Do You Need Council Approval in the Torres Strait Island communities?

The Torres Strait Island Regional Council — TSIRC — administers 15 island communities spread across the Torres Strait. It is a different body from Torres Shire, which covers Thursday Island and the hub islands. Across most of the TSIRC footprint the land is held in trust for the community rather than owned as ordinary freehold, and that changes where approvals begin. Before the familiar "do I need a development application" question comes a prior one: who holds the land, and what interest can you get in it.

The short answer

Usually yes, but tenure comes first. TSIRC is trustee of the Deed of Grant in Trust land across most of its 15 communities, so you normally need a lease or licence from the Council as trustee before anything else. Development assessment under the Zenadth Kes Planning Scheme is a separate, later step.

Figure 1: Tenure first, then assessment. Across 15 communities the details can differ island to island.

What the land tenure is

Across most of the TSIRC footprint the land is Deed of Grant in Trust land — granted by the State in fee simple in trust and held for the benefit of the community. TSIRC is the trustee of that land, drawing on the Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991 (Qld) and the Land Act 1994 (Qld). It is not ordinary private freehold.

So the order of operations starts with tenure. As trustee, TSIRC can enter licence agreements for the use of land and buildings, and grant leases for land, housing, business and infrastructure. To build or use a parcel, you first apply to the Council in its trustee capacity; it decides whether to grant a lease or licence for the use, term and conditions; native title is addressed as part of that process under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth); and a lease is registered with the State land registry. Only then do you hold a secure interest to build on. A licence covers shorter or lower-impact uses; a registered lease is the secure, long-term interest.

Because there are 15 communities, the position is not uniform island to island. The first question is always which community the land is in and what interest is available there.

Does a planning scheme apply?

Yes. TSIRC has adopted a region-wide planning scheme — the Zenadth Kes Planning Scheme, which commenced on 23 February 2018 and replaced the region's first scheme from 2016. So once tenure is settled, the planning side works like anywhere in Queensland: the scheme sets zones and codes and tells you whether a use or building is accepted, code assessable or impact assessable. Accepted versus assessable development explains those categories.

The trustee lease and the planning approval are two different decisions, even though TSIRC is often on both sides. It acts as trustee under the land legislation, and separately as the local government assessment manager under the Planning Act 2016. One practical link: the Planning Act treats a lease of more than 10 years that divides a lot as reconfiguring a lot, which is itself assessable — so a long trustee lease and a development approval are often connected.

The practical sequence is: (1) approach the Council in its trustee capacity with a proposal that identifies the parcel, the proposed use, and the term; (2) the Council as trustee decides whether to grant a lease under the Land Act 1994 and the Aboriginal Land Act 1991, including any native title procedures required under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth); (3) if granted, the lease is registered with the State land registry and you hold a registrable interest; (4) with that interest in hand, approach the same Council in its separate capacity as assessment manager to determine whether a development application is needed under the planning scheme.

What still works the same way

Beneath the tenure layer, the ordinary framework applies. A new or intensified use is a material change of use and may need a development application, lodged on the standard DA Form 1. Building work is handled separately again under the Building Act 1975, usually by a private building certifier — a different approval from the planning one. Where the project is small domestic work that is accepted development under the scheme, no development application is needed — but building approval from a private certifier under the Building Act 1975 may still apply. Accepted development does not mean unregulated; it means the project meets all of the planning scheme standards without needing a DA. Keep records of how it meets those standards in case the question arises. Building approval versus development approval sets out that distinction. In a remote community, getting a private building certifier is a practical constraint in its own right. There may be only one or two certifiers who regularly work in the region, and travel costs can add materially to the project. It is worth identifying a certifier early — before you finalise a design — to confirm they are available and to understand their fee structure for the location. Finding a building certifier in QLD and building approval versus development approval set out the general process.

Where to start

Start with TSIRC, and lead with which of the 15 communities the land is in and whether you already hold an interest in it. That lets the Council deal with the lease or licence as trustee and, separately, tell you how development is assessed under the Zenadth Kes Planning Scheme. Where the State has a role — marine and coastal matters are common in the Strait — the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) is the referral point.

Because the first gate here is tenure rather than a planning lookup, an instantDA planning report is not the starting point for a Torres Strait Island project — TSIRC as trustee is. A report can help later, if a development application is needed, but it does not grant or replace the trustee lease that has to come first.