Five guides · Guide 3 of 5
Guide 3 · Fire dangerMowing on fire-danger days
In Victoria’s Fire Danger Period, CFA’s answer to using a lawn mower in dry grass is no unless the machine meets set conditions and a person stays with it carrying water, and on a Total Fire Ban day mowing should be avoided wherever possible. South Australia’s CFS says yes to a mower, providing a shovel or rake and a portable water spray are at hand, and in Western Australia any activity that could start a fire is illegal on a Total Fire Ban day unless it is one of the prescribed activities done under its conditions.
General information, not legal or safety advice. Fire restrictions change by day and by place; each rule below is the named state’s own, and the official pages are listed at the foot of this page.
A danger period, and a ban day
Victoria and South Australia each work with two levels, a season of restrictions and single days of total fire ban. For Western Australia, this guide holds the ban day only.
| State | The season | The ban day |
|---|---|---|
| VIC | CFA declares Fire Danger Periods by municipality during periods of increased fire risk. | CFA declares Total Fire Bans on days when fire is likely to spread fast and be hard to control. |
| SA | The Fire Danger Season generally runs from November through to April, with daily restrictions to prevent bushfires starting. | Total Fire Bans are enforced on days of heightened risk of bushfires starting or spreading because of the weather. |
| WA | Not covered here. | A Total Fire Ban is declared on the days fires are most likely to threaten lives and property, and occasionally outside a fire season. |
For New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory, this guide holds no official rule on using a mower on these days, so none is stated here.
Victoria: CFA’s answer for a lawn mower
CFA’s “can I or can’t I?” page puts the question for a chainsaw, plant or grass trimmer or lawn mower, and answers it twice: once for the Fire Danger Period and once for a Total Fire Ban day.
Fire Danger Period
No, unless, when used in vegetation that is not green (dry vegetation), the machine complies with conditions CFA lists for the machine itself. Those conditions are on CFA’s page; read them in full there.
A person must also be with the machine the whole time it runs, carrying at least one of these:
- a knapsack spray pump in working order, fully charged with water, holding at least 9 litres; or
- a water (stored pressure) fire extinguisher in working order, fully charged with water, kept at the correct pressure, holding at least 9 litres.
Work in green vegetation is permitted, though CFA suggests keeping equipment maintained and carrying the same fire suppression equipment.
Total Fire Ban day
Using these machines should be avoided wherever possible on a Total Fire Ban day, as the risk of a fire starting is extremely high, and a fire on such a day may have a much greater impact.
If the work is essential, the same requirements apply in dry vegetation: the machine conditions on CFA’s page, a person with the machine the whole time, and one of the two water units above.
On both kinds of day, the spark arrester, the knapsack spray pump and the extinguisher must comply with the applicable Australian Standards.
South Australia: yes, with conditions
The Country Fire Service sets out what you can do under the Fire Danger Season’s restrictions and on Total Fire Ban days. To “Can I use a chainsaw, brush cutter, mower or slasher?” its answer is yes, providing “a shovel or rake and portable water spray are at hand.”
The CFS adds conditions for the engine:
- all of the engine’s exhaust leaves through the exhaust system;
- that system stops burning material escaping;
- its hot parts are kept from touching flammable material or vegetation;
- it is in good working order.
For the restrictions in place at other times of the year, the CFS points to the local council.
Western Australia: the ban day
Lighting an open-air fire, or doing anything that could start a fire, is illegal on a Total Fire Ban day. Some activities are prescribed in the Bush Fires Regulations 1954, which means they can go ahead on a ban day if the conditions DFES lists are met. One of those conditions is to notify DFES and the local government through an online form at least 30 minutes before the activity starts. Whether mowing is one of the prescribed activities is not covered here; DFES’s page has the detail.
DFES’s page, when checked on 9 October 2026, said a breach can bring an infringement of $1,000, issued by police, local government or DFES, and on conviction a fine of $25,000 and/or 12 months in jail. Declared bans are shown on the Emergency WA website.
What the rules expect to see
If a contractor mows dry grass during Victoria’s Fire Danger Period, the rule expects the mower to meet the machine conditions on CFA’s page, and someone with it the whole time it runs, carrying one of the two water units of at least 9 litres. In South Australia, the shovel or rake and the water spray should be at hand, and the exhaust system should meet the CFS conditions above. These describe what the rules require of whoever is mowing; they are not instructions for doing fire-risk work yourself.
Mowing is only half of it: burning the cut grass is restricted too. The green waste guide takes burning state by state, and the mowing noise guide covers the hours a mower may be heard.