Pool fence rules in Victoria: what the inspector checks
Every pool and spa in Victoria has to be registered with council, and the barrier inspected every four years. Here is what the inspector actually measures, and the things that fail most often.
Registration and the four-year inspection
If your pool or spa can hold more than 300mm of water, it has had to be registered with your local council since December 2019. Council then gives you a date to have the barrier inspected by a registered building surveyor or inspector and to lodge a certificate of barrier compliance. After that the certificate is due again every four years, so a fence that passed once has to keep passing. New pools are inspected when they are built.
Which standard applies
Which rules your fence is measured against depends on when the pool went in. Pools built after 1 May 2013 are inspected against AS 1926.1-2012. Pools built between May 2010 and April 2013 go against the 2007 edition, pools from 1991 to 2010 against the 1993 edition, and pools built before April 1991 against a set of older rules. If you replace the barrier on an old pool, the new one is built to the current standard, so a new fence on an old pool is still a 2012 fence.
The measurements that matter
The barrier has to be at least 1200mm high, measured on the outside, because that is the side a child climbs from. No gap under the barrier or between panels can be more than 100mm, so a small child cannot squeeze through. On the outside you need a 900mm non-climbable zone, measured in an arc from the top. That means no planters, pool pumps, furniture, tree branches or horizontal rails inside it, because anything a child can step on turns a 1200mm fence into a short one. Where a boundary fence forms part of the barrier, it has to be 1800mm high with the 900mm non-climbable zone on the inside.
Gates
Gates fail inspections more than anything else. The gate has to open outward, away from the pool, so a child pushing on it cannot walk straight in. It has to self-close from any position, including resting against the latch, and self-latch without anyone pushing it. The latch release has to be at least 1500mm above the ground, or shielded if it is lower, so small hands cannot reach it. If you have to lift or pull the gate to get it to latch, it fails.
Doors and windows
For pools built after 2010, a house door cannot be part of the pool barrier, because a door gets left open. Windows that open onto the pool area have to be restricted to a 100mm opening or fitted with a fixed screen, for the same reason as the gaps in the fence.
What a glass fence changes
Nothing about the rules, and everything about the look. Frameless glass has no horizontal rails to climb, so the non-climbable zone is easy to satisfy. The spigots and hinges carry the load, so they have to be rated and fixed properly. On glass gates we use soft-close hinges and a magnetic latch that meets the self-latching rule. We install to AS 1926.1-2012 and check height, gaps, the zone and the gate before we leave.
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