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Layer 04 · Pool barriers

Pool barriers in Victoria, and the garden around them

In Victoria every pool or spa that can hold more than 30cm of water must have a compliant safety barrier, and its owner must register it with the local council, whether or not children live at the property. Landscaping is part of that duty, because the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) warns that work as ordinary as planting trees and shrubs, or paving, can make a barrier non-compliant and unsafe.

General information, not legal or building advice. The official places to check are the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) and your local council.

Key plan, layer 04 The site plan with the pool barrier, drawn as a dashed line around the pool with a gate, picked out in green.
Layer 04 is the dashed line around the pool, and its gate.

A pool owner’s duties

The Building Regulations 2018 make registration of every private pool and spa in Victoria mandatory, along with a compliant safety barrier. The BPC sets out the owner’s side of it. Each line below is marked as the law or as the BPC’s guidance.

  • LawRegister the pool or spa with your local council.
  • LawKeep a compliant safety barrier around it, whether or not children live at the property.
  • LawThis covers any pool or spa that can hold more than 30cm of water, of every construction type: permanent, in-ground, above-ground, relocatable and inflatable. An inflatable pool put up for the summer counts too, if it can hold more than 30cm.
  • LawThe owner is responsible for keeping the barrier working effectively at all times.
  • LawGates in the barrier stay closed except when someone is going into the pool or spa.
  • GuidanceYoung children should be actively supervised in and around pools and spas at all times.

Your council can tell you more about your obligations, including registration deadlines and when your pool or spa is next due for inspection.

The reason is set out plainly by the BPC. In the year to 30 June 2024, 15 children under five died by drowning in Australia, and half of those deaths happened in private swimming pools. It says compliant, well-maintained barriers that restrict access to private pools can save lives.

Planting, paving and the barrier

On its landscaping page, the BPC asks for great care with all landscaping work where there is a pool or spa, and names the kinds of work that can make a barrier non-compliant and unsafe: planting trees and shrubs, and paving among them.

A garden bed against a pool barrierA plan view of a pool inside a dashed barrier line with a hinged gate. Along one side a garden bed, drawn as a green band with round shrubs, has been planted right up against the outside of the barrier, and a strip of paving runs along the barrier on another side.
Illustration, not to scale: a bed planted hard against the barrier on the right, and paving laid along its foot below. The BPC names both kinds of work as able to make a barrier non-compliant.

So the barrier belongs on the landscape plan from the first sketch, not after the planting is in. That is this guide’s suggestion, drawn from the BPC’s warning, rather than a rule. The legal duty is the one above: the owner keeps the barrier working effectively at all times, and that includes after the garden has grown.

Water in a garden is not only the pool. An ornamental pond or water feature needs no building permit while its use is purely ornamental, but the BPC warns that any structure holding water may be a drowning risk, even where no safety barrier is legally required.

Questions for the plan

These are this guide’s suggestions for the first meeting about a garden with a pool in it, each tied to a line from the BPC.

  1. Will anything be planted, paved or built against the barrier? Planting and paving are the BPC’s own examples of work that can leave a barrier non-compliant.
  2. Which registration class will build or alter the barrier? The gates and fences class includes pool and spa safety barriers, and the structural landscaping class does not.
  3. Is the pool or spa registered with the council, as the law requires, and when is it next due for inspection? Your council can tell you its registration deadlines and inspection dates.
  4. Is there a pond or water feature on the plan? The BPC warns that any structure holding water may be a drowning risk, even where no barrier is legally required.
  5. How will the barrier gate stay shut while work goes on? The law asks that gates stay closed except when someone is going into the pool or spa.

Registration classes for barriers

Victoria’s registration classes split the work in a way worth knowing before you hire.

From the BPC’s information sheet “What is domestic building work?”
ClassPool and spa barriers
Limited to gates and fencesIncluded: all fencing types and materials, with gates, including safety barriers for pools and spas.
Limited to swimming pools and spasIncluded: the class covers pools and spas for homes, the structural landscaping that goes with building them, and appropriate safety barriers.
Limited to structural landscapingExcluded: its gates and fencing cover every material except pool and spa safety barriers.

The swimming pools and spas class has limits of its own. In the BPC’s words, it does not include:

  • building retaining walls
  • building shade structures
  • the maintenance and general repair of pools and spas
  • water chemistry.

A pool on a slope can therefore involve two or three different registrations: the pool and its barrier, the wall that holds the ground, and the shade over the deck beside it.

Other layers of the plan