You used the sensible approach, which appears a rare thing these days.
Over here in the West, because all these halfwits got burnt out at times because they chose to live among the gum trees, many pointed the blame to others for allowing them to build there in the first place.
So it would seem, because the world wants to sue everyone else for their own stupidity, the Gov has pretty much placed up a map of the West, thrown a few darts at it and have then said, OK then, all these areas are now classed as fire prone, hence,....when you build a new house, you have to meet all these ridiculous requirements, pay through the nose for these reports etc, argue with Council over them. If your not careful, it can add 20-30 g's to your house. The same applies if you want to extend.
This even applies to building a machinery shed, or transferring one, regardless as to whether you on an acreage property with pretty much no trees near the proposed build. Recently been through this circus which added addition costs and time.
