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Queensland plumbing licensing has one structural rule that decides most compliance problems: the licence that lets a person do the work is not the licence that lets your business sell it.
Occupational licences authorise an individual to carry out plumbing or drainage work as a tradesperson.
Contractor and supervisor licences authorise a business to contract for and manage plumbing and drainage work, typically requiring nominee supervisors and site supervisors.
Endorsements sit on top of existing licences for additional qualifications.
Gasfitting is separate. It operates as its own licensing category within the QBCC framework. A plumbing licence does not carry gas work.
Hiring licensed plumbers does not license your business to contract for plumbing work.
Picture a mechanical services company that has employed licensed plumbers for years doing plumbing as part of larger mechanical contracts, and then starts quoting standalone plumbing jobs. Every individual on the tools holds a current occupational licence. The business has never held a contractor licence because it never needed one before. Nothing about the work changed - the contracting relationship did.
That surfaces when a client, a head contractor or an insurer asks for the licence number, which is usually after the work is done.
An occupational restricted licence covers a defined portion of plumbing or drainage work. A water plumber restricted licence is not a general plumbing licence. An on-site sewage facility drainer covers that work and not other drainage.
If your job ad says "licensed plumber" and your work is general plumbing, a restricted licence holder is not your candidate - and their CV will accurately say they are licensed.
Name the licence in the ad. "Occupational plumber licence required" filters properly. "Licensed plumber" does not.
Verify against the QBCC register, not a photo of a card. Licences lapse, get suspended and get downgraded. A photograph records one day.
Check whether gas is in scope. If the role touches gas work, that is a separate gasfitting authorisation and you should say so in the ad.
Check your own contractor licence. Current, and covering the class of work you are contracting for. This is the one businesses forget because it renews quietly and nobody's job it is.
The structures are different in a way that does not transfer. Victoria's Building and Plumbing Commission - which replaced the Victorian Building Authority - licences and registers individuals only. It does not licence plumbing companies at all. Victoria instead splits individuals into registered plumbers, who cannot supervise or issue compliance certificates, and licensed plumbers, who can.
If you are moving work between the two states, do not assume your Queensland compliance model applies.
HJ Recruitment places permanent plumbing, HVAC and refrigeration, electrical, fire and solar tradespeople with Australian employers, from our base in Brisbane.
Sources- QBCC - Plumbing and drainage licences- QBCC - Occupational plumber and/or drainer- Building and Plumbing Commission - Which registration or licence do I need
