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billboardsigns.com.auThe faces
Guide 5 of 5
The picture
the small format, a 6 sheet poster, 3 x 1.5 m, 4.5 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; mounted mainly on walls and often located in suburban areas a portrait 50s, 3 x 4.5 m, 13.5 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; it has a magazine cover look a super6, 6 x 3 m, 18 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; commonly known as poster sites and seen in local areas attached to buildings, pole or frame mounted; the source gives the 24 sheet poster the same 6 x 3 m, the size at which Victoria defines a major promotion sign; this face reaches it at exactly 18 m² Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Super6 / 24 sheet at 6 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 3 m) a super8, 8.3 x 2.2 m, 18.26 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; the same proportion as supersites, to enable consistency of content for advertisers Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Super8 at 8.18 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 2.2 m) a supersite, 12.33 x 3.35 m, 41.31 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; the most common large format sign, often sold in packs cells past 20 m² on the Supersite face, filled guide-sign green: past NSW's 20 m² concurrence size, for a face within 250 m of and visible from a classified road Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Supersite at 5.37 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 3.35 m) NSW: an advertisement with a display area greater than 20 m², or higher than 8 m, within 250 m of and visible from a classified road, needs Transport for NSW concurrence before consent. It crosses Supersite at 5.97 m along, Dotto’s calculation (20 m² ÷ 3.35 m) a spectacular, 18.99 x 4.5 m, 85.46 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; frame, gantry or pole mounted cells past 20 m² on the Spectacular face, filled guide-sign green: past NSW's 20 m² concurrence size, for a face within 250 m of and visible from a classified road cells past 48 m² on the Spectacular face, filled deep red: past Brisbane's cap of 48 m² per side Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Spectacular at 4 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 4.5 m) NSW: an advertisement with a display area greater than 20 m², or higher than 8 m, within 250 m of and visible from a classified road, needs Transport for NSW concurrence before consent. It crosses Spectacular at 4.44 m along, Dotto’s calculation (20 m² ÷ 4.5 m) Brisbane: the area of a billboard sign must not exceed 48 m² per side, for a maximum of two sides. It crosses Spectacular at 10.67 m along, Dotto’s calculation (48 m² ÷ 4.5 m)
  1. the small format, a 6 sheet poster, 3 x 1.5 m, 4.5 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; mounted mainly on walls and often located in suburban areas
  2. a portrait 50s, 3 x 4.5 m, 13.5 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; it has a magazine cover look
  3. a super6, 6 x 3 m, 18 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; commonly known as poster sites and seen in local areas attached to buildings, pole or frame mounted; the source gives the 24 sheet poster the same 6 x 3 m, the size at which Victoria defines a major promotion sign; this face reaches it at exactly 18 m² Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Super6 / 24 sheet at 6 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 3 m)
  4. a super8, 8.3 x 2.2 m, 18.26 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; the same proportion as supersites, to enable consistency of content for advertisers Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Super8 at 8.18 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 2.2 m)
  5. a supersite, 12.33 x 3.35 m, 41.31 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; the most common large format sign, often sold in packs cells past 20 m² on the Supersite face, filled guide-sign green: past NSW's 20 m² concurrence size, for a face within 250 m of and visible from a classified road Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Supersite at 5.37 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 3.35 m) NSW: an advertisement with a display area greater than 20 m², or higher than 8 m, within 250 m of and visible from a classified road, needs Transport for NSW concurrence before consent. It crosses Supersite at 5.97 m along, Dotto’s calculation (20 m² ÷ 3.35 m)
  6. a spectacular, 18.99 x 4.5 m, 85.46 m², Dotto’s calculation from those dimensions; frame, gantry or pole mounted cells past 20 m² on the Spectacular face, filled guide-sign green: past NSW's 20 m² concurrence size, for a face within 250 m of and visible from a classified road cells past 48 m² on the Spectacular face, filled deep red: past Brisbane's cap of 48 m² per side Victoria: from 18 m² an application must add more material; the same figure is the definition of a major promotion sign. It crosses Spectacular at 4 m along, Dotto’s calculation (18 m² ÷ 4.5 m) NSW: an advertisement with a display area greater than 20 m², or higher than 8 m, within 250 m of and visible from a classified road, needs Transport for NSW concurrence before consent. It crosses Spectacular at 4.44 m along, Dotto’s calculation (20 m² ÷ 4.5 m) Brisbane: the area of a billboard sign must not exceed 48 m² per side, for a maximum of two sides. It crosses Spectacular at 10.67 m along, Dotto’s calculation (48 m² ÷ 4.5 m)

In NSW, a billboard’s frame needs consent. Its advertising does not.

In NSW, planning rules and advertising codes answer different questions about a billboard. Consent runs to the structure and where it stands, though the transport corridor guidelines assess how a proposed advertisement could affect drivers; the advertising codes reach what it says, and a complaint about what a billboard shows can go to Ad Standards.

General information, not planning or legal advice.

In NSW, the planning rules do not regulate a sign’s content. The 2017 guidelines put it directly: SEPP 64, the instrument of that day, does not regulate the content of advertisements and signs and does not require consent for a change in content, and the guidelines recommend that advertisers follow the roads authority’s advisory guidelines on sign content along road corridors. The advertising and signage controls now sit in chapter 3 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Industry and Employment) 2021, and the roads authority is Transport for NSW. Consent runs to the structure and where it stands, not to the picture on the face, but when a sign is assessed the guidelines still ask how its advertisement could affect drivers: it must not interfere with the effectiveness of a prescribed traffic control device, and the assessment asks whether it could be construed as giving instructions to traffic such as ‘Stop’, ‘Halt’ or ‘Give Way’.

What the advertising codes cover

The advertising industry’s codes reach billboards too. Ad Standards administers them, set up in line with practice used worldwide so that the makers of ads are not the ones judging them, and the codes reach all forms of advertising, outdoor ads and billboards among them. Advertisers keep the system running by following the codes and the Community Panel’s decisions and by paying a self-regulation levy, which works out at $500 for each $1 million of advertising spend. This is the system that hears complaints about what an advertisement says or shows.

Each place, separately

NSW

In NSW, consent covers the advertisement as a structure. The planning rules do not regulate the content of advertisements and signs and do not require consent for a change in content, and the guidelines recommend the roads authority’s advisory guidance on sign content along road corridors. The same guidelines assess how a proposed advertisement could affect drivers, including whether it could be construed as giving instructions to traffic.

Queensland state roads

For devices on state-controlled roads in Queensland, the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ roadside advertising manual says it generally relies on the advertising industry’s self-regulatory controls to enforce minimum advertising standards on the content on roadside advertising devices, including billboards and other signs. The department may intervene if the content may cause an immediate danger to traffic, and in its licence agreements for devices on state-controlled roads it reserves the right to apply certain controls on advertising content so that the content does not create a traffic hazard.

Complaints

A complaint about what a billboard shows can go to Ad Standards. The Queensland manual still uses the body’s earlier name, the Advertising Standards Bureau. The Bureau changed its name on 1 March 2018, and since then the body has been known as Ad Standards. It administers the advertising codes.

Traffic screens

One more place the rules reach what a screen may say is the variable message sign. Transport for NSW’s guide for special events says portable variable message signs can be used leading up to, during and after an event to notify traffic and transport changes, and must not be used to promote the event on a road or road-related area, or where they may impact walkways, visibility, distract motorists or the operation of traffic signals. The permanent signs are to be used for special event traffic or transport information, and cannot be used to promote the event.

Electoral notices on a screen

Commonwealth law also reaches one kind of picture: an election message on a screen. Under the Commonwealth Electoral (Authorisation of Voter Communication) Determination 2021, the particulars must be notified at the end of the communication where it is communicated in the form of an electronic billboard, an electric road sign or other similar devices.

This guide is shorter than the others: planning consent covers the structure, with the road-safety assessment above, and the advertising codes, linked below, cover what an advertisement says.