Landscaping licence in Queensland and NSW: QBCC structural landscaping and the NSW $5,000 rule

Queensland and New South Wales both regulate structural landscaping as building work, and both trigger the licence requirement by job value. In Queensland the QBCC requires a licence for building work valued over $3,300, and structural landscaping is building work under the QBCC. If you build pergolas, retaining walls or lay paving under a contract above that threshold, you need the structural landscaping trade licence, and the fee depends on how much revenue the business turns over. In New South Wales the threshold is higher: residential structural landscaping valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST needs a contractor licence under the Home Building Act 1989.

Who is telling you this, and why: Fieldwynn is a field-service app for small landscaping and lawn-care crews, we are building it, and it has not launched. The next step at the foot of this page is an early-access email ask, not a purchase. Read the page as a funnel rather than a disinterested verdict. Every fee and threshold below is quoted from a QBCC or NSW Government page and linked back to it, which is the part that holds whoever ends up running your round.

Queensland: the QBCC structural landscaping trade licence

What the licence covers

The QBCC structural landscaping trade licence covers a defined scope of building work. The QBCC lists the following:

• Preparing, fabricating and erecting carports, decking, fences, gazebos, pergolas, ornamental structures and retaining walls. Retaining walls must not need engineering certification under a local law.
• Installing prefabricated sheds of up to 10 square metres floor area, including their concrete slabs.
• Installing surface and subsoil drainage for landscaping work.
• Preparing the site and laying paving or concrete not intended for vehicle traffic.
• Constructing, maintaining and repairing tennis or other sporting courts, including site excavation, concreting and applying surface materials or treatments.

The sporting-court line was added on 1 October 2020, when the class was expanded. Licensees who did that work before the 2019 amendment regulation are protected from prosecution for unlawful building work.

The scope does not include personally performing building work that requires a fire protection or occupational licence, unless you hold that licence. Occupational licences for plumbing, drainage, gasfitting and chemical termite management sit outside the structural landscaping trade and require their own credentials.

Licence types and who needs which

The QBCC issues three types of structural landscaping licence:

• Contractor (individual or company): the licence that lets you carry out and contract for the work.
• Nominee supervisor: the individual a company nominates to supervise the licensed work. The nominee must be an employee, secretary or director of the company.
• Site supervisor: supervises the work on site.

Partnerships cannot be licensed directly. At least one partner must hold a contractor-type licence as an individual or company.

QBCC fee table (as at 1 July 2026)

The QBCC states that fees were increased on 1 July 2026 in line with legislation. The table below shows the application fees for an individual contractor; company fees are higher and are published on the same QBCC page.

Nominee supervisor and site supervisor licences are each $501.46 total, or $250.73 for a current QBCC licensee. A printed certificate costs an additional $35.18. Existing individual licensees applying for another class pay a reduced fee. Unsuccessful applicants receive the licence fee back minus the processing cost.

Qualifications the QBCC accepts

Applicants must demonstrate the technical skills for the scope of work. The QBCC accepts apprenticeship papers, RTO qualifications, course completion documents, a qualification statement from an approved authority, and (for contractors and nominee supervisors) a recognition of prior learning (RPL) certificate.

Contractors and nominee supervisors must also complete the managerial unit BSBESB402 (Establish legal and risk management requirements of new business ventures). The QBCC still accepts the prescribed course BSBSMB401 during its teach-out period.

Financial requirements and company fees

Contractors must meet the QBCC’s minimum financial requirements by providing a minimum financial requirements (MFR) report or declaration. Applicants adding a licence class without increasing their maximum revenue do not generally need additional financial information.

Companies pay higher fees than individual contractors. The QBCC publishes company fees on the same structural landscaping page: SC1 (MR up to $200,000) $1,402.83 total or $732.77 for current licensed companies; SC2 (MR up to $800,000) $1,673.10 or $836.55; Cat 1-2 (MR up to $12 million) $2,155.02 or $1,150.05; Cat 3-7 (MR over $12 million) $3,075.81 or $1,569.37. A company applicant must nominate an individual with relevant technical qualifications and experience who is an employee, secretary or director; the nominee must hold a nominee supervisor or individual contractor licence.

Application process and mutual recognition

Applications can be lodged in person (with EFTPOS payment), by post, or by email. Postal and email applicants receive a payment request after lodgement. The QBCC allows about eight weeks for processing; complex cases take longer. Approved licences are posted as a printed card and a letter listing the scope of work.

Mutual recognition is available from the ACT, NSW, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and New Zealand. The interstate licence must stay active until the Queensland licence is approved, and any conditions on the interstate licence carry over to the Queensland one. Overseas applicants must show work rights in Queensland and have their qualifications recognised or assessed for equivalence.

The $3,300 incidental-work threshold

A structural landscaping licensee may perform work of another licence class as incidental work, but only if three conditions are met: the licence class permits it, the work is valued at less than $3,300, and it is not occupational work (such as plumbing, drainage, pest control or fire protection) unless the licensee holds the relevant occupational licence.

This matters in practice because a landscaping job often touches adjacent trades. Installing subsoil drainage for landscaping sits within the structural landscaping scope. Installing drainage that connects to the plumbing system does not: plumbing, drainage, gasfitting and chemical termite management are all occupational licences that contractors may need separately. Nominee supervisors and site supervisors face a wider list that adds fire protection and mechanical services.

If the adjacent-trade component is under $3,300 and the licensee holds the relevant occupational licence, it may qualify as incidental work; if it does not, a separately licensed tradesperson does it. A landscaper who discovers termite damage in a timber retaining wall cannot treat it under the structural landscaping licence; chemical termite management requires its own occupational licence. The QBCC is the body to confirm whether a specific combination of work qualifies as incidental.

New South Wales: the $5,000 including GST contractor licence rule

When the licence is required

The NSW Government states that “you must have a licence or certificate to do structural landscaping work” and that you need a contractor licence to do any residential building or trade work, including structural landscaping, valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST.

The definition of structural landscaping under Schedule 4 of the Home Building Regulation 2014 covers:

• Retaining walls of any material that do not form part of a habitable building.
• Fencing, driveways, paths and other paving of any material.
• Cabanas, pergolas, decks and non-habitable shelters.
• Ornamental ponds, water features and other structural ornamentation (where development approval is required).
• Work on concrete tennis courts and the like.

Specialist work within a structural landscaping job can be subcontracted to a holder of a suitably endorsed contractor licence or qualified supervisor certificate in the relevant category.

Penalties for unlicensed work

NSW enforces the licence requirement with fines. The NSW Government states you can be fined $22,000 as an individual or $110,000 as a company under the Home Building Act 1989 for doing unlicensed work. Providing false or misleading information is a separate offence and can lead to prosecution and cancellation of the licence.

Licence and certificate types

NSW issues three types of credential for structural landscaping:

• Individual contractor licence (or endorsed contractor licence).
• Company or partnership contractor licence.
• Qualified supervisor certificate.

All three are available in 1-year, 3-year or 5-year terms. Individual applicants must provide a National Police Check no older than four months from application.

NSW qualification pathways

The NSW Government lists four qualification routes for structural landscaping. An applicant must hold one of the following:

Previous holders of an endorsed contractor licence or qualified supervisor certificate in structural landscaping who had no restrictions or conditions may not need to show current qualifications. Applicants who held one in the last five years with restrictions or conditions may be reissued a licence reflecting their previous scope, which may include conditions. If approved, the applicant receives the same licence or supervisor number they held before.

Interstate and New Zealand licence holders can apply under mutual recognition. Structural landscaping is covered by the NSW Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) scheme, which streamlines the cross-border pathway. Overseas-trained applicants have a separate application pathway. Apprentices and trainees cannot be issued a licence or certificate until they finish their apprenticeship or traineeship.

The NSW Government warns that some listed qualifications and units may no longer be available, so check with a registered training organisation and the National Training Register on training.gov.au before enrolling or applying for recognition of prior learning.

The scope boundary: what structural landscaping covers and what it does not

Both states define structural landscaping around the same core: retaining walls, fencing, paving, pergolas, decking and similar non-habitable external structures. The work that sits outside the definition is important to know, because a landscaping business that quotes a job including work outside the scope is quoting work it may not be licensed to perform.

In Queensland, the structural landscaping scope does not cover building work that requires a fire protection or occupational licence. In NSW, the Schedule 4 definition does not include habitable buildings, and specialist work within a structural landscaping job can be subcontracted to a holder of a suitably endorsed contractor licence in the relevant category. Pool construction and servicing sits under separate licence categories in both states: see the pool builder and pool service licence in Queensland and NSW guide.

Neither state’s structural landscaping definition addresses plant selection, garden design or horticultural maintenance (mowing, pruning, fertilising). Both definitions list physical structures (retaining walls, fencing, paving, pergolas, decking) and neither page mentions horticultural services.

Queensland and NSW side by side

Victoria and other states

Victoria’s Building and Plumbing Commission (formerly VBA) licences building practitioners through a registration system. The Victorian Building Authority now trades as the Building and Plumbing Commission (ABN 78 790 711 883). The specific BPC pages for domestic builder registration requirements returned HTTP 404 on 25 October 2026 and the registration landing page (read on the same date) contained no landscaping-specific content. This page does not quote Victoria’s landscaping requirements because no fetched page spoke to them. The BPC’s contact number is 1300 067 088.

Other Australian states and territories are not covered here. South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT each have their own building licensing regimes, and a landscaping business operating across state borders should confirm the requirements with each state’s regulator. For the cross-border complication, the QBCC and NSW both offer mutual recognition from every other Australian jurisdiction and from New Zealand.

Insurance, pricing and the round

The licensing pages above say nothing about insurance, but commercial contracts do. The public liability insurance guide for Australian tradies covers the common policy tiers, who asks for each, and the factors that affect premiums. The QBCC separately requires contractors to meet minimum financial requirements by providing an MFR report or declaration.

The licensing requirement under the Australian pest management licence regime is a different credential entirely. If a landscaping job involves chemical termite management, the QBCC’s own page names it as occupational work that requires its own licence. The Australian pest management licence by state guide maps the pest management credential by jurisdiction.

Pricing the round so that each job covers the licence fee, the insurance, the fuel and the drive time is the arithmetic that turns a credential into a business. The lawn mowing pricing calculator does that arithmetic in Australian dollars. The mowing-round calendar for Australia maps the seasonal peaks and troughs that shape when the revenue actually lands.

The pool builder and pool service licence in Queensland and NSW covers the parallel QBCC and NSW licensing regime for swimming pool construction, installation and servicing, where the QBCC issues three separate licence classes and the NSW $5,000 threshold also applies.

From the licence to a paying round

The structural landscaping licence is the entry ticket, not the business. Turning it into a round that pays means quoting each job against the true cost (materials, labour, transport, the licence renewal and the insurance premium), scheduling the work so that the peak months carry the quiet ones, and keeping the licence renewal date in the calendar rather than in memory. When you are ready to carry the licence, the insurance and the round alongside each other, Fieldwynn is the field-service app we are building for that back-office load: focused in the field, powerful in the back office. It has not launched, so the next step below is an early-access email ask, and the calculators and the licensing facts stay free either way.