Five guides · Guide 1 of 5
Guide 1 · NoiseMowing noise hours by state
In New South Wales, a lawn mower should not be heard in a neighbour’s home before 8 am or after 8 pm on weekends and public holidays, or before 7 am or after 8 pm on any other day; Tasmania sets its own hours for weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays and public holidays. Victoria, the ACT, South Australia and Western Australia deal with a mower next door through their own noise rules, set out below; Queensland and the Northern Territory are not covered here.
General information, not legal advice. Each rule below is that state’s or territory’s own, and the official pages are listed at the foot of this page.
The set hours in NSW and Tasmania
Both states write their mower rule as the times a mower may not be heard, not the times it may. The green part of each strip is the time outside those hours.
Weekends and public holidays: restricted before 8 am and after 8 pm.
Any other day: restricted before 7 am and after 8 pm.
Monday to Friday: prohibited before 7 am and after 8 pm.
Saturday: prohibited before 9 am and after 8 pm.
Sunday and public holidays: prohibited before 10 am and after 8 pm.
New South Wales
The NSW rule covers power tools and equipment, and its examples of powered garden tools are lawn mowers, lawn trimmers, edge cutters and leaf blowers. The Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation 2026 sets the times their noise should not be heard in a neighbour’s home.
During the restricted times, NSW Police or council officers can issue a warning to someone running noisy equipment. The EPA’s list of that equipment is grass cutting machines, power tools, air conditioners, musical instruments and sound equipment, and pumps for pools or heat pump water heaters. Anyone who keeps making the noise up to 40 days after a warning may be fined $400, or $800 for a corporation, and the most a court can impose is $5500 for an individual and $11,000 for a corporation. Those are the figures on the EPA’s page as updated on 31 August 2026.
The hours are not a free pass. Outside them, councils and police can still restrict the use of this equipment if it is causing “offensive noise”.
Tasmania
Tasmania’s noise regulations aim to limit community noise in residential neighbourhoods by setting prohibited hours for common noise sources, and garden equipment is among them. The hours in the strip above are for lawnmowers and other power garden maintenance equipment. EPA Tasmania points to regulation 6 for the conditions on using machinery outside those hours.
A chainsaw with an internal combustion engine, used within 300 metres of a home, has a shorter day: prohibited before 7 am and after 6 pm on weekdays, before 9 am and after 6 pm on Saturdays, and before 10 am and after 6 pm on Sundays and public holidays. A note beside it limits its use for domestic garden maintenance to one day in any 7 consecutive days.
How the other states handle a mower next door
For these states this guide does not print a mower timetable. Each handles garden-machine noise in its own way.
| State | The rule, as the official page states it |
|---|---|
| VIC | Regulation 114 of the Environment Protection Regulations 2021 sets out “specific sources of residential noise (prescribed items)” and the “times they are not allowed to be heard in your neighbour’s home”. The prescribed items include “lawnmowers or other grass-cutting devices”. EPA Victoria’s residential noise page sets out the hours. |
| ACT | “The ACT is divided into noise zones, each with its own noise standard for day and night.” Access Canberra says some activities make noise above the permitted standards “as they are typical and accepted parts of life”, and may be carried out in residential areas if they meet certain conditions. Garden maintenance, including lawnmowers and garden equipment, is one of them, within hours its page sets for Monday to Saturday and for Sundays and public holidays, and “the equipment must be maintained according to the manufacturer’s specifications.” |
| SA | Councils manage neighbourhood nuisance under the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act 2016. EPA South Australia’s list of common examples, which is longer than this, includes noise from air conditioners, domestic pool pumps and “power tools including lawn mowers”. For an activity to count as a nuisance, it must unreasonably interfere with the normal things you could reasonably expect to do. An amending Act passed in October 2025 commenced on 18 June 2026, apart from two sections that commence later. |
| WA | The Environmental Protection (Noise) Regulations 1997 set limits on noise emissions, and local governments use them for domestic, commercial and general industry noise. |
| QLD | Not covered here. |
| NT | Not covered here. |
A quieter mow
The NSW EPA adds some suggestions to its rules. They are advice, not requirements.
- Tell the neighbours in advance before something noisy, such as using a chainsaw.
- Keep the noise down even within the permitted times, because offensive noise can happen at any hour.
- When buying, choose quiet models of leaf blowers, string trimmers, edge cutters and lawn mowers.
- Use a broom or rake instead of a leaf blower where you can. If you do use one, don’t start too early, keep to short bursts, don’t keep revving it, and run it at around half its maximum power, which the EPA says is quieter but just as effective.
Who to approach if a mower next door is a problem is on the home page, state by state. If the grass is dry and the fire danger is high, mowing on fire-danger days sets out what changes, and the green waste guide covers the clippings.