High risk work licence check: how to verify, renew and read an HRWL in every state

A high risk work licence (HRWL) is the photo licence you need to drive a forklift, operate most cranes or a boom lift of 11 metres or more, or do dogging, rigging or scaffolding. You check it with the state regulator that issued it, by licence number. This guide covers the check in every state, expiry and renewal, and the class codes.

That serves the supervisor at the gate with a forklift waiting, and the holder wondering whether a 2021 LF ticket has quietly lapsed. The business behind the crew and the White Card are covered in the guide to checking a contractor licence, White Card or high risk work ticket.

What a high risk work licence is

The HRWL is a national licence issued by each state or territory WHS regulator under its work health and safety regulations, with Schedule 3 of the model WHS Regulations setting out the classes. Victoria issues the same licence under its Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, with the same codes and one extra class. Safe Work Australia’s high risk work licences page gives the national shape: you must be over 18, a registered training organisation (RTO) trains you, an accredited assessor assesses you against the national assessment instrument, and you lodge the statement of attainment with your local regulator within 60 days.

It is a photo card: Queensland’s WHS Regulation 2011 (section 93) requires the holder’s name, photograph and date of birth on it, which is why three state lookups ask for a date of birth. It is valid for five years (Safe Work Australia nationally, section 92 of the Queensland regulation in law). And it is recognised across the country: Safe Work Australia says the licence “is generally valid across Australia”, and WorkSafe WA, WorkSafe Tasmania, WorkSafe Queensland and NT WorkSafe each say outright that an HRWL from any state or territory is recognised in theirs.

The common HRWL classes and their codes

Every class is a two-letter code printed on the card, and a licence can carry several. Descriptions are from Safe Work Australia’s class list and Schedule 3 of the Queensland regulation; the codes are those the Queensland register, SafeWork NSW and WorkSafe Victoria publish. The full list runs to 29 classes (30 in Victoria, which adds a non-slewing telehandler class, TV).

What is not on the list matters as much. An excavator, loader or scissor lift needs no HRWL, as WorkSafe Victoria says in as many words, and an EWP with a boom under 11 metres sits outside WP. For those, the evidence of competence is training records and a verification of competency, not a licence.

How to check a high risk work licence, state by state

There is no national HRWL register, so the first question is which state issued the card. Every row below was read on the regulator’s own page on 29 October 2026.

High risk work licence check NSW

NSW has the most open register. Verify NSW searches by name or licence number and filters by status, so an employer can run a name without the card in hand. SafeWork NSW’s “regularly check licences” page says what to check: that the licence “has not expired”, “includes the relevant classes” and “has the correct photo and name of the worker”. NSW also publishes the register as an API for software through API NSW, the only state that does.

High risk work licence check QLD

Queensland’s register confirms a licence rather than searching for one. First name, surname, date of birth and one licence class are mandatory, then at least two more fields, which in practice means the licence number and expiry date off the card. The result confirms “the licence status of a Queensland High Risk Work licence”. If the card is in a ute two hours away, WorkSafe Queensland’s renewal page gives 1300 362 128 as the number to “confirm if a HRW licence is valid”.

High risk work licence check WA

WorkSafe WA’s check runs through the WA Online Licence Search by licence number, exact match, prefix included, typed “one at a time”; the wa.gov.au terms of use bar “bots, scraper tools etc”, so it is a human job. WorkSafe WA’s bulletin of 13 October 2025 says the quiet part: fake HRWLs have been used to get work interstate, and “you can verify a HRWL by entering the licence number in the Online Licence Search”.

Victoria, South Australia and the rest

Victoria’s validator returns “the validity and registered name” of the holder, and WorkSafe Victoria’s safety alert of 13 October 2026 on fraudulent qualification certificates points employers there. SafeWork SA has just moved systems and says some licences nearing renewal have not yet moved, so re-run a miss on the previous form it links before calling the licence bad. Tasmania lists no online lookup, so the check is a question to WorkSafe Tasmania.

What the check proves, and what it does not

A register hit proves a licence with that number exists, whose name is on it, its status, and in most states its classes and expiry. It does not prove the person at the gate is the holder, so sight the card and match the photo and name. It does not prove competence on the specific machine: LF covers forklifts in general, not the 16-tonne container handler nobody has driven. That gap is what a verification of competency closes.

Read the classes, not just the status: a current C2 does not cover a 60-tonne crane. And treat old-format cards with care: Queensland says a non-photographic old-style licence from another state “is no longer valid and cannot be transferred or renewed in Queensland”, and NT WorkSafe says the pre-2010 certificates without a photo or expiry have all expired. A laminated certificate of competency from 2004 is a museum piece.

High risk work licence renewal and expiry

The licence lasts five years from the day it is granted, in every state, and adding a class later does not reset the clock: SafeWork SA says a new qualification “does not alter your original Licence ‘start’ date”, and NT WorkSafe says expiry runs from the first class granted. So “forklift licence expiry” is the date printed on the card, five years after the licence was first issued, not five years after the forklift class was added.

Safe Work Australia’s national rule is that you cannot do high risk work while the licence is expired, you must renew within 12 months after the expiry date, and after that you do training and assessment again. The states put it their own way.

• NSW. A renewal notice is emailed about 60 days before expiry. Renew before the date and the licence continues as current until you hear back; lodge within 12 months after and the renewed licence runs five years from the old expiry; past 12 months you retrain, get reassessed and reapply.
• Queensland. A renewal notice goes out four to six weeks before expiry, and renewal is online only. Lodge and pay on or before expiry and the licence stays current while the application is decided; after expiry you are unlicensed until it is approved. Section 103 of the WHS Regulation 2011 allows renewal within 12 months after expiry, or longer only in exceptional circumstances the regulator accepts.
• WA. Renewal opens 90 days before expiry and closes 12 months after. Apply before expiry and you keep working until the outcome; apply after and you cannot work until the licence is granted; past 12 months WorkSafe WA says you may need to redo the training and be reassessed.
• Victoria. Renewal is through myWorkSafe, within 12 months of the expiry date. Past that, WorkSafe Victoria wants proof of exceptional circumstances.
• South Australia. The tightest window: SafeWork SA renews only within the 30 days before expiry and emails the holder then. Renewal is allowed up to 12 months after expiry, but the holder is “not licensed during the expired period”; past 12 months it is retraining. The renewed licence runs from the payment date, and the receipt is the evidence until the card arrives.
• Tasmania. Renewal at a Service Tasmania outlet, no more than 30 days before expiry. Miss the date and there are 12 months to apply with no high risk work in between; after that you are a new applicant. The mailed notice is “courtesy only”.
• ACT. Renew in the six months before expiry or within 12 months after, online, for another five years. Past 12 months, contact Access Canberra.
• NT. Licences “can be renewed up to 1 year after expiry. After that, retraining is required.” Renewal in the NT is for NT residents and eligible FIFO workers; a holder who now lives interstate renews there.

Every state asks for a legal declaration at renewal that the holder has maintained competency in each class. A rigger who has not rigged in five years is being asked to sign something, and should think about it.

Moving interstate. The licence stays valid wherever you work, so a WA licence on a Queensland site needs no transfer. Renewal is different: NSW, Victoria and the ACT let a resident transfer a current (or less than 12 months expired) interstate licence into a local one, Queensland will renew an interstate licence within three months of expiry or less than 12 months past it, and Tasmania and the NT both say a holder who has moved renews where they now live.

What to record at onboarding

Record the check so it can be re-run without the worker in the room, and so it meets the duty behind it. In Queensland, section 85 of the WHS Regulation 2011 stops a business allowing licensed high risk work “unless the person sees written evidence provided by the worker that the worker has the relevant high risk work licence for that work”, and requires that evidence to be kept for at least a year after the work. The NT check page cites the same regulation. Six fields do it.

1. The licence number, exactly as printed, prefix included (WA’s search will not match without it).
2. The issuing state, which decides which lookup you go back to.
3. The classes, as codes, because “has a forklift ticket” is not a record and LF is.
4. The expiry date, which drives the re-check and the renewal conversation.
5. The date of the check, who ran it and the result, with a screenshot or the downloaded record attached.
6. A photo of both sides of the card, the written evidence the regulation asks for and the only way to re-run a Queensland, SA or NT check later.

Then set a re-check cadence and write it down: at engagement, at every expiry, and at a fixed interval between. SafeWork NSW says “regularly” and leaves the interval to you. For a labour hire crew the record sits with the provider’s own licence under the host employer obligations; for a subbie it sits beside the ABN, insurances and SWMS in the subcontractor onboarding checklist; for a direct workforce it is one line in the credential tracking that keeps the whole crew current.

Where paper breaks

The failures are always the same three. The expired ticket found after the incident: the forklift licence lapsed eight months ago, nobody re-read the card, and the first person to check the expiry is the investigator. The photocopy in the folder: three years old, with no record of anyone checking the register then or since, which proves only that a photocopier existed. And the labour hire worker nobody re-checked: licence sighted by the provider, never recorded on the host’s side, still on the dogging roster two expiries later. In each case there was a check; it was not written down, dated or repeated. A site induction checklist with a credentials step closes that gap at the start, and a permit to work that names the licence class closes it at the task.

Where Humanz fits

Humanz holds the licence against the worker, whether that worker is an employee, labour hire or part of a subcontractor’s crew; all three sit on the one roster. The record carries the licence number, the issuing regulator, the classes, the issue and expiry dates, and the evidence attached. The system alerts before expiry, far enough out to cover the 30-day windows in SA and Tasmania. The roster then uses the record: a compliance rule per client and site says a forklift shift needs a current LF, and the system will not book a worker whose profile is missing it or whose licence has expired. That is the model inside our workforce management software.

Three things Humanz does not do, said plainly. It does not check a register for you: the lookup above is a human job, done once per check and recorded properly. It does not use AI to read cards or guess at classes, and it does not track anyone’s location. And it does not give safety or legal advice; it keeps the record and enforces the gate you configured.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check a high risk work licence?

Check it with the regulator in the state that issued it, by licence number. NSW searches by name or number on Verify NSW, Victoria and WA need the licence number, and Queensland, South Australia and the NT also need details off the card such as the date of birth. Tasmania has no online lookup, so you ask WorkSafe Tasmania. Then sight the card and match the photo and name to the person.

How long does a high risk work licence last?

Five years from the day it is granted, in every state and territory, unless it is suspended or cancelled earlier. Adding a class later does not extend the date; the whole licence expires five years after it was first issued. The expiry date is printed on the card.

How do I renew a high risk work licence?

Apply to the regulator that issued the licence, before the expiry date, and declare that you have maintained competency in each class. Every state except Tasmania renews online; Tasmania renews at a Service Tasmania outlet. Windows differ: WA opens 90 days out, the ACT six months, and SA and Tasmania will not renew more than 30 days before expiry.

What happens if my forklift licence expires?

You cannot operate a forklift until it is renewed, and in every state you have 12 months after the expiry date to renew without retraining. Apply in that window and you stay unlicensed until the renewal is approved. Past 12 months you retrain with an RTO, get reassessed by an accredited assessor and apply for a new licence, though Queensland and Victoria can accept a later renewal in exceptional circumstances.

Is a high risk work licence valid in every state?

Yes, a current photographic high risk work licence from any Australian state or territory is recognised in all the others, so no transfer is needed to work interstate. Safe Work Australia’s advice is still to confirm with the regulator where you will be working. When the licence comes up for renewal, most states expect a holder who has moved to renew or transfer it in the state they now live in.

What is the difference between a high risk work licence and a VOC?

A high risk work licence is a legal requirement issued by the state regulator for defined classes of work, such as forklift or dogging, and it proves the holder passed the national assessment for that class. A verification of competency is an employer’s or site’s own practical check that the person can operate a specific machine safely, and it is not a licence. Most sites require both for licensed plant, and a VOC alone for plant that needs no licence, such as excavators and loaders.

How do I check a forklift licence in Queensland?

Use the Office of Industrial Relations High Risk Work Online Register. It needs the holder’s first name, surname and date of birth, the licence class (LF for a forklift or LO for an order picker), and at least two further details such as the licence number and expiry date, so you need the card or a photo of it. The result confirms the licence status; without the card, WorkSafe Queensland’s licensing line can confirm whether a licence is valid.