The 10/50 scheme gives eligible MidCoast property owners a genuine, no-permit right to carry out vegetation and land clearing near their home for bushfire protection, but it comes with real exclusions that catch people out. Here's exactly what the entitlement covers, what it doesn't, and how to check if your property qualifies.
The 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Scheme is one of the few genuine no-permit clearing rights available to NSW homeowners: a real, legislated entitlement to remove trees and vegetation near a home for bushfire protection, without a council application. It's also one of the most misunderstood, partly because of its own history. The scheme was tightened significantly in its first 18 months after widespread misuse, and today's rules reflect that.
Our guide to council approval for tree removal touches on the 10/50 scheme as one part of the general permit picture. This guide is the full, dedicated breakdown: exactly what the entitlement lets you clear, the exclusions that catch people out, how eligibility is actually checked, and why the rules are stricter today than when the scheme first launched.
The 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Scheme is established under the Rural Fires Act 1997 and administered by the NSW Rural Fire Service. It took effect from August 2014 as a direct response to the October 2013 NSW bushfires, which destroyed over 200 properties, mostly in the Blue Mountains, and was designed to give residents in bushfire-prone areas a fast way to create defensible space around their homes.
Most homeowners just call it "the 10/50 land clearing rule." The RFS's formal name is the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Scheme, but clearing land near the home for bushfire protection is exactly what it authorises.
The key thing that makes it different from MidCoast Council's ordinary tree-permit system is that it's a self-assessed statutory entitlement rather than a permit scheme. If your property qualifies, you don't submit an application, wait for a decision, or need council sign-off: you check eligibility, confirm the details, and clear within the rules. That said, it's a right with real boundaries, not a blank cheque, which is what the rest of this guide covers.
Source: NSW Rural Fire Service, 10/50 Vegetation Clearing (last updated 9 January 2026)
A 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Entitlement Area is land specifically mapped by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. You check eligibility using the RFS's own online tool, entering your address and confirming the mapped pin sits on the correct property. There are four possible outcomes: not in a 10/50 area at all, in the area but subject to restrictions that need individual checking, wholly excluded despite being nearby, or fully eligible.
A common source of confusion is that there are actually three separate, overlapping map layers at play, and they answer different questions:
Being in Council's mapped Policy area (relevant to the general permit process covered in our council approval guide) doesn't tell you anything about 10/50 eligibility, and vice versa: they're checked separately, using separate tools. MidCoast Council's Vegetation Management Policy explicitly carves out genuinely 10/50-eligible land from its own permit requirements, so a property inside a real 10/50 entitlement area doesn't need a council permit for that specific clearing. Everything else in the LGA still falls back to Council's ordinary permit or exemption process.
Check eligibility on the day you plan to clear, using the RFS's own tool. Entitlement mapping has changed materially since the scheme launched and can be updated again.
Source: NSW Rural Fire Service, Check if you're in a 10/50 area (online tool); MidCoast Council, Vegetation Management Policy v3 (adopted 24 July 2024)
Where a property is eligible, the entitlement covers two distinct zones measured from the external wall of an eligible building, generally a residential dwelling, though certain higher-risk facilities such as childcare centres, schools, hospitals and farm sheds also qualify.
For the purposes of the scheme, a "tree" is a perennial woody plant at least 3 metres tall with one or more self-supporting trunks, at least one of which has a circumference greater than 30 centimetres measured at 1.3 metres above the ground. Multi-stemmed trees still count. Both native and introduced species qualify, and measurements start from the outermost part of the building's structure, including attached decks, verandas and garages.
Source: NSW Rural Fire Service, 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Code of Practice for New South Wales (4 September 2015)
The entitlement comes with real exclusions that apply regardless of whether your property is otherwise eligible. This is where most genuine misunderstandings happen, and where the scheme's own history (more on that in Section 6) has made the rules progressively stricter.
Whether the scheme extends to strata or community-title land wasn't confirmed in our research. If this applies to your property, check directly with the RFS rather than assuming either way.
Source: NSW Rural Fire Service, 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Code of Practice for New South Wales (4 September 2015)
Because it's a self-assessed entitlement, there's no formal application, registration, or prior notification required to the RFS or to Council. The only real "process" step is running the online eligibility tool on the day you plan to clear and keeping a record that you did.
A few separate approvals still apply within an otherwise-eligible job. Burning cleared vegetation needs its own RFS burn permit. Herbicide use has to comply with APVMA-registered product conditions. Other legislation, animal welfare law and environmental rules around soil and erosion, still applies regardless of the entitlement.
It's also worth understanding what the scheme isn't. It's a one-off clearing right, not an ongoing hazard-reduction-maintenance allowance, and there's no state-mandated replanting requirement attached to it. Ongoing obligations that do apply include managing soil erosion and landslip risk, avoiding heavy machinery that disturbs the soil profile, not removing topsoil, and avoiding harm to protected wildlife during the work.
It's worth understanding a bit of the scheme's own history, because it explains why today's rules are as detailed as they are. The original entitlement, introduced in 2014, allowed much larger clearing buffers, up to 350 metres in some cases. Within its first 18 months, following well over 1,800 public submissions and a formal review, that buffer was cut sharply, first to an interim distance and then to the current 10-metre tree and 50-metre vegetation figures.
The review process was candid about why: officials at the time acknowledged that some people were clearing vegetation for reasons that had nothing to do with genuine bushfire protection. About half of the 30 recommendations from the final 2015 review introduced greater environmental protections, which is where today's exclusions, the koala habitat carve-out, the coastal buffer, the heritage protections, largely come from.
The practical takeaway is that the 10/50 scheme isn't a loophole and isn't treated as one anymore. It's a genuine, useful entitlement for the specific situation it covers: clearing directly around a home for bushfire protection. The exclusions exist because the scheme was tightened in direct response to people trying to use it for something else.
Source: NSW Rural Fire Service, Review of the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Entitlement Scheme, final report (August 2015)
Not sure whether your property qualifies, or whether the work you need falls inside the entitlement? Request a free quote and we'll help you work through it.
Between the 10/50 scheme, council permits, and genuine exemptions, it's easy to end up unsure which rules actually apply to your property. Our team can check your eligibility, carry out compliant clearing work, and handle the land clearing or fire hazard management itself once you know where you stand.
We are MidCoast Council panel providers and Arboriculture Australia members, working across the entire MidCoast region, from Forster and Tuncurry to Taree, Wingham, Old Bar, and everywhere in between.
To arrange an assessment or request a quote, call our team or submit an enquiry online.
We'll visit your property, assess the trees, and give you an honest recommendation at no cost.
