I live in a small city (large town) in regional Australia.
Yes, the rules get pretty daft, but you know what bureacrats are like - they make lots of red tape and rules and regulations to justify their position. Then, they get to employ lots of their fresh-out-of-university-but-got-no-damn-clue buddies to enforce the half-baked ideas they come up with.
If you're really sure of your facts, and prepared to do the hard work, you may be up for a challenge and win. Example was building my new home - it's non-combustable construction - all concrete, cinderblock and steel - and between 1 and 5 metres underground - yet the pen-pushers decided I had to move it 10 metres further in from the fence because we are in a designated "fire-prone area".
It took 6 months, and ultimately a personal appeal to the state fire commissioner, but they finally backed down and let us build where we wanted it originally - conceeding that (a) concrete and steel construction wasn't going to burn, and (b) burried under the ground at least a metre was enough to overcome any perceived problems with the place burning down! (Not to mention: in a wildfire, being 10 metres further away from the fence would simply mean an extra 5 seconds before the place burned down!)