Landscaping has two compliance lines tradies miss: the structural-landscaping licence (the moment you build decks, retaining walls or drainage rather than mow and mulch), and the pesticide licence (the moment you spray for money). Get those, hire the heavy plant until the diary is full, and price like a business. Here is the year-one reality.
Licensing — the soft-vs-structural line
The business baseline is the usual ABN, GST and tax. The licence line is soft vs structural landscaping:
- NSW — a Structural Landscaping Contractor Licence (Fair Trading) for residential building or trade work over $5,000 (decks, retaining, drainage, paving structures).
- QLD — a QBCC Structural Landscaping trade licence over $3,300 (decks, fences, gazebos, pergolas, small retaining walls, drainage, paving, small sheds).
- VIC — VBA registration intersects for structural elements; pure soft landscaping may not need it, but structural work does.
So mowing, pruning, planting and turf generally do not need a building licence, but the moment you build decks, retaining walls, drainage or structural paving above the threshold, you are in contractor-licence territory (see the licensing section).
Pesticides — the licence the moment you spray for money
The one landscapers forget: using herbicides or ag-chemicals "for fee or reward" on someone else's land needs a chemical-use licence:
- NSW — a Ground Applicator Licence (NSW EPA) is required to spray weeds for fee or reward, with competency units (AHCCHM303/304) and a fee (treat the exact fee as indicative — confirm with the EPA).
- VIC — a Commercial Operator Licence (Agriculture Victoria) for ground-based spraying for fee, with record-keeping within 48 hours kept for 2+ years (the fee was around $638.75 for 3 years — confirm).
- QLD — chemical-use accreditation and possibly pest-management licensing.
The rule: mow, prune and plant without chemicals and you may not need it — but advertise or do weed-spraying or lawn chemical treatments for money and NSW and VIC expect a licence. Assume it is mandatory if you spray for money, and design your service menu accordingly.
Machinery — own vs hire
Own day one: ute and trailer, mowers, brushcutter, blower, hedge trimmer, a light chainsaw, hand tools and a laser level — low-ticket gear used every job. Hire at first: a 1.7-1.8t mini-excavator ($30+/hr dry, a few hundred a day), a skid steer ($40-80/hr dry) and a plate compactor (under $150/day). The own-vs-hire rule: owning beats hiring at roughly 8-10 days' use a month — below that, hire is cheaper and de-risks quiet months, and you pass the plant cost through as a line item (see Tooling Up).
Rates and the quote anatomy
Indicative 2025: general gardening or labour $30-50/hr in cheaper markets to $40-80/hr metro; a skilled one-person charge-out ~$600-900/day. Work comes from residential design-and-build (courtyard makeovers, turf, paving, small decks), maintenance (recurring lawn and garden, strata — stabilises cash flow), and builders' finish works (earthworks, drainage, turfing on new builds). The pricing discipline that separates a business from "a mate with a ute" is the quote anatomy: labour + overhead + plant hire + materials + profit — and on materials, softscape (plants, soil, mulch) is a 10-30% profit centre, hardscape is marked up but realistically (clients Google big-box prices, so bundle into a fixed-price quote rather than itemising retail-plus-margin), and plant hire goes in at cost plus a coordination margin, never buried in the labour rate (see Setting Your Charge-Out Rate).
The council encounter
The council encounter usually starts with a neighbour complaint (noise, hours, retaining height, runoff, an unapproved structure) — a compliance officer asks who the contractor is, what is being built and what approvals exist, and may want your trade licence and engineering for retaining or drainage. Outcomes range from no action, to a stop-work until approvals are provided, to fines if you are unlicensed in a regulated category. Chemical misuse brings environmental and health officers and a check of your pesticide records (who, what, when, where) (see Contaminated Land, PFAS & Vegetation Clearing).
Common mistakes
- Building structural landscaping above the threshold without the contractor licence.
- Spraying weeds for money without the Ground Applicator or Commercial Operator licence and records.
- Burying plant hire in the labour rate instead of line-iteming it.
- Quoting like a hobbyist instead of a business (no overhead, downtime or profit).
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