Noise regulation in Victoria

Council officers may investigate residential sources of noise and decide whether noise is unreasonable. They consider:

• volume and intensity
• what the noise sounds like – its character
• time and place 
• how long the noise continues
• how often the noise occurs
• other circumstances

The Environment Protection Regulations 2021 cover specific sources of noise from residential properties.

Read more about Prohibited times for noise.

In general, noise must not be heard within a neighbouring dwelling:

• Monday - Friday: before 7.00 am or after 9.00 pm*
• On weekends and public holidays: before 9.00 am or after 11.00 pm*

*Time restrictions depend on what's causing the noise. Visit the EPA for more information on Residential noise and the law.

Many noise complaints reported to Council do not have the required evidence to deem the noise unreasonable. Officers often attend noise complaints to find themselves in ongoing neighbour to neighbour issues which are not necessarily noise complaints.

Equipment use within permitted hours may be unreasonable, depending on the circumstances of use. Noise can be unreasonable if a neighbour can hear it in a habitable room of their home.

For items such as motor vehicles, lawn mowers, electric power tools, air conditioners, the table below outlines the current EPA regulations for residential noise.

Residential noise could still be assessed as unreasonable outside the items and times in the Regulations by a Council residential noise enforcement officer.

Exceptions to prohibited times

The prohibited times in the Regulations don’t apply when using:  

• equipment in an emergency   
• your air conditioner during a Department of Health and Human Services heat health alert day

A noisy air conditioner may be unreasonable, even during a health heat alert, if a residential noise enforcement officer determines the noise is unnecessarily impactful.

When animals disturb neighbours with noise, Council's Community Laws officers can use the Domestic Animals Act 1994 to investigate or prosecute. This includes noise from barking dogs.  

It’s an offence for the person living in the house to let their animals make persistent noise that disturbs people.

If you're being disturbed by noise from barking dogs, Council recommends taking the following steps:

1. We recommend speaking to your neighbour to resolve the issue in the first instance. In many cases they may not know their dog is barking. Report the issue using the details below so we can investigate the matter. Ensure you find out where the barking is coming from, to enable us to respond.
2. If you are unable to resolve the barking noise issue with your neighbour, you can report it to Council by completing the online request form on Council's barking dogs page or contact Council's Community Safety Unit on (03) 5772 0333. 

Vehicle noise from extended idling or warming up on private property, or land connected to private property, can be unreasonable during these times: 

• Monday to Friday before 7 am and after 8 pm  
• weekends and public holidays before 9 am and after 8 pm. 

This doesn’t apply when the vehicle is entering or leaving a property. 

Noise from vehicle maintenance and repair at your residence can be unreasonable. This includes noise from maintenance and repair coming from your garage, driveway or nature strip. For example, it may be unreasonable if it happens often or for a long time and disturbs neighbours. 

The Regulations dealing with unreasonable residential noise cover repairs and maintenance to an existing building on residential land.

Noise from construction, demolition or removal of a residence is managed through the general environmental duty and the general prohibition of unreasonable noise. EPA has given local councils powers to manage this type of noise. Some councils may use other powers like local laws.

EPA has guidelines about managing noise from construction and demolition activities:

• Civil, construction, building and demolition guide (Publication 1834)
• Construction – guide to preventing harm to people and the environment (publication 1820).

The Environment Protection Regulations 2021 dealing with unreasonable noise from residential premises apply to the repair or maintenance of an existing residence.

The Regulations prohibit noise from construction equipment, if neighbouring residents can hear it in a habitable room in their home, on:

• weekdays – before 7.00 am and after 8.00 pm
• weekends – before 9.00 am and after 8.00 pm. 

This includes power tools and vehicles.

Like other noise from residences, noise from home repair or maintenance may be unreasonable at any time. This includes if noise is too loud, continues for too long or happens too often. This law applies to builders, homeowners, tenants and tradespeople.

If you are experiencing ongoing and unreasonable noise in a residential area, there are several ways to fix the problem:

Talk with your neighbour

Before submitting a complaint, see if the issue can be resolved by:

• speaking to the person or business creating the issue, as they may not be aware that they’re causing a problem
• using and adopting/changing our Noise Letter Template and delivering to their mailbox

If you are unable to resolve the issue directly, there are issue specific resources to support you. 

You can make a report to Council by: 

• calling our Council on (03) 5772 0333 (Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm)
• submitting a Snap Send Solve
• submitting a Customer Request

You can make a non-urgent report to Victoria Police by:

• calling their Police Assistance Line on 131 444
• visiting their online reporting service

Scare guns are devices for producing a loud explosive sound for the purpose of scaring away birds from crops and orchards. Scare guns, also known as gas guns or scatter guns, produce an explosive noise by the ignition of a charge of gas and air. Some scare guns rotate after firing so that the next blast is emitted in a different direction, which is intended to increase the surprise effect on birds.

Scare guns, when used as the sole bird deterrent, are likely to become significantly less effective after a few days. This is due to the birds becoming accustomed to the noise. For scare guns to remain effective it is necessary to vary and enforce the frightening effect. Methods which do this include the relocating of the scare gun every day or so and the use of ‘birdfright’ explosive cartridges.

According to EPA Victoria, there has been issues where farmers and orchardists have misused scare guns to frighten birds away from their crops and the number of complaints about excessive noise have increased.

Farmers need to be aware that the use of scare guns must meet the requirements of the general environmental duty (GED) in section 166 of the Environment Protection Act 2017.

It is recognised that the use of these devices is important for the protection of crops, but they need to be used within the guidelines. The EPA noise guidelines are available on the EPA's Noise Control guidelines page (publication 1254.2) and provide advice about using devices like bird scarers.

Guidelines for the control of noise from scare guns include:

• must not be used if the distance between the scare gun and any nearby properties is less than 300 m  
• must not emit more than 70 blasts/day
• must not be used earlier than 7.00 am or later than sunset (earlier starting times will be allowed if this is agreed to by the complainants)
• must not exceed 12 hours total time of operation in any one day (time may be divided into two separate periods, provided the interval between blasts is not less than six minutes)
• must be located as far away as possible from any complainant’s house
• use shielding effects of natural features (e.g. buildings) to reduce the level of the blasts at complainants’ houses (wherever possible)
• use must be minimised (wherever possible)

Horticultural farms in Murrindindi Shire, such as vineyards and cherry orchards, provide a livelihood to many people living in the farming community.

A significant threat to the horticultural industry is the impact of frost on crop yields. A severe frost can reduce yields by more than 50 per cent (sometimes up to 100 per cent), creating management problems for the current as well as future seasons.

Frost fans are commonly used as a means of protection against frost, but they may cause conflict between residents and growers because of the noise they create.

The Environment Protection Authority Victoria provides guidance for the horticultural industry on planning and using frost fans to avoid such conflicts. As frost fans are primarily used at night, the minimisation of sleep disturbance effects is a key issue addressed in the information guidance. In areas with low levels of background noise, the intrusiveness of noise from frost fans can degrade the amenity at surrounding houses.

Farmers need to be aware that the use of frost fans must meet the requirements of the general environmental duty (GED) of section 166 of the Environment Protection Act 2017.

It is recognised that the use of these devices is important for the protection of crops, but they need to be used within the guidelines. The EPA noise guidelines are available on Guidelines on noise from frost fans and provide advice about using frost fans, their effective use and avoiding conflicts with neighbours.