made submission:
- is signed in hard copy, or given electronically in the way the notice states, by each person making it;
- is received during the period fixed for submissions;
- states the name and residential or business address of everyone making it;
- states its grounds, and the facts and circumstances relied on to support them;
- gives one postal or electronic address for service for all of them;
- is made to the assessment manager (for a change application, to the responsible entity).
A submitter may amend the submission before the closing day, or withdraw it at any time before the application is decided.
After submissions close
Within 10 days after the last day for submissions, unless a longer period is agreed, the applicant gives the assessment manager notice that it has complied with the notice requirements. The assessment manager then has up to 10 days to consider the submissions. The reasons for the eventual decision are published on the local government’s website, or on the state planning website where SARA is the assessment manager.
A submitter whose submission was properly made may appeal the decision to the Planning and Environment Court, except for an application for State facilitated development. That right also affects timing: where a submitter has not withdrawn and no appeal is started, an approval takes effect on the day after the earlier of the last submitter’s notice that it will not appeal, or the end of the last appeal period (section 71).
Social impact assessment, since July 2025
In July 2025 an amending Act of that year, the Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Act, added a community benefit system to Queensland planning. It has two parts, a social impact assessment and a community benefit agreement: proponents of prescribed development carry out the assessment, and enter an agreement with at least the local government, before lodging a development application.
The state’s community benefit page lists the development the Planning Regulation prescribes: a wind farm; a solar farm with a maximum instantaneous output of 1MW or more; and a battery storage facility with a maximum instantaneous output of 50MW or more. The social impact assessment report, prepared under the state’s guideline, is lodged with the development application and informs the agreement with the council.
Notification reaches further for these projects. In place of the usual three ways, section 17.2 of the Rules lists notice to every affected local government, to the adjoining owners, to the owners of all lots within 1,500 metres of the premises, on community notice boards where permission is given, on the assessment manager’s website, and in a published notice. Where the proponent and the council cannot agree, after taking all reasonable steps, the two of them may ask the department’s Director-General in writing for mediation. Section 106ZJ of the Act limits appeals by anyone other than the applicant against certain conditions of these approvals.