Independent journal · Est. 2004
Written for licensed contractors in Australia
Australia
The independent journal for licensed electrical contractors in Australia
The journal
Long-form reporting and practical guidance for licensed electricians, registered contractors and supervisors working under Australian electrical safety law. We write in Australian English, cite the regulators that actually issue tickets, and treat AS/NZS 3000 as a working document rather than a slogan.
Inspectors keep finding the same rooftop defects because the same shortcuts keep surviving handover. Missing labels, poor DC string work, roof penetrations, unprotected generation on old boards, and undocumented batteries are not bad luck — they are a sales-versus-licence problem.
Read Solar compliance inspections and the defects that keep turning up
Who can do the work, and what the paperwork must prove.
Isolation, RCDs, live work and the tests that stand up later.
Houses, units and the switchboards that still have rewirable fuses.
Three-phase, lighting upgrades, comms and site power.
What happens after the panels go on the roof.
Pricing, apprentices, one-van firms and the kit that earns.
A Mode 3 charger is a fixed electrical installation, not a 15 A convenience outlet with a prettier faceplate. This article covers dedicated circuits, load management, outdoor IP rating, MEN and earthing, strata politics, and when the DNSP has to hear about the job before you energise.
Read Residential EV charger installations without the guesswork
Live work is prohibited unless a narrow statutory exception applies, and work near exposed live parts is not a loophole. This article separates installation work from network-operator rules, and explains why PPE is a last control, not a method.
Read Working near live parts: when it is permitted and when it is theatre
The quote that wins is often the quote that forgot attendance, isolation and the board you have not opened yet. Preliminaries, prime-cost items and a refusal to lump-sum a renovation you cannot see are how a contracting business stays solvent.
Read Pricing electrical jobs without going broke on the variations
A rooftop array does not make a 1960s fuse box solar-ready. This article covers the main switch, inverter isolators, generation labelling, busbar limits, meter isolation, and the point at which a PV job is honestly a board upgrade.
Read Inverter and switchboard changes when PV lands on an old board
Australia does not have one smoke-alarm rule, and electricians who install the same pack in every state leave rental providers and owner-occupiers exposed. This article sets out hard-wired versus battery work, interconnection, photoelectric versus ionisation, and what a licence holder should refuse to leave undocumented.
Most contractors who lose a ticket do not lose it on a difficult fault-find. They lose it because the nominated supervisor left, the public liability did not name the company, or the Facebook ad offered electrical contracting without a contractor licence. The conditions are ordinary. The trouble is not.
A contractor licence, a van and a phone will take work. They will not, by themselves, make a business that can pay super, replace a stolen tester and still say no to a live board. This is the operating picture for a sole electrical contractor who wants to still like the trade in five years.
A safe work method statement is not a PDF you email on Sunday night. It is the isolation and test sequence for this board, on this day, written so the people on the tools can follow it and an inspector can see that they did.
A cheap monthly fee looks like steady work until the first after-hours isolation, the first missing spare, and the first argument about who locked the board. Read the contract as an electrician, not as an optimist, and decide what you are actually selling.
An Australian electrical licence is not one national ticket, and a contractor card is not the same thing as a worker's licence. This guide walks through who can do the work, who can sell it, what mutual recognition actually covers, and where to check the public register before you start.
Supervisors, inspectors and contracting principals who can write plainly are invited to read the guest post guidelines. Paid placements, if we ever take them, are marked rel="sponsored".
Corrections, licensing questions and story tips go through the contact form. How we report is set out in our editorial standards.