Design your machinery shed with shed designer.
Design a custom machinery shed online. Cab clearance, header height, BlueScope steel. Free quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers across Australia.
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What is a machinery shed?
A machinery shed is the workhorse cover on an Australian farm: walls on the prevailing weather side, open or roller-door access on the lee side, eave height set to clear the tallest cab plus aerials. It houses tractors, headers, balers, spreaders, sprayers, telehandlers, side-by-sides and the gear you only use a few weeks a year but cannot afford to lose to the weather.
ShedDesigner machinery sheds are built from 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel, clad in Colorbond®, and engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2 wind loading for the actual block they sit on (Standards Australia, AS/NZS 1170.2:2021 Structural design actions, Part 2: Wind actions). The 3D designer carries machinery clearance presets for common Australian gear, so you can size the bay around the header, not a generic envelope.
Sizing for what you actually park inside
The mistake first-time machinery shed buyers make is sizing the eave around the average tractor instead of the tallest piece of gear they own. Three numbers usually decide it.
Header / combine harvester clearance. Modern broadacre headers (Case IH, John Deere X9, New Holland CR) sit between 4.0 and 4.7 metres tall with the cabin antennas folded, climbing to 5.0 to 5.5 metres unfolded. Plan the eave for unfolded clearance plus 300mm if you want to drive in straight without lowering aerials.
Tractor cab plus aerials. Most cab tractors over 200hp sit between 3.2 and 3.8 metres at the cab roof, climbing to 4.0 to 4.5 metres at the antenna tip. Mid-size cab tractors clear 3.6 metre eaves comfortably.
Sprayer boom storage. A 36 metre self-propelled sprayer parks at around 3.5 to 3.8 metres tall with booms folded but is roughly 6 metres wide folded. Bay widths of 6 to 8 metres make daily in-and-out manageable. Storing the boom unfolded is rare in machinery sheds and usually pushes you into a dedicated open-front spray cover.
Bay layout, walls and doors
Most machinery sheds run a portal-frame structure with bays in 3 to 6 metre increments. Three common patterns:
- Three-sided open-front. Walls on the rear and ends, open across the working face. Cheapest and fastest. Best for hardstand sites with one prevailing weather direction. Works well as a hay-and-machinery hybrid alongside a hay shed.
- Walled with roller doors per bay. Walls on all four sides, roller doors sized per machine. Best for higher-value gear, security, or sites with cross-winds. Roller door heights of 4.2 to 5.5 metres handle most of the modern fleet.
- Mixed: walled core plus open-front lean-to. Walled workshop or chemical store at one end, open machinery cover under a lean-to alongside. The most common general-purpose layout, often the right call for buyers who'd otherwise need to compare with a general-purpose farm shed.
Adjustable in the configurator: span (typically 12 to 24 metres), length (in 3 to 6 metre bays), eave height (3 to 6 metres), wall extent per side, roller door positions and sizes, lean-to additions, gutter and downpipe sizing.
Tax and depreciation framing
Machinery sheds carry meaningful tax framing for working farms.
Instant asset write-off. The $20,000 instant asset write-off applied through to 30 June 2026 for eligible small businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million, and the Federal Government has announced the threshold will become permanent from 1 July 2026, though this was not yet law at the time of writing (Australian Taxation Office, $20,000 instant asset write-off for 2025-26, 2025). Check ato.gov.au for the current status. For machinery sheds that exceed the threshold, the structure is depreciated separately as a capital works asset. Talk to your accountant about the right framework before signing.
Effective life. The ATO's Effective Life of Depreciating Assets tables list rural sheds and outbuildings under capital works rules with long effective lives, which usually means slow straight-line depreciation rather than rapid write-off. Headers, tractors and balers depreciate faster as primary production assets. Buyers often time the slab pour and shed install around the financial year for that reason.
Before you get quotes
100% Australian-made BlueScope steel. Structural framing and Colorbond® cladding. BlueScope's COLORBOND® steel cladding for sheds and garages carries a warranty of up to 15 years against corrosion to perforation, with the exact period set by location and application (BlueScope, Garages & Sheds Warranty). Check your build on BlueScope's online warranty estimator. Inland farms often spec Surfmist or Pale Eucalypt for thermal performance, since lighter Colorbond® colours carry higher solar reflectance, dropping internal temperatures on hot days (BlueScope, Solar Reflectance Index Data for COLORBOND® steel).
ShedSafe accredited dealers, no exceptions. Every dealer on ShedDesigner is ShedSafe accredited under the Australian Steel Institute programme, which independently assesses dealer design and engineering against the National Construction Code and AS/NZS 1170.2.
One design, multiple quotes. Your machinery shed design goes out to dealers covering your region. Every quote prices the same shed, in the same steel, to the same engineering. You compare on price and timeline, not spec interpretation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What eave height do I need to clear a header?
Plan for 5.0 to 5.5 metre eave to clear modern broadacre headers (Case IH 8250, John Deere X9, New Holland CR) with cabins and antennas unfolded, plus 300mm driving clearance. Most ShedDesigner machinery shed templates run a 4 to 6 metre eave envelope. If the header is your tallest piece of gear, size the eave around it and let the smaller gear fit underneath.
How wide a bay for a folded sprayer or boomspray?
A self-propelled boomspray with 36 metre booms parks roughly 6 metres wide with the booms folded, climbing to 8 metres on the largest 48 metre rigs. A 6 to 8 metre bay handles daily access without scraping. Open-front bays make the in-and-out routine faster than roller doors when you are running the sprayer multiple times a week.
Should my machinery shed be open-front or walled?
It depends on three factors: how secure the site is, how much cross-wind the block gets, and whether you intend to store fertiliser, chemical or workshop gear inside. Open-front sheds are cheaper, faster to put up and easier to use day-to-day. Walled sheds with roller doors handle cross-wind better, hold value if the property is sold, and let you secure higher-value or compliance-sensitive gear inside.
Can I claim a machinery shed on the instant asset write-off?
Possibly, depending on the build cost and your business structure. The $20,000 instant asset write-off for eligible small businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million applied through to 30 June 2026, and the Federal Government has announced the threshold will become permanent from 1 July 2026, though this was not yet law at the time of writing. Check ato.gov.au for the current status. Machinery sheds that exceed the threshold are usually treated as capital works and depreciated over a longer effective life. Talk to your accountant before submitting your quote so you can time the slab pour and install around your tax year.
What roller door size do I need for a tractor with cab and aerials?
Most cab tractors over 200hp clear 4.2 metre roller doors with antennas folded and 4.8 to 5.0 metre doors with antennas unfolded. Mid-size tractors fit comfortably under 3.6 metre doors. Spec the door height for the tallest tractor in the fleet, not the average, and add 300mm clearance for safe daily use. Roller door widths of 4.2 to 6 metres handle most cab tractors and gear.
Do machinery sheds need a concrete slab?
Often no, depending on use. Open-front machinery sheds can sit on engineered piers or compacted hardstand, which is cheaper to build and faster to put up. Walled sheds with roller doors usually get a slab as standard, sized by your dealer for the wind uplift and lateral loads in your engineering. Workshop bays inside a machinery shed almost always need slab. Your dealer prices both options at quote stage so you can compare.
Can I add a workshop bay inside a machinery shed?
Yes. Many buyers add a walled workshop bay at one end, with a slab, three-phase power, insulation and a PA door. The configurator lets you split the building into walled and open-front sections, set bay-by-bay cladding, and size the workshop end for your specific tools. For a workshop-led build instead of a machinery-led one, see also farms general-purpose which leans further into the workshop end.
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