A referral agency is an entity, other than the assessment manager, that has a role in assessing a development application. The Planning Regulation 2017 says when one is needed. The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) handles many of the referral triggers, though some other entities hold triggers of their own.
General informationThis page draws on the Queensland Government’s SARA page, the DA Rules and the Planning Act 2016, as at October 2026. It is not planning or legal advice for any application. For questions about an application or a possible one, the SARA page points to the local SARA regional office.
Two kinds of referral agency
A referral response always counts: the assessment manager must consider every one when it decides. What a response can do depends on the kind of agency that gives it.
Concurrence agency
Can direct the assessment manager, whether to impose conditions or to approve or refuse the development. Under section 56 its directions can include approving only part, giving only a preliminary approval, or setting a currency period.
Advice agency
Gives advice only, such as recommended conditions.
In the Act’s words, a referral agency “may give advice about the application to the assessment manager”. Until the application is decided, the applicant can put representations to a concurrence agency asking it to change part of its response.
When the state takes part
The state takes part in assessing an application when it affects a state interest. The SARA page gives state heritage places, state transport corridors and the clearing of certain vegetation as examples. SARA brings the state’s assessment together across government, and it can be either the assessment manager or a referral agency, assessing against the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP).
The two roles route the paperwork differently. When SARA is the assessment manager, the application is lodged with SARA. When it is a referral agency, the application is lodged with the local government first and then referred to SARA.
Which role applies is found in schedules 8, 9 and 10 of the Planning Regulation 2017; schedule 10 sets out every referral agency and its jurisdiction. An applicant who lodges with the council also receives a confirmation notice saying whether the application must go to SARA as well.
The referral, in order
A copy to each agency
The applicant gives each referral agency a copy of the application and the required fee, within the period the Rules set: 10 days after part 1 ends, or longer by agreement. At the applicant’s request, the assessment manager may pass on the copy for a fee of no more than its reasonable costs.
A check that it is properly referred
The agency has 5 days to decide whether the application has been properly referred, or may skip straight to its response. If it gives an action notice instead, the applicant has 20 days to do what it asks and tell the agency, or a longer agreed period.
The response
The agency answers within the period listed for it in schedule 2 of the Rules, or 25 days if none is listed, unless a longer period is agreed. Referral ends when all responses have reached the assessment manager, or the time for them has ended.
Missing a step here has a cost. Under the Rules, an application lapses if the applicant does not give the referral material to each referral agency, and tell the assessment manager it has done so, within the prescribed period.
Before an application is made
For certain applications you can ask SARA for a response before an application is made, through what it calls a pre-referral request. The SARA page also suggests a pre-lodgement meeting or advice as a way to find likely issues, and any extra information needed, before lodging.
SARA’s fees and refunds
SARA charges for its assessment and referral work, with the fees set in part 4, division 5 and schedule 10 of the Planning Regulation 2017. Paying the correct fee is the applicant’s responsibility.
- A 50 per cent concession is available for government-supported community projects and for applications by non-profit organisations.
- In every other case the full fee in the Regulation is paid before assessment can begin.
- Refund requests go to the SARA case officer as early as possible after lodging or referring, well before a decision or response.
- Once a decision notice or referral agency response has issued, SARA will not consider a refund.
Applications are lodged with or referred to SARA through MyDAS2, the department’s online system, or by email or post for anyone unable to use it.
The response after the decision
A referral agency’s part does not end with its response. Its directions can stop a deemed approval: an application whose referral agency has directed refusal, or approval of only part, cannot be deemed approved, and a deemed approval otherwise carries any conditions a referral agency directed.
Later changes can come back to the agency. A change application for a minor change to a condition that a referral agency’s response set goes to that agency rather than to the assessment manager. In an appeal about a concurrence agency’s response, that agency joins the appeal as a co-respondent, and where an appeal concerns nothing but a referral agency’s response, the assessment manager can ask to withdraw from it.
The state has one further step of its own. Where SARA is named as a party in a Planning and Environment Court proceeding, the document must also be served on the department’s chief executive.