Scaffolding in Australia: licences, inspections and handover

When do you need a scaffolding licence?

Under the model WHS Regulations, scaffolding work means erecting, altering or dismantling a temporary structure that supports a platform, where a person or object could fall more than 4 metres from the platform or the structure. It is high risk work and needs a licence of the right class. Each class includes the one below it:

• Basic (SB) — modular or prefabricated scaffolds, cantilevered materials hoists with a maximum working load of 500 kg, ropes, gin wheels, safety nets and static lines, and bracket scaffolds.
• Intermediate (SI) — adds tube and coupler scaffolds, cantilevered and spur scaffolds, cantilevered crane loading platforms, barrow ramps and sloping platforms, perimeter safety screens and shutters, and mast climbing work platforms.
• Advanced (SA) — adds cantilevered hoists, hung scaffolds and suspended scaffolds.

A business must see written evidence of a worker’s licence before directing or allowing them to do the work (reg 85). Licences last five years. Narrow exceptions cover supervised trainees, people being assessed and, briefly, people who have passed the course and await their licence.

Below 4 metres no licence is needed, but the scaffold should still be erected by people trained in the system, to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Scaffolding work usually needs a SWMS as well, because a risk of falling more than 2 metres makes it high risk construction work under the model regulations and in Victoria. The Northern Territory moved to 3 metres for residential construction in July 2026.

What inspections does the law require?

Regulation 225 of the model WHS Regulations covers every suspended, cantilevered, spur and hung scaffold, whatever its height, and any other scaffold from which a person or thing could fall more than 4 metres. The duty sits with whoever has management or control of the scaffold, usually the business it was handed over to, such as the builder or principal contractor. They must ensure that:

1. Nobody uses it until a competent person who has inspected it confirms in writing that it is complete.
2. It and its supporting structure are inspected by a competent person at least every 30 days, and before use resumes after repairs or after an incident that could affect its stability.
3. Anything unsafe is fixed and re-inspected before use resumes.
4. Unauthorised access is prevented while it is incomplete or unattended, for example with danger tags and warning signs.

A competent person need not hold a scaffolding licence; it is someone with the knowledge and skills for the task, gained through training, qualification or experience. Queensland’s reg 225 adds an inspection before first use.

Are handover certificates and scaffold tags legally required?

The law requires written confirmation, not a particular form. SafeWork NSW gives the handover certificate as its example, and tells builders to inspect the scaffold themselves before accepting one.

• Required (reg 225): written confirmation before first use; inspections after incidents, after repairs and at least every 30 days; keeping people off incomplete or unattended scaffolds.
• Good practice: a handover certificate recording the area, intended use, duty rating, how many platforms can be loaded at once, drawings, and the signer’s name, licence number and date, as in WorkSafe Victoria’s template.
• Good practice: tags at access points showing the last inspection. WorkSafe Victoria notes a tag does not carry enough information to serve as a handover certificate.
• Good practice: an inspection register on site, because the record is what proves the inspections happened.

Who is allowed to alter a scaffold?

On a scaffold where someone could fall more than 4 metres, any alteration is scaffolding work, so only a licensed scaffolder of the right class may do it. That covers the usual trade shortcuts: moving ties to reach a wall, pulling planks off hop-ups, or removing ledgers, transoms or braces to clear a path. SafeWork NSW is plain that unlicensed workers must not remove scaffold components, including planks. WorkSafe Victoria recommends regular checks of ties, which finishing trades may loosen or remove.

• Make it a site rule at induction that only the scaffold contractor alters the scaffold, and give trades a way to ask for changes.
• Plan staged changes, such as ties coming out for cladding, before work starts.
• Treat each alteration like a new handover: inspect it and record what changed, who did it and when.

In Victoria, reg 105 of the OHS Regulations 2017 requires employers to take steps to prevent unpermitted alterations to plant.

Do mobile scaffolds need a licence and inspections?

Yes, once they are tall enough. The model regulations treat mobile scaffolds as scaffolds, and the basic class covers prefabricated scaffolds, which aluminium mobile towers typically are. There is no general exemption: if a person or object could fall more than 4 metres, erecting, altering or dismantling a mobile tower needs at least a basic licence, and the reg 225 handover and inspection rules apply.

At any height, WorkSafe Victoria’s guidance is to:

• erect it to the manufacturer’s instructions on a hard, level surface;
• lock the castors while anyone is on it, and never move it with people on it;
• deck the working platform fully, with no split decks; and
• fit guardrails, mid-rails, toe boards and internal ladder access where the platform is over 2 metres.

For wider fall controls, see working at heights in construction.

Which Australian Standards apply to scaffolding?

• AS/NZS 1576 Scaffolding series (Parts 1 to 6) — design and performance. Part 1 is AS/NZS 1576.1:2019, General requirements.
• AS 4576:2020 Guidelines for scaffolding — the companion guide to erection, alteration, dismantling, inspection and use. It replaced AS/NZS 4576:1995, which older SWMS still cite.

WorkSafe Victoria’s industry standard lists the usual duty ratings: light, medium and heavy duty allow up to 225 kg, 450 kg and 675 kg per platform per bay, each including a concentrated load.

In Western Australia the standards are mandatory: reg 225 requires scaffolds to be erected and dismantled in accordance with the relevant requirements of AS/NZS 1576 Parts 1 to 6, and scaffolding equipment to comply with them.

How do the rules differ in Victoria, WA and Queensland?

Victoria has not adopted the model WHS laws, but its licensing matches in substance: the same three classes, the same 4-metre trigger and recognition of interstate licences (OHS Regulations 2017, regs 128–131). Its scaffold rule, reg 118, is narrower: no work except erection or dismantling from an incomplete scaffold; the scaffold secure and able to support the work; repairs before use once it is known to be unsafe; and, so far as reasonably practicable, anyone who would not ordinarily use it kept off while it is unattended.

There is no written-confirmation or 30-day rule. Reg 105 requires plant to be inspected as far as needed to monitor risk, and WorkSafe Victoria’s Scaffolding industry standard (December 2024) recommends a handover certificate for scaffolds over 4 metres and inspections before first use, every 30 days and after storms, impacts, repairs or alterations.

Western Australia adds the AS/NZS 1576 requirements above. Queensland adds a pre-use inspection to reg 225 and has an approved Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021, in force since 1 July 2021.

What do inspectors find most often?

SafeWork NSW’s Scaff Safe campaign visited 343 sites between August and December 2024 and issued 613 compliance notices. The most common problems were:

• missing handrails or mid-rails: 39% of sites;
• incomplete decks, with missing ledgers, planks or hop-ups: 37%;
• no written confirmation from a competent person: 27%;
• gaps over 225 mm between the working deck and the building: 27%;
• alterations by someone other than a licensed scaffolder: 23%; and
• inadequate ties: 18%.

Yet 95% of sites had an inspection within the previous 30 days. An inspection on file is not the same as a compliant scaffold today.

Checklist: relying on someone else's scaffold

1. Get the written handover from a competent person who inspected it, covering the area and use you need.
2. Check the licence class fits: tube and coupler, cantilevered and spur scaffolds need at least intermediate; hung and suspended scaffolds need advanced.
3. Walk it first: full decks, guardrails, mid-rails and toe boards, ties and bracing as designed, base plates on sole boards, safe access and no wide gaps at the building face.
4. Know its limits: the duty rating and how many platforms can be loaded at once, and tell the trades.
5. Book the inspections: every 30 days and after storms, impacts or repairs, with records kept on site.
6. Lock down alterations: only the scaffold contractor changes it, and each change is inspected.
7. Close it off when incomplete or unattended, with danger tags, barricades and blocked access.

Nexis CPD’s Scaffolding and Working Platforms course covers these steps in depth.

Frequently asked questions