The eight things Queensland says you may do
Queensland is unusually clear about this, and the list is short. The QBCC calls it unregulated plumbing work: no licence, no approval from the QBCC or the council, and nothing to report.
- Replacing a shower head or a domestic water filter cartridge
- Replacing a jumper valve or washer in a tap
- Repairing or replacing a drop valve washer, float valve washer or suction cup rubber in a toilet cistern
- Replacing caps to ground-level inspection openings on a sanitary drain
- Cleaning or maintaining a ground-level grate for a trap on a sanitary drain
- Installing or maintaining an irrigation or lawn watering system downstream from a tap, isolating valve or backflow prevention device on the supply pipe for that system
- Repairing or maintaining an irrigation system for disposing of effluent from a greywater use facility or on-site sewage facility
- Incidental unskilled tasks — the QBCC's example is excavating or backfilling a trench
Two conditions come attached, and both are the regulator's own. The work can be done by “anyone with the appropriate knowledge and level of skills”, and it “still needs to meet the minimum standards of work under the legislation and codes”. Unregulated does not mean unregulated to any standard. It means nobody has to be licensed to do it right.
Everything else — and that is genuinely everything else — needs a licensed plumber or drainer.
Sources: QBCC, Unregulated plumbing — guide (that page states it was last reviewed 15 September 2021), and Queensland Government, Plumbing laws (last updated 1 September 2022). Both read live on 3 September 2026, and both carry the same list. These are older pages than most we cite — if your job is near the edge of the list, ring the QBCC on 139 333 rather than relying on this.
New South Wales has no such list
This is where a national answer would go wrong. NSW states it flatly: “In NSW, you need a licence or certificate before you can do any plumbing, draining or gasfitting work (including LP gasfitting), regardless of the cost of the work or whether the work is residential, commercial or industrial.”
No dollar threshold, and no published homeowner carve-out on the page that states the rule. Plumbing, draining and gasfitting is specialist work in New South Wales, and specialist work is the category that has never had a price in it.
| Queensland | New South Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a published list of work a homeowner may do? | Yes — eight items, above | Not on the page that states the rule |
| Is there a dollar threshold? | No | No — “regardless of the cost of the work” |
| Penalty for unlicensed work | Not stated on the pages we read | $22,000 for an individual, $110,000 for a company, as a breach of the Home Building Act 1989 |
| Who to ask about a specific job | QBCC, 139 333 | Building Commission NSW |
Source: NSW Government, Plumbing, draining and gasfitting work, read 3 September 2026 (last updated 31 July 2026 per that page). The Queensland penalty cell says “not stated” because the QBCC pages we read do not state one — that is not the same as there being none.
Check a plumber's licence at the regulator“Notifiable work” is not the same as work you can do
Queensland uses a second term that trips people up. Notifiable work is work a licensed plumber or drainer can do without a local government permit or mandatory inspections — and it covers most plumbing in an existing home: kitchen and bathroom renovations, installing or replacing hot water heaters including solar and heat pump, adding fixtures such as toilets, showers and sinks, and extending or altering pipework.
Read the first eight words again. Notifiable work is a lighter approval path for the plumber. It is not permission for you. A bathroom reno being notifiable work means the plumber does not need a council permit for it — not that the plumber is optional.
Source: Queensland Government, Plumbing laws, read 3 September 2026 (last updated 1 September 2022 per that page).
Victoria adds a document you should be handed
In Victoria the question is not only who may do the work but who may certify it. Only a licensed plumber can issue a compliance certificate; a registered plumber works under a licensed plumber's supervision and cannot issue one. Where a compliance certificate is required, the supervising licensed plumber must issue it within five days of the work finishing.
So in Victoria, “is the plumber licensed or registered” is a real question with a real consequence at the end of the job, not a distinction without a difference. The whole Victorian picture is here: does my tradie need a licence in Victoria.
Source: Building and Plumbing Commission (Victoria), Which registration or licence do I need?, read 3 September 2026.
Why plumbing is policed like this at all
The QBCC gives the reason in one clause: most plumbing work is regulated “to protect the community's health and safety”. It is not about the water on your floor. It is about what happens when waste water and drinking water can reach each other, which is the failure that backflow prevention devices exist to stop and the reason those devices show up in the unregulated-work list as a boundary rather than as something you may touch.
Look again at that irrigation item: you may work on the watering system downstream of the backflow prevention device. The device itself, and everything upstream of it, is not yours. That is the whole regulatory theory of plumbing in one line.
Three questions worth asking before you say yes
- “What is your licence number, and does it cover this class of work?” Plumbing licences are issued per category — water, sanitary, drainage, gasfitting, roof plumbing — and they are not interchangeable.
- “What paperwork do I get at the end?” Ask before the job. The answer differs by state, and it is far easier to agree on day one than to chase afterwards.
- “Is any of this gasfitting?” Gas is licensed alongside plumbing in several states and has no threshold anywhere. It is the item most often assumed to be included in a plumber's licence when it is a separate category.
The rule that has no dollar figure in it, anywhere
Building work is licensed on what the job is worth. Plumbing is licensed on what it can do to you, so no state writes a price into it. The state-by-state wording is here: electrical and plumbing work always needs a licence, whatever it costs, and the same question for wiring is here: electrical work you cannot do yourself.
This page explains what Queensland, New South Wales and Victorian government sources publish about who may carry out plumbing work. It is general information, not legal advice, and it is not an assessment of anything you are planning to do. Yamate is software for tradespeople. We do not issue, assess, endorse or certify any licence, we are not a plumbing regulator, and we do not decide what is or is not regulated plumbing work — your state's regulator does. No regulator has reviewed this page. Every rule and penalty above was read at the government's own page on 3 September 2026 and is linked beside the claim, with that source's own date shown — the two Queensland sources carry 2021 and 2022 review dates and are the oldest cited here. Only Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are covered; the other states and territories are not, and Queensland's list does not apply outside Queensland. Rules change, so check the date on this page against theirs.