Can I install a ceiling fan myself in Australia?

Two separate things make this licensed work rather than a weekend job. The obvious one is the wiring: a ceiling fan is hard wired, and hard wiring is licensed work everywhere in Australia with no householder exemption. The less obvious one is the mounting. A fan is a heavy object that vibrates continuously above where people sit, and it has to be fixed to a structural member, not to plasterboard or to the old batten holder that was carrying a two hundred gram light fitting.123

What an installer is actually checking

• Whether there is a joist or a purpose-made brace in the right place, and whether one has to be added from inside the roof space.
• Blade tip clearance to the floor and to the nearest wall, which is what stops a fan being installed too low over a staircase or a loft bed.
• Whether the existing circuit and switch drop can carry a fan and light, and whether you want them switched separately.
• Whether the canopy conceals a compliant connection rather than a twisted joint pushed back into the ceiling.

If you are replacing a fan with a similar fan and the existing mount is sound, the job is short. If you are putting a fan where only a light has ever been, expect roof space access and a longer visit, because the bracing is the work.