What an electrician in New South Wales has to hold
In New South Wales you must hold an electrical licence or certificate before doing any electrical wiring work, whatever the job costs, and Building Commission NSW is the regulator. The business and the person on the tools can hold different tickets, so ask which number you are looking at.
The full New South Wales rules, thresholds and certificates are on the state licence guide. Check a licence yourself: Service NSW licence check (Building Commission NSW). Sources: www.nsw.gov.au, read 15 Sep 2026.
Who runs the wires in Port Stephens / Nelson Bay
The distributor owns the meter and the connection to the street, so a new connection or a bigger supply goes through them, and your electrician is the one who deals with them for you.
What to ask before you say yes
Ask for the licence number and check it on the register before any money changes hands. In most states the business holds a contractor licence and the person on the tools holds their own, so ask which one you are looking at. And ask for a written quote with GST in it, if that gets a shrug, that is your answer.
How the request works
You describe the job in your own words, you pick which businesses get it, and it goes to them and to nobody else. Nobody pays for your request.
Describe your job and pick who gets it →Still not sure who to call? Ask in Who Do I Call? Australia, our free Facebook group. Post the problem, a photo and your suburb, and the tradies in there can point you right.
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Questions people in New South Wales ask
Do I need a licensed electrician to replace a switchboard in New South Wales?
Yes. NSW requires an electrical licence or certificate before any electrical wiring work, regardless of the cost of the work, and a switchboard is an electrical installation. Ask for the licence number and check it on the Service NSW licence check before they start.
Is the person doing the work the same as the business I pay?
Not always. NSW lists contractor licences for an individual, a company or a partnership, plus qualified supervisor and provisional tradesperson certificates. Ask which ticket the business holds and which the person on the tools holds, then check both numbers on the register.
Is this every electrician in New South Wales?
No. It is what the Yamate directory holds for these postcodes on the date at the top of the list, and nothing more. A good electrician can be missing from it. A listed one has not been checked by us. The register is the authority, not this page.
Electricians near Port Stephens / Nelson Bay
Check a tradie's licence · What a written quote must include · Search the whole directory
Listings come from the Yamate directory, loaded 31 Oct 2026. Is one of these your business? Open it and tap Claim it — it is yours to edit, and quote requests reach you. Not here at all? List your business free, in a minute. Or ask us to take it down — one email to a person, and the next update will not put it back. Wrong detail? Same email.
General information only, not legal advice. Yamate is not a regulator and has not checked any licence, any insurance or any work on this page; the state register is the only place a licence can be confirmed. Business names, suburbs and services come from the Yamate directory on the date shown and may be out of date. The founder plan is $19 a month flat if you sign up before 30 November 2026, $29 a month after — that is the software for tradies, and it has nothing to do with whether a business appears here.