An amendment to the NCC came into effect on 15 December 2015, mandating that all new multi storey apartment buildings, hotels, healthcare buildings and aged care buildings which have a sprinkler system installed, must extend sprinkler coverage to protect all covered balconies, regardless of size. This also applies to the covered portions of partly covered balconies.

Previously, covered balconies with an area of less than six square meters, or less than two meters in depth were not required to be sprinkler protected.

This amendment has been adopted as a result of the Post Incident Analysis of the fire in the Lacrosse Building which found that; “had the sprinkler system extended to the balcony area of each apartment, fire would have most likely been contained to the level of fire origin.”

These changes apply to new building designs from 15 December 2015 and will be implemented as Victorian variations to the National Construction Code in 2016

Fact Sheet | Building and Plumbing Amendment (Balcony Sprinkler Protection) Interim Regulations 2015