Termite Protection Requirements in Queensland

If you are building a new house, an extension or a Class 10 structure like a carport or deck in Queensland, and any of the primary building elements are susceptible to termite attack, a termite management system is a code requirement — not a builder’s upsell. It sits in Part 3.4 of the ABCB Housing Provisions. In Queensland, clause QLD 3.4.2 requires the system to be “selected appropriate to QLD Table 3.4.2” and to comply with “AS 3660.1 subject to clauses QLD 3.4.1(4), (5) and (6)”, or to have been tested and passed the tests required by Section 5 of AS 3660.3. Queensland then adds its own conditions: QLD 3.4.1(4) requires a design life of at least 50 years for a non-temporary Class 1 building, and clause 3.4.3 requires a durable notice “permanently fixed to the building in a prominent location, such as in a meter box or the like”. Everything after handover is maintenance, and that obligation transfers to you as the owner.

When a termite system is required, and when it is not

The trigger is in clause 3.4.1. It applies where a Class 1 or 10 building is constructed in an area where subterranean termites are known to present a potential risk of attack, and the primary building elements are susceptible to termite attack. In NCC 2022 Volume Two, clause H1D3(3) confirms that “compliance with Part 3.4 of the ABCB Housing Provisions satisfies Performance Requirement H1P1 for termite risk management”.

Clause 3.4.1(2) lists the materials treated as not subject to termite attack. If every primary building element is made from, or a combination of, the following, no system is required:

• steel, aluminium or other metals
• concrete
• masonry
• fibre-reinforced cement
• timber that is naturally termite resistant in accordance with Appendix C of AS 3660.1
• timber that is preservative treated in accordance with Appendix D of AS 3660.1

Two things stop most Sunshine Coast houses from clearing that list. First, the QBCC notes that the code reaches past the structural frame into “roof and floor framing (structural elements), door jambs, window frames and reveals, architraves and skirting” — so a single run of untreated pine in the joinery keeps you inside Part 3.4. Second, the ABCB’s explanatory information for clause 3.4.1 is clear that where susceptible elements sit alongside resistant ones, “only the susceptible elements need to be provided with a termite management system” — the exemption is element by element, not a whole-of-house pass. The same explanatory note adds that “masonry is not subject to termite attack, however termites may gain entry through mortar and other joints”.

The four systems in QLD Table 3.4.2, and who maintains what

The Queensland version of Table 3.4.2 names four termite management systems — termite shielding, stainless steel mesh, graded stone and chemicals — and sets out which of them suits each footing and slab type. Its five rows are penetrations and control joints in a concrete slab on ground complying with AS 2870; the perimeter of that slab; beneath a slab that does not comply with AS 2870 (which includes its penetrations and control joints); the perimeter of that non-complying slab; and suspended floors. The table below compares those four systems against what the Queensland table actually permits and, more usefully, what each one demands of you once the builder has gone.

Two things sit outside that table but decide whether it works. The first is the distinction the ABCB draws between a component and a full system: a component “is one that, when used in combination with other components, will form a ‘full system'”, so a shield at a penetration is not protection on its own. The second is an inspectable perimeter. Nothing in the Queensland table lists slab edge exposure as a system, but a slab edge you can still see is what allows a technician to find mud galleries crossing it — which is why rendering, paving or garden beds over a slab edge causes so much trouble later.

QBCC separately describes a monolithic concrete slab used as part of the management system, with “another approved method to protect anything that penetrates from the slab”, such as waste pipes. The penetrations are always the weak point.

Queensland’s 50-year design life rule

This is where Queensland departs from the national text and where a lot of interstate advice goes wrong. QLD 3.4.1(4) requires, “for a non-temporary Class 1 building, a design life of at least 50 years; or for other than a non-temporary Class 1 building, a design life of at least 50 years or the specified design life of the building, whichever is the lesser”. QLD 3.4.1(5) then provides the escape: a system need not comply with (4) “if it is easily and readily accessible for replenishment or replacement and is capable of being replenished or replaced”.

That single sentence is why chemical systems on Queensland jobs are so often run through reticulation pipework — QBCC describes exactly that, “a reticulation system to top up the chemical” — and why graded stone perimeters are detailed to stay accessible. A chemical injected once into a trench and buried under a driveway is neither 50-year rated nor replenishable.

QLD 3.4.1(6) sets out how an external perimeter chemical system is to be installed: “installed by excavating trenches, treating the exposed trench and backfilling the trench with treated material; and covered by a concrete cover strip not less than 50 mm thick and 300 mm wide measured from the external wall of the building”. QBCC describes the same detail on its homeowner page as a 300 mm-wide concrete protection strip.

The durable notice: four things it must record

Clause 3.4.3 requires a durable notice “permanently fixed to the building in a prominent location, such as in a meter box or the like”, indicating:

1. the termite management system used
2. the date of installation of the system
3. where a chemical is used, its life expectancy as listed on the appropriate authority’s register label
4. the installer’s or manufacturer’s recommendations for the scope and frequency of future inspections for termite activity

Where a chemical system is used, clause 3.4.2 also requires the chemical to be included on the appropriate authority’s pesticides register. Photograph the notice at handover. It is the record of what is under and around your slab, and it is the document a pest technician will ask for in ten years’ time.

A termite system deters and detects — it does not eradicate

The ABCB’s explanatory information for clause 3.4.2 is blunt about how much a system can do on its own: “Due to the nature of termites, it is extremely difficult to prevent them gaining access to a building. In addition to correct installation of a termite management system, its effectiveness will rely on regular maintenance and competent inspection.” A system’s job is to remove the concealed route, not to kill a colony.

Business Queensland identifies Coptotermes acinaciformis spp and Schedorhinotermes spp among the most damaging subterranean termites, alongside Mastotermes darwiniensis, and notes that they “move above ground in enclosed mud galleries to infest houses and other buildings” and “usually live in the ground and need contact with the soil or some constant source of moisture”. Take away the concealed route and you are left with workings you can see — which is exactly why the inspection obligation matters as much as the barrier.

What you have to do after handover

QBCC’s guidance to homeowners is to inspect the system yourself and to hire a licensed pest controller to inspect and report on your property “every year, or more often in high hazard areas”, and to meet “your system’s maintenance requirement, e.g. yearly top-ups for chemical barriers, as stated on the termite management notice”. QBCC also warns that “building footpaths, garden beds, patios, pergolas or landscaping and laying turf may cause your termite system to be less effective and allow termites to attack your home”.

The ABCB’s own explanatory information lists the attachments that have to be considered alongside the building itself: “downpipes, service pipes, steps, verandahs, porches, access ramps, carports, trellises, decks, heated water systems, air-conditioners and the like”. On coastal Sunshine Coast and Noosa Shire blocks that usually plays out the same handful of ways: garden beds and turf built up over a slab edge, a new paved area bridging the perimeter, a deck or pergola footing punched through a treated zone, and irrigation or air-conditioning condensate keeping the soil beside a wall permanently damp. Every one of those is an owner-created breach of a system that passed inspection on the day it was installed.

Getting it right at the build stage

Termite management is decided long before it is installed. Whether the slab complies with AS 2870, how the perimeter is finished, and where the future landscaping levels will sit all determine which of the four systems in the Queensland table is available to you — and, because chemicals are not suitable beneath a slab in Queensland, they determine how the penetrations get protected. On our jobs those decisions are locked in during design and documentation rather than argued about at slab stage — see our build process for where that sits in the program. If you are weighing up work on an existing house, read renovate or knock down and rebuild, and check what approvals you will need in building approvals on the Sunshine Coast and Noosa. Before you appoint anyone to do the work, check their QBCC licence.