Fence Cost Calculator
Fencing is quoted per metre of run, which is why two prices for the same back fence can look hundreds apart. Put in your length, height, material and the rate you are expecting, and this shows an indicative range with the site conditions and old-fence removal added on top, so you can sanity-check a quote instead of guessing.
Estimate your fence
Indicative only. Nothing here is a price or an offer, and a written quote is the only number you can hold anyone to.
Indicative range
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Indicative only, and not a quote. What your fence actually costs is set by the measured run, the ground the posts go into, gate hardware and access, and it is confirmed by a written quote from an appropriately QBCC-licensed fencing contractor after a site visit.
Want a real number for your fence line?
A range is a starting point. A measured site visit turns it into a fixed written quote with the material, metres, gates and old-fence removal shown as separate lines.
Request a fencing quoteWhat changes the price of a boundary fence
Material is only the start of it. On the Downs the ground does as much to the price as the fence does. Reactive black soil needs deeper footings and better concrete because posts heave and lean through wet and dry cycles, and gate posts go out of plumb first. Red basalt soil on the range drains better but is rocky to dig. Exposed escarpment-edge and ridge-top blocks classify higher for wind, and a solid Colorbond or lapped and capped run carries the whole wind load, so post spacing and footing depth follow the manufacturer's wind tables for that site. None of that is visible from a satellite image, which is why the measure matters.
How this is calculated
What this number is, and what it is not. It is a planning range for budgeting a fence run, built from a rate you supply or accept. It is not a quote, not a price, not an offer, and not a per-material benchmark for Toowoomba. It ignores GST unless the rate you enter already includes it.
The formula. Base cost = your rate per metre x run length x a height
factor. The height factor is 0.43 x (your height / the reference height) + 0.57,
because materials scale with height and labour largely does not. The reference height is
1.8 m for boundary fences and 1200 mm for pool barriers, which is what the published rates
describe. The lower figure of the range is that base cost, plus removal at the low end of
the removal band if you selected removal. The upper figure is the base cost plus your site
allowance, plus removal at the high end. Both are rounded to the nearest $50.
Where the numbers come from. The starting rate and the removal band are the only published figures in the model. Installed Colorbond boundary fencing in Queensland is published and traded by buyers at roughly $135 to $200 per metre for a standard 1.8 m run (Queensland vendor price guides and public buyer forum threads, 2024 to 2026), so the starting rate sits mid-band at $165. Removal and disposal of an old fence is derived from two of those sources: a Queensland guide showing about $35 per metre between an installed-only rate and an installed-plus-removal rate, and a publicly posted itemised 2024 quote where removal came to about $51 per metre over a 42 m run. That gives the $30 to $55 per metre band. The 43 / 57 materials-to-labour split in the height factor comes from the same itemised quote. Every one of those is a guide or a single job, not a Toowoomba market survey, and no rate is published here for PVC, aluminium slat, pool barriers or rural wire, which is why the rate field is yours to change.
The assumptions, and what the model ignores. It assumes one straight run at a single height, standard footings, and rubbish taken away. The site allowance is a planning buffer for slope, stepping, hand digging and rocky ground - it is a percentage we chose to be useful, not a measured Toowoomba loading, so change it if you know your block. The model ignores gates entirely (hardware, heavier posts, motors and power for automation are quoted separately), and ignores retaining work, corner returns, level changes, tree removal, rock breaking, boundary surveys, engineering, approval fees and pool safety certification. Whether your fence needs approval is decided by height and siting, not by cost: the current Queensland rules sit with the QBCC for pool barriers, and with Toowoomba Regional Council for fence siting and height. Figures are current as at July 2026.
A few terms explained
- Run
- The straight length of fence line you are pricing, measured in metres along the ground.
- Butted palings
- Palings fixed edge to edge. Gaps open up as the timber shrinks. The budget timber style.
- Lapped and capped
- Palings overlapped so there is no gap at all, with a capping board along the top. The premium timber privacy style.
- Plinth
- The board that runs along the ground under the palings to close the bottom gap and keep timber out of the dirt.
- Ringlock
- Prefabricated woven-wire rural mesh, strained between posts.
- Strainer post and stay
- The heavy anchored end post and its diagonal brace, which carry the tension of a strained wire fence.
- Non-climbable zone (NCZ)
- The 900 mm arc around a pool barrier that has to stay clear of anything a child could climb.
Sharing the cost with a neighbour
If the fence sits on the boundary it is a dividing fence, and in Queensland adjoining owners generally contribute equally to a sufficient dividing fence - roughly 0.5 m to 1.8 m of prescribed materials for residential land. Anything above that standard is on the owner who wants it, so run the calculator twice if you are upgrading: once at the basic fence, and once at what you actually want. The FAQ page walks through the notice to contribute and the timeframes, and the project checklist puts it in order.
Turn the estimate into a written quote
Send the run length, the material you are leaning towards and your suburb. The fence line gets measured on site and you get a fixed written quote with the removal and access lines shown separately, so you can compare it against anything else you have been given.
Not sure the fence is the right call yet? The fence repairs page covers when a repair still makes sense, and Colorbond and timber each carry their own cost-to-own notes.