What is the 300mm Clear Zone and can objects be located within it

Your Swimming Pool Inspector will assess your Pool Enclosure using one of the three Standards.

• If your pool enclosure has been assessed under AS1926.1-2012, which is the current standard, a 300mm Clear Zone (also called Non Climbable Zone 4) exists around the perimeter of your pool barriers (poolside).
• That zone is measured from the top rail and downwards 900mm to the inside of the fence.
• If there is a horizontal surface that reduces barrier height (poolside) to less than 900mm then that object needs to be moved or resolved.
• If it is a pot plant, a chair or a storage box, these are easily moved.
• However some objects are fixed, such as pool filtration equipment, a change in ground level such as a low retaining wall or a dense scalable shrub. In this example a large lattice structure is within the 300mm Clear Zone.  This structure would assist a child to scale the barrier as it has hand-holds throughout.
• NCZ 4 is not present when the pool barrier is a solid material such as glass or ColorBond metal (unless the object is in front of a gap in the fencing that exceeds 10mm.
• That means if your pool metal has vertical bars and the object in NCZ4 can’t easily be moved, an option to rectify is to affix a smooth material such as Poly Carbonate or Perspex to the outside face of the barrier to make it solid.