In short: In New South Wales, building or subdividing on unsewered land means managing wastewater on site — and that requires a council approval supported by a Land Capability Assessment. This guide explains the NSW regulatory framework, the Section 68 approval, and exactly what your LCA must demonstrate. Requirements vary by council, so always confirm the detail with yours.
On-site wastewater regulation in NSW
If your block is not connected to a reticulated sewer, the household wastewater it generates must be treated and dispersed on the property itself. In New South Wales this is known as on-site sewage management, and it is regulated primarily under the Local Government Act 1993 and the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021. Together these set the framework councils use to approve, install and oversee septic tanks, aerated wastewater treatment systems (AWTS) and their associated land application areas.
The technical benchmark for assessing a site and designing a system is the Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1547:2012 On-site domestic wastewater management. This is supported by the current NSW guidance, the Onsite Wastewater Management Guidelines (2025) published by the NSW Office of Local Government, which describe how to assess land, size a land application area and protect public health and the environment. A Land Capability Assessment is the report that pulls all of this together for a specific parcel of land, and it is what councils across southern NSW rely on to make their decision.
When councils require an LCA
NSW councils generally require a Land Capability Assessment whenever wastewater will be managed on site rather than piped to sewer. In practice, that means you will need one when you are:
- Building a new dwelling on an unsewered rural or rural-residential block around Albury, Thurgoona, Lavington, Howlong, Holbrook, Corowa or Mulwala;
- Subdividing land where each new lot will rely on its own on-site system — often an LCA is required per lot, or as a combined assessment across the subdivision;
- Installing, replacing or upgrading a septic system or AWTS;
- Increasing the wastewater load by adding bedrooms, a granny flat or a secondary dwelling;
- Changing land use to something that generates additional effluent, such as a farm-stay or cellar door.
Whether an LCA is triggered, and in what form, is ultimately a matter for your council. Our companion guide on whether you need an LCA walks through the common triggers, and if you are weighing up scope, our note on the difference between an LCA and a septic assessment is a useful next read.
Commission the LCA early. The land application area it identifies can dictate where the house, driveway and lot boundaries end up. In a NSW subdivision, designing around the assessment is far cheaper than reworking a plan after lodgement.
The Section 68 approval
The approval you are ultimately seeking in NSW is commonly called a Section 68 approval, after the section of the Local Government Act 1993 that governs "activities" requiring council consent. For on-site sewage management there are two related approvals: approval to install, construct or alter a sewage management facility, and approval to operate it once installed.
The Land Capability Assessment is the evidence base for the install approval. It tells the council's environmental health officer that the land can sustainably accept the household's wastewater, which system suits the site, and how big the land application area needs to be. The operating approval, granted once the system is installed and commissioned, typically carries conditions drawn from the LCA — such as the reserve area to be protected, planting requirements or restrictions on the disposal area. A clear, standards-compliant LCA makes both approvals far smoother.
What a NSW LCA must demonstrate
A Land Capability Assessment prepared for a NSW site is expected to work through, and clearly document, several core elements. In broad terms it must:
- Soil category. Classify the soil in accordance with the soil categories (1 to 6) in AS/NZS 1547:2012, based on texture, structure and permeability, which in turn sets the indicative design loading rate for effluent.
- Water balance. Apply a water balance — and, where nutrients or phosphorus are a concern, a nutrient balance — to size the land application area for the design wastewater load across all seasons.
- Buffers. Demonstrate that adequate buffer distances can be maintained to boundaries, dwellings, bores, dams and watercourses, so that effluent is contained on site and sensitive features are protected.
- Reserve area. Identify a viable primary land application area and, typically, a reserve area set aside for future use should the primary area need to be rested or replaced.
- System recommendation. Recommend a treatment system and effluent dispersal method matched to the soil category, slope and site constraints.
Effluent must be contained on the site itself. That single principle — no off-site discharge, adequate buffers, enough capable land — sits behind almost every requirement an environmental health officer will check. Soil assessment is the technical heart of the report; the main Land Capability Assessment page sets out our field and modelling methodology in full.
The role of council strategies and DCPs
While AS/NZS 1547:2012 and the NSW Onsite Wastewater Management Guidelines (2025) provide the common backbone, the local detail is where councils differ — and this is the part landholders most often underestimate. Many NSW councils publish their own on-site sewage management strategies and development control plans (DCPs) that add site-specific requirements on top of the state framework.
These local instruments can set their own minimum buffer distances, prescribe minimum land application areas or reserve areas, restrict certain dispersal methods, or impose additional controls in drinking-water catchments and near sensitive waterways. The result is that the same house on the same soil can face slightly different requirements depending on whether it sits in the Albury City, Greater Hume, Federation or Snowy Valleys council area. Because requirements vary by council, we always recommend confirming the current expectations with your council — or letting us do that liaison for you. Reading local policy and translating it into a compliant design is part of what we do on every southern NSW job.
Local strategies and DCPs are updated periodically. Before you lodge, confirm the current buffers, minimum areas and catchment controls that apply to your parcel. We can advise on the relevant council's requirements and prepare the LCA to match.
The approval process step by step
The LCA sits within a wider approval pathway. The exact sequence varies by council and project, but a typical NSW process looks like this:
- Pre-lodgement. Your designer, surveyor or planner confirms the block is unsewered and that an LCA is required. This is the ideal point to engage us.
- Land Capability Assessment. We inspect the site, investigate the soils, apply the water and nutrient balance, and prepare the LCA with a recommended system, land application area and reserve area.
- Application lodgement. The LCA is submitted with your Development Application and your Section 68 application to install the on-site sewage management system.
- Council assessment. The environmental health officer reviews the LCA against AS/NZS 1547, the NSW guidelines and the council's own strategy or DCP, and may request clarification.
- Approval and conditions. Council grants the Section 68 install approval, usually with conditions carried through to installation and the operating approval.
- Installation and commissioning. A licensed plumber installs the approved system and the land application area is established exactly as specified in the LCA.
Because environmental health officers assess these reports every week, a clear, standards-compliant LCA that anticipates their questions is the single biggest factor in a smooth, first-time approval. Cost is a common question at this stage — our guide to how much an LCA costs explains what drives the fee.
How Jones Environmental helps across southern NSW
Jones Environmental Consulting is an owner-operated environmental consultancy based in Albury Wodonga, right on the NSW–Victoria border. Land Capability Assessments are core business for us, and every assessment is carried out by a qualified environmental scientist rather than handed to a junior.
Patricia Jones, our Principal Environmental Scientist and Director, brings around two decades of environmental consulting experience across the region, spanning land capability, contaminated land, groundwater and waste work for councils, state agencies, developers and landholders. Russell Jones, our Senior Environmental Scientist and Field Operations Manager, has around fifteen years of field experience and runs our in-house soil investigation and drilling capability. That combination means the person interpreting your soils has also logged countless soil profiles in the ground across southern NSW.
We regularly prepare LCAs for NSW blocks around Albury, Thurgoona, Lavington, Howlong, Holbrook, Corowa and Mulwala, and throughout the broader Greater Hume, Federation and Snowy Valleys areas, tailoring each report to the requirements of the relevant council. If your project also touches the Victorian side of the river, our guide to LCA requirements in Victoria explains that framework — and because we work both states, you deal with one team either way. Tell us the site address, the proposed development and your council, and we will confirm what is required and provide a fixed-fee quote.