You may get better help from a private town planner or draftsman than the council, and definitely than from me! Complying development is development that does not require a DA or CC as long as it complies to a set of rules for the type of development. Councils will publish a list of complying development, but they not the only ones who can approve the plans, a private certifier can too.
However in NSW there are rules are appear to override council rules, such as the Granny Flat code in the link I sent. Plans conforming to this code can be approved by a private certifier (or the council). That is the limit of my understanding. I'm pondering a couple of granny flat developments but I will leave the submission of these to whoever draws the plans.
Perhaps more qualified formites can improve/correct this.