MSES Assessments

Queensland Ecologists provides comprehensive assessment of Matters of State Environmental Significance (MSES) for development projects across Queensland. MSES are the ecological values protected under Queensland’s State Planning Policy (SPP), and development that intersects MSES mapping layers typically triggers assessment against the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP) and may require referral to the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA).

Understanding and correctly assessing MSES is one of the most common and consequential ecological requirements in Queensland’s development assessment system. Getting it right avoids delays, unnecessary referrals, and costly conditions - getting it wrong can lead to redesign, delays, additional assessment or offset obligations.

What Are MSES?

Matters of State Environmental Significance are the ecological values that the Queensland Government has identified as requiring protection through the planning system. MSES are defined in the State Planning Policy and mapped on the SPP Interactive Mapping System. The categories of MSES include:

• Regulated vegetation - Vegetation that intersects a watercourse, is within a wetland area, or is mapped as essential habitat for a species listed under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. This includes remnant and high-value regrowth vegetation in these specific contexts.
• Connectivity areas - Areas identified as important for maintaining ecological connectivity between significant habitats.
• Wildlife habitat - Habitat for species of conservation significance, including species listed as endangered, vulnerable, or near threatened under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, and areas mapped as essential habitat.
• Wetlands and waterways - Wetlands of high ecological significance (HES wetlands), wetland protection areas, and waterways that provide important ecological functions.
• Fish habitat areas - Declared fish habitat areas under the Fisheries Act 1994, and waterways providing for fish passage and fish habitat.
• Marine plants - Marine plants protected under the Fisheries Act 1994, including mangroves, saltmarsh, and seagrass.
• Protected areas - State-protected areas including national parks, conservation parks, resources reserves, and nature refuges, as well as their buffer areas.
• Legally secured offset areas - Areas that have been secured as environmental offsets under previous approvals.

It is important to note that MSES are distinct from Matters of Local Environmental Significance (MLES), which are ecological values identified and regulated by local councils through their planning schemes, and Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES), which are regulated under the Commonwealth EPBC Act.

When Do You Need an MSES Assessment?

An MSES assessment is typically required when a proposed development intersects MSES mapping and triggers one or more of the SDAP assessment codes. Specific triggers include:

• SDAP State Code 16 - Native vegetation clearing - Triggered when development involves clearing of regulated vegetation that intersects MSES categories.
• SDAP State Code 18 - Constructing or raising waterway barrier works - Triggered when development involves works within or across waterways mapped as MSES.
• SDAP State Code 22 - Environmentally relevant activities - Triggered for prescribed ERAs near MSES values.
• SARA referral - When a development application triggers SDAP assessment codes related to MSES, the application is typically referred to the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) SARA, the Queensland Government’s coordinated state assessment and referral agency. SARA assesses the application against the relevant SDAP codes and issues conditions or requests further information.
• Pre-lodgement and feasibility - Even before a formal DA is lodged, understanding whether your site intersects MSES mapping is critical for project planning, site design, and estimating the scope of ecological assessment required.

Not all development that intersects MSES mapping will result in a significant impact - desktop mapping can be inaccurate, and field verification often reveals that mapped values are not present or are of lower significance than indicated by the mapping. A thorough MSES assessment can demonstrate this and potentially reduce or eliminate the need for offsets.

Our Process

Our MSES assessment methodology is structured to meet the requirements of the SDAP and satisfy SARA’s information requirements:

1. MSES mapping check - We conduct a comprehensive review of the SPP Interactive Mapping System and all relevant state mapping layers to identify which MSES categories intersect your site. We overlay these with your proposed development footprint to identify specific areas of potential impact.
2. Desktop ecological assessment - We review all available ecological information for the site and surrounds, including vegetation mapping (Regional Ecosystem mapping, version 13), essential habitat mapping, wildlife online database records, WetlandInfo, waterway barrier works spatial data, fish habitat area mapping, and any previous ecological reports for the site.
3. Field verification - Our ecologists conduct detailed field surveys to ground-truth the desktop assessment. This includes vegetation community verification and condition assessment against regional ecosystem technical descriptions, targeted threatened species surveys (where required), habitat assessment, waterway condition assessment, and assessment of connectivity values. Field verification is essential because state mapping is produced at a broad scale and does not always accurately reflect on-ground conditions.
4. Impact assessment - We assess the nature, extent, and significance of the proposed development’s impact on verified MSES values. We consider direct impacts (clearing, habitat loss), indirect impacts (edge effects, hydrology changes, increased predation), and cumulative impacts in the context of surrounding land use.
5. Avoidance and mitigation - We apply the avoid, minimise, mitigate hierarchy to identify practical measures that can reduce the impact of development on MSES values. This may include recommendations for modified site layout, retention of significant vegetation, fauna-sensitive design, waterway buffer widths, and construction environmental management measures.
6. Offset assessment - Where significant residual impacts on MSES values remain after avoidance and mitigation, we assess offset requirements under the Environmental Offsets Act 2014 and the Queensland Environmental Offsets Policy. We calculate offset obligations using the Queensland Government’s offset calculator and identify potential offset delivery mechanisms, including proponent-driven offsets and financial settlement offsets.
7. MSES assessment report - We prepare a comprehensive assessment report that addresses all SDAP requirements and is suitable for submission to SARA as part of the development application. Our reports are structured to directly address the relevant SDAP performance outcomes and acceptable outcomes.

Related Services

MSES assessment is one component of the ecological assessment framework in Queensland. Depending on your project, you may also require:

• EPBC Act Referrals & Assessments - Assessment of Matters of National Environmental Significance, which often overlap with MSES values and may require separate Commonwealth referral and assessment.
• Ecological Constraints Analysis - Broader constraints and opportunities assessment that identifies MSES alongside other ecological, planning, and regulatory constraints.
• Due Diligence Assessments - Pre-purchase ecological assessment that identifies MSES and other constraints before you commit to a property.
• Ecological Reporting for Councils - We also assist local government with peer review and assessment of MSES-related matters in development applications.

Get a Quote

If your development site intersects MSES mapping or you need to understand the ecological assessment requirements for a project in Queensland, contact Queensland Ecologists. We have extensive experience preparing MSES assessments that satisfy SARA requirements and help projects achieve approval efficiently.

Request a quote online or call us on (07) 3018 7538. Provide your site address or lot-on-plan details, and we can give you a preliminary indication of MSES constraints and assessment requirements - often on the same day.