Murray Draftsman

Murray Draftsman for Shire of Murray Plans and Council Approval

The Shire of Murray does something unusual with sheds. If your outbuilding meets the Shire’s Domestic Outbuildings policy on height, area and setbacks, it can be approved by Building Services directly, with no separate planning approval step. Miss the policy, or sit on a Canal zoned lot, and you have to get planning approval first.

On Rural zoned land the Shire goes further again, exempting detached Class 10 buildings from a building permit altogether. This page explains both.

What a Murray draftsman or Murray drafter does for you

Murray runs from Pinjarra and the river flats out to Dwellingup in the hills, with the canal estates at Yunderup in between. What applies to you depends heavily on where you sit.

For a Shire of Murray project that means:

Confirming the zone, because Rural, Canal and Residential are treated very differently
Testing the design against the Local Planning Policy for Domestic Outbuildings on height, area and setbacks
Checking whether the lot is in a flood prone area, which is a live issue around the Murray River and Pinjarra
Checking heritage status, particularly around the Pinjarra townsite
Locating the septic tank and leach drains, because they carry their own setbacks here
Preparing documentation to the Shire’s lodgement standard

We draw architectural and planning documentation. We do not produce structural engineering drawings or electrical design, though we coordinate with the engineer where the Shire requires certification.

What “Murray council approval” actually means

People use “council approval” to cover two or three separate things. They are assessed by different people under different legislation, and most projects do not need all of them.

A building permit. The construction approval under the Building Act 2011, covering structural adequacy, fire separation, energy efficiency and compliance with the National Construction Code. You will almost always need this one.

Development approval, also called planning approval or a DA. The planning assessment against the R-Codes, the local planning scheme and the council’s own local planning policies, covering siting, setbacks, height, bulk, open space and streetscape.

Here is the part that saves people time and money. On most smaller residential jobs, development approval is only needed where the design does not meet the deemed-to-comply provisions of the R-Codes, or the equivalent standards in a local planning policy. Draw a shed, patio or carport inside the numbers and you generally go straight to a building permit. Step outside them and you are asking for a variation, and the variation is what triggers the planning application.

A deemed-to-comply check. This is the step most people have never heard of. Where no development approval is needed, your building surveyor still needs evidence of that before issuing a certificate of design compliance. Clause 61A of the deemed provisions lets you ask the council to confirm it in writing. Fees vary widely: the Town of Victoria Park charges $73, the Town of Cambridge charges $295 for a new single house and $100 for additions with a 14 day response, and some councils do not offer it at all. In the Shire of Murray the equivalent step is built into the process: an outbuilding meeting the Domestic Outbuildings policy on height, area and setbacks can be approved by Building Services directly.

One rule holds everywhere. Being exempt from development approval does not exempt you from a building permit.

Shire of Murray building rules for sheds and outbuildings

An outbuilding here is an enclosed non-habitable structure detached from any dwelling, including sheds, workshops, games rooms and greenhouses.

A building permit is required before constructing any outbuilding with a floor area exceeding 10m2 and a height of more than 2.4m, which the Shire describes as anything larger than an average garden shed.

The planning question then splits three ways:

Meets the Domestic Outbuildings policy on height, area and setbacks: approved by the Shire’s Building Services section, no separate planning approval
Does not meet the policy: planning approval must be obtained first
On a Canal zoned property: planning approval must be obtained first regardless

Murray setbacks for outbuildings

Situation	Setback
Residential areas, side and rear	Generally 0.5m, though closer may be permitted in some instances
Special rural zoned lots	Typically 20.0m
Any outbuilding with a wall exceeding 9.0m in length	Greater setbacks required
From any leach drain	At least 1.8m
From any septic tank	At least 1.2m

Those last two are easy to overlook and expensive to discover late. On an unsewered Murray lot, locate the effluent disposal system before you position the shed, not after.

What a Murray outbuilding application needs

A completed BA1 or BA2 building permit application form signed by the builder
A site plan at not less than 1:200 showing the location and setbacks of the proposed outbuilding, any existing buildings, and the location of the septic system and leach drains where applicable
A floor plan at 1:100 showing overall dimensions, spans and spacings
A section detail at 1:100 confirming the construction method. This must be endorsed in ink by a professional engineer where the outbuilding is greater than 6.0m in span, or where the Building Surveyor considers the details may not be structurally adequate
Payment of fees, calculated on construction value with a minimum Shire fee of $121.00 plus a $61.65 Building Services Levy

Two thresholds worth planning around. The 6.0m span triggers engineer endorsement. And an outbuilding exceeding $50,000 in value must be constructed by a registered builder, which rules out owner building on a large workshop.

The Rural zone building permit exemption

This one is unusual. A Class 10 building, meaning a non-habitable building, private garage, carport or shed, that is not attached to a dwelling or incidental structure, is exempt from requiring a building permit under Schedule 4 of the Building Regulations 2012 when erected on land zoned Rural under the Shire’s Town Planning Scheme No. 4.

That is a genuinely useful concession on rural Murray land. It does not remove your obligation to comply with the National Construction Code, and it does not remove development approval where that is required, but it takes the building permit out of the equation for a detached rural shed.

Flood prone land and heritage in Murray

Two overlays regularly convert an otherwise straightforward Murray job into a development application:

Flood prone areas. The Murray River system runs through the Shire and floodplain mapping affects a meaningful amount of land around Pinjarra and the Yunderup and Ravenswood areas. Where a shed or outbuilding sits in a flood prone area, a development application is required
Heritage areas. Pinjarra has genuine heritage stock, and where a property sits in a heritage area a development application is required

Add to that any proposal seeking to vary a standard of the planning framework, and you have the three standard triggers in this Shire.

Patios and fire separation in Murray

Fire separation is decided separately at building permit stage. Western Australia adopted NCC 2025 on 1 May 2026, introducing WA Part 9.6 for roofed outdoor areas. It gives two routes to the boundary: 900mm measured to the outermost structural projection and excluding the eave overhang, or 500mm measured to the outermost projection and including the eave overhang.

The 500mm route carries conditions including two or more sides open with at least one third of the perimeter open, a non-combustible supporting structure, a polycarbonate or non-combustible roof covering, a non-combustible floor, no direct vertical support to the house, and a solid non-combustible screen at least 1500mm high along every side facing a boundary. Where that does not suit the build, use the 900mm route.

An enclosed shed is assessed under Part 9.2 instead, which is a different rule set.

Murray plans we prepare

Project type	What we prepare
Sheds, workshops and garages	Plans to the Domestic Outbuildings policy, with the septic and leach drain setbacks shown
New homes	Concept design through to submission documentation
Additions and extensions	Existing and proposed plans, demolition plan
Second storey additions	Full working drawings, elevations, sections
Patios and alfrescos	Plans with the fire separation route identified
Ancillary dwellings	Plans and area calculations, noting the Shire has its own rural residential policy
Retaining walls and front fences	Plans including sight line truncation
Development applications	Documentation where the design varies the framework

Murray projects and what they teach you

Council lodgement across the Shire of Murray is part of our regional workload, including certificates of design compliance and building permits carried through to approval.

The lesson Murray teaches is that the shed setback that catches people is not the boundary, it is the leach drain. On an unsewered lot the effluent disposal system dictates where the building can go, and it is invisible from the surface. Establishing its position early is worth more than any amount of redrawing later.

The second lesson is the span threshold. At 6.0m the section detail needs an engineer’s endorsement in ink, and at $50,000 the build needs a registered builder. Both are worth knowing before the shed is sized rather than after.

What Shire of Murray approval costs

Development application fees are set by state regulation and are the same at every WA council, calculated on the estimated cost of development:

Estimated cost of development	Application fee
Not more than $50,000	$147
$50,001 to $500,000	0.32% of the estimated cost
$500,001 to $2.5 million	$1,700 plus 0.257% of the amount above $500,000
Written planning advice	$73
Amending or cancelling an approval	$295

If the work has already been built, the fee is that figure plus a penalty of twice the fee, so three times the normal amount.

Building permit fees in Murray are calculated on construction value with a minimum Shire fee of $121.00 plus a $61.65 Building Services Levy. Budget separately for engineer endorsement on a span over 6.0m.

Our drafting fee is quoted per project rather than by a rate card, because a canal lot at Yunderup and a rural block near Dwellingup are not the same job. As a rough guide only, a patio or shed submission sits at the lower end, an addition in the middle, and a new home at the upper end. You get a fixed figure before we start.

How long the drawings take

We are one of the quicker drafting practices in Perth, and we would rather tell you that plainly than quote a number we cannot stand behind.

Turnaround depends on what is being drawn. A patio or a shed is not a second storey addition, and a straightforward flat block is not a sloping site with an existing dwelling to survey and match into. Anyone quoting you a fixed timeframe before seeing the scope is guessing.

What we do is give you a realistic date once we have seen the project, and then keep to it. If we cannot hit something you need, we say so before you commit rather than after.

It is also worth knowing that on most jobs the drafting is not the long pole. The parts that usually set the overall timeline are:

The council clock, which is set by regulation rather than by us
Third party reports, such as a Bushfire Attack Level assessment, an arborist report or engineering certification, each of which has its own lead time
Decisions, meaning how quickly changes come back once you have the first draft in front of you

Those are the things worth planning around, and we will tell you which of them apply to your project at the start.

Draftsman services by Murray locality

The Shire of Murray runs from the coastal plain around Pinjarra east into the Darling Scarp.

Locality	What tends to drive the design
Pinjarra draftsman	Townsite stock with heritage in parts, flood prone land along the river
North and South Yunderup draftsman	Canal zoned lots, where planning approval is required for outbuildings regardless
Ravenswood and Barragup draftsman	Newer estate and semi rural stock, flood mapping worth checking
Furnissdale draftsman	Semi rural lots, sheds and outbuildings are common work
Coolup and West Pinjarra draftsman	Rural land, the Class 10 building permit exemption may apply
Dwellingup draftsman	Hills, bushfire prone, heritage townsite character
Fairbridge draftsman	Heritage significance, expect a development application

The Shire’s Building Services team can be reached on 9531 7605.

Murray draftsman questions

Do I need planning approval for a shed in Murray?

Not if the outbuilding meets the Shire’s Local Planning Policy for Domestic Outbuildings on height, area and setbacks, in which case it can be approved by Building Services directly. If it does not meet the policy, or the property is Canal zoned, planning approval must be obtained first. Flood prone land, heritage areas and any proposed variation to the framework also trigger a development application.

How far does my Murray shed have to be from the septic tank?

At least 1.2m from a septic tank and at least 1.8m from any leach drain. These are separate from your boundary setbacks and they frequently decide where the shed can actually go on an unsewered lot. Your site plan has to show the effluent system location.

Does my Murray shed need an engineer?

The section detail must be endorsed in ink by a professional engineer where the outbuilding is greater than 6.0m in span, or where the Building Surveyor considers the details may not be structurally adequate. Below that span it may not be required, but the Building Surveyor retains the discretion.

Do I need a building permit for a shed on rural land in Murray?

Often not. A Class 10 building not attached to a dwelling or incidental structure is exempt from requiring a building permit under Schedule 4 of the Building Regulations when erected on land zoned Rural under Town Planning Scheme No. 4. That exemption does not remove your obligation to comply with the National Construction Code, or any development approval requirement.