BAL record and AS 3959 pointers

The problem

A lot of residential work in Australia starts with one question: which Bushfire Attack Level applies? The answer changes how the building is constructed, so it changes the cost and the drawings. Once the BAL has been determined under AS 3959, the next job is finding where the standard sets out the construction for it, element by element, and keeping a record of what the BAL rests on.

How it works

The bushfire tool sits inside SiteIQ, the site assessment tool, on its Bushfire Detail tab. It does not calculate a BAL. Standards Australia does not license its standards for digital or AI-powered products, so the tool works with the BAL you bring and points you to the standard rather than restating it.

1. Run a site assessment from the address. SiteIQ gives a desktop screening view of the site, including a read of the official bushfire prone area map for New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, where that map covers the site. That is the only bushfire screening it does: everywhere else in Australia, however exposed the site is, bushfire is reported as not assessed, so there its silence tells you nothing.
2. Open the Bushfire Detail tab and choose the BAL determined for the site under AS 3959, by you or an accredited bushfire assessor: BAL-LOW, BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL-29, BAL-40 or BAL-FZ.
3. If you like, enter the vegetation classification, distance and effective slope your assessment recorded. They are kept with the BAL exactly as you typed them. Nothing is worked out from them, and nothing checks them against the BAL.
4. Select Record BAL. The tool shows your BAL, labelled as yours, and the section of AS 3959:2018 that sets out the construction for it, with the building elements to look up there: subfloor, external walls, windows and glazing, external doors, roof, and verandahs and decks. For BAL-LOW it lists no section. A link takes you to Standards Australia, where the standard can be bought.
5. Select Make pointer document to get the same pointers as a document you can export as a PDF, with your recorded inputs and the caveats at the end.

Nothing on this tab is written by AI. The pointers come from a fixed list: the BAL you choose picks the section, and the same BAL always gives the same pointers. The section numbers are given for AS 3959:2018; check them against the edition and amendments your project is assessed under.

Worked example

Illustrative inputs, not a real site:

• BAL determined by the project's bushfire assessor: BAL-29
• recorded with it: woodland, 30 m, effective slope 3 degrees

For these inputs the tool shows BAL-29 — engineer's BAL and says that the construction specific to BAL-29 is set out in AS 3959:2018 Section 7, to be read with any provisions of the standard that apply at every BAL, with one line for each of the six building elements pointing to that section. The woodland, 30 m and 3 degrees appear on the result, and in the pointer document, exactly as entered. Changing them changes nothing else: the pointers depend on the BAL alone. We ran these inputs through the tool's own code to confirm that result.

Next, read Section 7 of AS 3959 for each element in your own copy of the standard, together with any provisions that apply at every BAL, and keep the assessor's report with the project file.

What it doesn't do

• It does not determine a BAL. It records the one you enter and does not check it. A BAL that a building surveyor or council will accept comes from an assessment by a suitably qualified person who has inspected the site.
• It does not restate AS 3959. No material, thickness, extent or other requirement is given for any element. Read them in the standard.
• It does not classify vegetation or measure slope. Anything you enter about how the BAL was found is kept as a record only.
• Its section numbers are pointers, not quotations. They have not been checked against the text of the standard, so confirm them in your copy before you rely on them.
• It gives no planning advice. Bushfire planning requirements vary by state and council.