Timber Fence Cost

Understanding timber fence costs in Australia

What a timber fence costs in 2026

Timber fencing in Australia is priced per linear metre installed, and the 2026 range for the common products is fairly tight. A standard 1800mm treated pine paling fence with galvanised steel posts runs roughly $110 to $180 a metre supplied and installed, with most suburban jobs landing around $130 to $150. Treated pine on timber posts is slightly cheaper at $100 to $160. Merbau or hardwood palings push the rate to $190 to $300 a metre. A horizontal slat screen fence in hardwood or cypress, which uses more timber and far more labour, runs $260 to $450 a metre. Lower fences cost proportionally less but not linearly, because the posts, holes, concrete and labour barely change, so a 1200mm fence is typically 70 to 80 percent of the 1800mm rate rather than two thirds. A typical 25m suburban boundary replacement therefore sits around $2,800 to $4,500 in treated pine.

Dividing fences, notices and who pays

This is the part that costs people real money, and it is legal rather than technical. Every state and territory has dividing fences legislation, the Dividing Fences Act in NSW, WA and Queensland's Neighbourhood Disputes Act, Victoria's Fences Act, and equivalents elsewhere. The common principle is that adjoining owners are each liable for half the cost of a sufficient dividing fence, where sufficient is judged against the standard of fencing in the locality and the use of the land. Critically, that liability is only enforceable if you follow the process, which almost always means serving a written fencing notice on the adjoining owner setting out the proposed fence, the type, the cost and the quotes, and allowing a statutory period, commonly 30 days, for them to respond or propose an alternative. Build first and ask afterwards and you generally have no statutory right to recover anything. If the neighbour disagrees, most states route the dispute to a civil tribunal, NCAT in NSW, VCAT in Victoria, QCAT in Queensland, which will determine what a sufficient fence is and apportion the cost.

The betterment principle

The second half of the cost-sharing rule is betterment, and it is where expectations usually break down. Your neighbour is liable for half of a sufficient fence, not half of the fence you want. If the standard in your street is 1800mm treated pine palings on steel posts and you want merbau boards, a capping rail, exposed post caps and a stained finish, you can absolutely build that, but the neighbour's contribution is capped at half the cost of the standard fence and you pay the entire difference. The same applies to height. If you want 2100mm for privacy and the local standard is 1800mm, the extra is yours. Understanding this before you get quotes lets you have an honest conversation with the neighbour and avoids the very common situation where an owner assumes a 50 percent split on a premium fence and ends up funding 75 percent of it in a tribunal outcome.

Materials, posts and what actually fails

In a timber paling fence, the post is what dies first. Timber posts in ground rot at the soil line, particularly on the shaded, damp side, and once they go the whole panel leans regardless of how sound the palings are. That is why galvanised steel posts set in concrete have become the mainstream choice for treated pine fencing, adding only a small amount per metre while substantially extending service life. Treated pine palings are typically H3 treated for above ground exposure, and posts should be H4 if timber is used in ground. Merbau and hardwood palings look better and last longer but are heavier, more expensive, and leach tannin heavily for the first six to twelve months, which will permanently stain concrete paths, pavers and rendered walls underneath unless the boards are pre-oiled or the surface is sealed. Expect 10 to 15 years from a treated pine fence with steel posts, 15 to 25 from hardwood if it is maintained.

Site conditions and slope

Ground conditions move the labour component more than the material. Flat, clear ground with soft soil is the baseline. Clay is slow to auger and heavy to dispose of. Rocky ground, common through the Sydney sandstone belt, the Adelaide foothills and parts of Perth, can turn a straightforward post hole into a rock drilling exercise and add 20 to 30 percent to labour. Slope requires the panels to be stepped or raked, which uses more timber, creates gaps under the low edge of each step, and takes longer to set out. Where there is a genuine level change between properties, the retaining structure is not part of the dividing fence at all, it is a separate structure that generally belongs to whoever benefits from the retained soil, and treating it as a shared fence cost is a reliable way to end up in a neighbour dispute. Restricted access that forces materials to be hand carried through a house or down a narrow path adds labour on every delivery.

Approvals and council rules

In most Australian councils a dividing fence on a side or rear boundary up to 1800mm is exempt or complying development and needs no application. Above that height, on a front boundary, on a corner block where sight lines matter, in a heritage conservation area, or where the fence also acts as a pool barrier or a retaining structure, approval requirements change and you should check with the council before ordering materials. Front fences are commonly limited to 1200mm solid or 1800mm if largely transparent, and corner blocks often have a splay requirement near the driveway for visibility. If the fence forms part of a swimming pool barrier it must additionally satisfy AS 1926.1, meaning no gaps over 100mm, no climbable horizontal rails on the pool side, and a clear non-climbable zone, which a standard paling fence frequently fails on.

Getting good quotes

Ask for the quote to be broken into removal and disposal of the existing fence, posts and concrete, framing, palings, gates, and any finishing such as capping or staining. Removal and tip fees alone commonly run $25 to $50 a metre and are the line most often left out of a headline rate. Confirm the timber grade and treatment level, the post material and spacing, and the depth of the footings, because a cheap quote frequently reflects shallower holes and wider post spacing rather than a genuinely better price. Check the fencer is licensed where your state requires it for work above the residential building threshold and carries public liability insurance, and get the neighbour's agreement in writing before work starts, including who is paying what, so the cost-sharing conversation happens once rather than after the invoice arrives.