This  Standard  incorporates  Amendment  No. 1  (January  2003),  Amendment  No. 2  (November  2003),  Amendment  No. 3  (April  2011),  Amendment  No. 4  (April  2005),  and  
Amendment  No. 5  (September  2011).  The  changes  required  by  the  Amendments  are  
indicated  in  the  text  by a  marginal bar  and amendment  number  against  the  clause,  note,  
table, figure or part thereof affected.

This  Standard  is  published  as  a  joint  Standard  (as  are  also  AS/NZS 1170.1  and  
AS/NZS 1170.2)  and  it  is  intended  that  it  is  suitable  for  use  in  New  Zealand  as  well  as  Australia.

For Australia, this Standard will be referenced in the Building Code of Australia by way of
BCA  Amendment 11  to  be  published  on  1  July  2002,  thereby  superseding  in  part  the  
previous Edition, AS 1170.1—1989, which will be withdrawn 12 months from the date of
publication of this edition. AS 1170.1—1989 may be used for structures not covered by the
Building Code of Australia, until an Appendix is developed for inclusion in this Standard
by amendment.

The objective of this Standard is to provide designers with general procedures and criteria
for the structural design of structures. It outlines a design methodology that is applied in
accordance with established engineering principles.

This  Standard  includes  revised  Clauses  covering  load  combinations  (referred  to  as  
combinations of actions) and general design and analysis clauses. It does not include values
of actions (e.g. values of dead or live loads; referred to as permanent or imposed actions).

This Standard is Part 0 of the 1170 series, Structural design actions, which comprises the
following  parts,  each  of  which  has  an  accompanying  Commentary  published  as  a  
Supplement:

AS/NZS 1170.0 General principles
AS/NZS 1170.1 Permanent, imposed and other actions
AS/NZS 1170.2 Wind actions
AS/NZS 1170.3 Snow and ice actions
AS 1170.4     Earthquake actions in Australia
NZS 1170.5    Earthquake actions – New Zealand

The  Commentary  to  this  Standard  is  AS/NZS 1170.0  Supp 1,  Structural  design  actions—
General principles—Commentary (Supplement to AS/NZS 1170.0:2002).

This Standard is based on the philosophy and principles set out in ISO 2394:1998, General
principles on reliability for structures. ISO 2394 is written specifically as a guide for the
preparation of national Standards covering the design of structures. It includes methods for
establishing and calibrating reliability based limit states design Standards.

The  terms  ‘normative’  and  ‘informative’  have  been  used  in  this  Standard  to  define  the  
application of the appendix to which they apply. A ‘normative’ appendix is an integral part
of a Standard, whereas an ‘informative’ appendix is only for information and guidance.

Statements expressed in mandatory terms in notes to tables are deemed to be requirements
of this Standard. Notes to the text contain information and guidance and are not considered
to be an integral part of the Standard.

Originated in Australia as part of AS CA1-1933. Originated in New Zealand as part of NZS 1900:1964. Previous Australian editions AS 1170.1-1989 and AS 2867-1986. Previous New Zealand edition NZS 4203:1992. AS 1170.1-1989, AS 2867-1986, and NZS 4203:1992 jointly revised, amalgamated and redesignated in part as AS/NZS 1170.0:2002. Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 1 (January 2003). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 2 (November 2003). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 4 (April 2005). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 3 (April 2011). Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 5 (September 2011).