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Standards in State Library Victoria

Guide to Australian manufacturing standards, accounting standards, food code, building code and design rules

Victorian Building Regulations

Building regulations, rules and codes have been  continuously evolving.  For a very good coverage of the history of this evolution please see the following link at the ABCB

Note that hardcopies of older editions of the Building Code of Australia can also be accessed at the Library on request.

In order to search for building laws and regulations prior to the above dates it would be best to search the Library's online catalogue using the terms Building laws -- Victoria  and selecting the "Subject"  category from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side.

The above subject-based search will then lead to a range of  rules and regulations which applied at different times earlier.

Uniform Building Regulations

Prior to the consolidation of building laws and regulations into the Building Code of Australia, there were various editions of the Uniform Building Regulations which directed and defined building laws in Victoria, from 1945 to 1974. 

This link to the Uniform Building Regulations  will take you to the Library's online catalogue entry listing the various editions from 1945  to 1974 which were published separately and which are located in the Library's onsite storage areas.

The full-text of the  Uniform Building Regulations from 1945 to 1961 can also be found in the Victoria Government Gazette which is digitised and available online.  After 1961 any amendments to the regulations were merely announced in the Gazette.  Searching the Government Gazette is somewhat complicated and takes some practise so the issue and date details  of the various UBRs which were published in the Gazette are given below.

After 1961, the Uniform Building Regulations unless published separately and held by the Library, can be  found most readily in  the Victoria Statutory Rules. More recent rules can be accessed online, older issues are available in print.

  • the 1969 Uniform Building Regulations -- which came under the Local Government Act 1958 is Statutory Rule (S.R.) 111/1969.  It is in the 1969 Victoria Statutory Rules located at: B 346.9945 PU in the Redmond Barry Reading Room
  • the 1974 Uniform Building Regulation-- which came under the Local Government Act 1958, is Statutory Rule (S.R.) 348 /1973 , can be found in full-text in volume 2  of the 1973 Victoria Statutory Rules located at B 346.9945 PU in the Redmond Barry Reading Room
    • Please note the separately published 1974 edition of our UBR is unavailable
  • the 1974 Uniform Building Regulation was replaced by the Victoria Building Regulations 1983 .The 1983 Victoria Building Regulations came under the Building Control Act 1981. The only full-text version of the 1983 Victoria Building  Regulations held by the Library is Statutory Rule (S.R.) 273 of 1983.  It is located at B 346.9945 P4 in the Redmond Barry Reading Room.

Searching the Statutory Rules indexes becomes somewhat more complicated as in earlier dates they were at times listed under the Local Government Act and at later times under the Building Control Act .  As always when searching indexes it is useful to familiarize oneself with the parameters of the indexes being searched and also use a range of search terms.