How do I check a tradesperson's licence in the Northern Territory?

The Northern Territory has no single trade register. Each of the three main trades sits with a different body, and knowing which one to approach is most of the work.124

Plumbers, and the journeyman trap

The Board publishes every currently licensed plumber and drainer as a single list you can read straight down, with the licence number, name, contact numbers and expiry date. Plumbers qualified to install and test backflow prevention devices are marked separately on it.1

The trap is the word journeyman. The Board states that a journeyman is not a licensed plumber and cannot contract for work directly with a customer, and that all work carried out by a journeyman must be supervised by an advanced tradesman. Somebody describing themselves as a registered journeyman is telling you something real, but it is not that they can take your job.1

If a name is missing from the list, the Board asks you to call its office rather than assume, because the published table is updated periodically rather than continuously.1

Builders, and the threshold

Residential building contractor registration is tied to the value of the work. The Building Practitioners Board sets the residential contractor categories at work valued at $25,000 or above, so smaller jobs sit outside that registration requirement even though the work itself still has to comply.2

Registration is also split by what can be built. Restricted and unrestricted categories differ by the class and height of building, and a contractor registered in one is not authorised for the other, which is worth checking against your actual project rather than against the trade name.2

Electricians, and the 2024 change

The Electrical Safety Act 2022 and Electrical Safety Regulations 2024 commenced on 1 July 2024. They abolished the Electrical Workers and Contractors Licensing Board and moved licensing to the Electrical Safety Regulator within NT WorkSafe, so the body named on older paperwork no longer exists.5

There are four licence types, and the distinction between them is the one to ask about. An unrestricted electrical work licence is the general one. A restricted licence covers only defined work. An electrical contractor licence is what a business needs to contract with you. An in-house licence covers work on an organisation's own installations rather than for customers.5