Does a granny flat have to be at back of the house ?

Granny Flats can be build in the front. its up to you if you want to build it with a DA or a CDC

It depends state to state. Generally to apply for the shortened approval under council planning and not go through the normal DA there will be a fair few boxes to tick.

This article might point you to alot of resources on the approval process. http://www.grannyflatfinder.com.au/10-day-granny-flat-approval/

Yes it is extremely rare. I’ve done two approvals for granny flats in front yards now (that’s two out of over 600 in 4 years!)
One of them is described here: http://www.grannyflatapprovals.com.au/projects/dee-why

As stated above and to elaborate, the adjoining two dwellings need to be set far forward and your main dwelling (naturally) must be set way back. This will allow room for the granny flat in front of it, too. Pretty rare parameters but it does happen!

The other scenario is where there are no other dwellings within 40 metres of your lot and your main house just happens to have been built far back on the block. Example: Your main house is (say) 12 m from the front boundary- the SEPP allows a setback of 4.5 metres, for a property which is 450 sq m to 900 sq m site area. I’ve only achieved this once which was on a rural lot (Orange NSW).

Brazen

Great post Brazen! I saw a house a while back which was right at the back, two houses either side right at the front and thought “I bet I could do that….but I wasn’t sure it was technically possible” as you said very rare but possible.