You think you've got it tough Vince? My house is in 3 overlapping planning schemes. I feel like I'm living in the middle of a Venn diagram. Two of them are heritage planning schemes with different (and sometimes contradictory) requirements and the other is just the normal council planning scheme that everyone has to comply with.
To build anything, I have to lodge 3 independent DA's that address each of the planning schemes, and there's a fee to submit each one. Then in order to go ahead, the project needs 3 approvals and 3 permits to build, each one attracting its own fee. There's always a risk that it'll get through two schemes, but get knocked back on the third, so you've paid for three DA submissions and two permits, but still can't build anything. You have to do your homework very thoroughly to avoid that happening.
Getting my shed built was a paperwork nightmare and all the fees ended up costing a good percentage of the total project cost.
After my experience with the shed, I now try to fly under the radar. I just do shit without telling anybody. They can't see inside my house, so I never put in a DA for internal work, even if it involves structural alterations. I've done structural stuff like moving walls around that's supposed to go through planning approval, but fuck 'em. I was a bit concerned when I put in a skylight that's visible from the outside. But it's been a decade or so now and nobody has noticed.
I also put up a rotary clothesline without permission. Seriously, that actually requires approval under the heritage schemes, but it wasn't such a big risk as I could just pull it out again if anyone objected. So far nobody has.
Temporary stuff is exempt, so I extended my shed storage space by plonking a 20-foot shipping container next to it. A container isn't a building, right? (don't tell anyone about the massive concrete footings I put in to support it). I also built a bloody great frame over three fruit trees and put netting over it to keep the parrots and possums out. One neighbour had a bit of a whinge about that, but I just said it's temporary. I'll probably have to disassemble it after I've harvested all the fruit.