How four places define a pergola is a guide written and published by Dotto. Victoria defines a pergola in its Building Regulations, Western Australia in a planning code, and the ACT in its rules on which projects may need no development approval, while Queensland’s schedule of accepted development, as read here, has no pergola entry at all.
General informationGeneral information summarised by Dotto, not building, planning or legal advice about any structure. Each guide names who applies its rules: in Victoria a private or municipal building surveyor issues a building permit, in Western Australia the local government is the permit authority, and in the ACT a formal exemption notice comes from a building certifier.
Dotto is not a builder, an installer or a building certifier. Dotto holds no builder’s, electrical or other trade licence. It does not design, supply, build, install, offer, contract for or arrange any pergola or building work, and does not refer anyone to a builder or supplier. This is general information, not advice.
None of these definitions says whether a pergola with an opening roof needs a building permit.
Four places, side by side
Each row names the instrument, what that instrument is for, and the term a reader would need to recognise in it. Terms from Victorian and Western Australian instruments are shown in quotation marks and credited; everything else in those rows is a plain-words summary by Dotto, linked to its source.
| Place | Instrument | What it is for | Term | Summary by Dotto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria | Building Regulations 2018, regulation 5 | Building control. The regulator says that under the Building Act 1993 and these Regulations, all building work needs a building permit unless the Regulations exempt it. | “unroofed” (Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), reg 5) | An open structure with no roof. It may carry a loosely woven, permeable cover. |
| Western Australia | R-Codes Volume 1 (April 2026), definitions | Planning. The Residential Design Codes set planning and design requirements for homes across the state, and local government applies them. | “operable louvred roofing” (R-Codes Volume 1, A1 Definitions, pergola) | A pergola has an open frame, covered either by material water can pass through or by louvred roofing that can be adjusted. A patio, defined separately, is unenclosed and covered by material water cannot pass through. |
| ACT | Planning (Exempt Development) Regulation 2023, Schedule 1, section 1.44, as ACT Planning sets it out | Planning. Some projects may need no development application (DA) if they meet the Regulation’s conditions. | “Unroofed pergolas and arbours” (ACT Planning’s heading for section 1.44) | One kind of development that may need no DA, on conditions that all apply, together with general exemption criteria. The conditions are printed in full in the ACT and Queensland guide. |
| Queensland | Building Regulation 2021, schedule 1 | Building work. Schedule 1 is headed “Accepted development (self assessable)”. | No pergola entry in the provision read here | An entry for small class 10 buildings or structures, with exclusions and limits on area, height and side length, every one of which is set out in the ACT and Queensland guide. |
Planning words and building words
In Victoria, the Building and Plumbing Commission lists pergolas associated with houses among the possible exemptions from a building permit, so the meaning of the word sits close to the permit question there.
Western Australia keeps the two apart. The R-Codes are a planning instrument. On the building side, Building and Energy treats roofed outdoor areas, commonly known in the state as patios, as Class 10a buildings, and says the building permit rules for that class continue to apply. Neither source says how a roof that opens and closes is to be classed.
In the ACT, a DA is a planning approval. ACT Planning’s page also points to separate building approval (BA) exemptions for unroofed pergolas and arbours, which this guide does not hold.
In Queensland, the regulation requires building work in schedule 1 to comply with the relevant provisions, so accepted development is not the same thing as work free of rules.
Places this guide does not define
New South Wales. Some minor works need neither planning nor building approval, as exempt development, provided they meet every development standard in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008. This guide holds no New South Wales definition of a pergola.
Northern Territory. The Territory lets some Class 10 buildings and structures be built in residential areas, for non-commercial use, without a building permit or occupancy certification, and its Building Note 114 sets out which. This guide does not read that note.
Tasmania and South Australia are not covered.
The three guides
Each guide opens on the shadow its place’s words describe, drawn on a bay of paving seen from above.
- VictoriaHow Victoria’s Building Regulations define a pergolaThe word “unroofed” in regulation 5, how the regulator restates it, and the roofed structures it sits beside.
- Western AustraliaPergola or patio: two definitions in WA’s R-CodesTwo definitions in a planning code, split by what covers the frame, and how Building and Energy names a roofed outdoor area.
- ACT and QueenslandUnroofed pergolas in the ACT, class 10 work in QueenslandThe ACT’s development approval exemption for an unroofed pergola, printed in full, and Queensland’s limits for small class 10 work.