Plant item and design registration
If you manage plant in the ACT, you may have to register it with Access Canberra.
Plant can include machinery, appliances, equipment and tools. For example, lifts, escalators, moving walkways, cranes, boilers, pressure vessels, amusement rides and forklifts.
Registration ensures plant items and designs are:
- inspected by a qualified professional
- safe to operate in the workplace.
It is an offence to use or supply an unregistered plant item or design.
Check if you must register a plant or plant design
You can apply to register a plant item or plant design if you are a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) that either:
- manages or controls an item of plant at an ACT workplace
- designs an item of plant for use in an ACT workplace.
The PCBU may be:
- an individual
- a company
- a body corporate
- a government agency
- a partnership
- an unincorporated association
- a manufacturer, importer or supplier of plant.
If your workplace is outside the ACT, you'll need to include evidence to justify your registration.
If you’ve already registered a plant item or plant design in another state, you do not need to register it in the ACT.
Plant items you must register
- Boilers categorised as hazard level A, B or C in AS 4343:2014 (Pressure equipment—Hazard levels) section 2.1
- Pressure vessels categorised as hazard level A, B or C in AS 4343:2014 (Pressure equipment—Hazard levels) section 2.1
- Tower cranes including self‑erecting tower cranes
- Lifts, escalators and moving walkways
- Building maintenance units
- Amusement devices covered by AS 3533.1:2009 (Amusement rides and devices—Design and construction) section 2.1
- Concrete placing booms
- Mobile cranes with a rated capacity greater than 10 tonnes
Items you do not need to register
You do not need to register:
- manually operated cranes or hoists
- the following A, B or C hazard level pressure vessels:
- gas cylinders
- LPG fuel vessels for automotive use
- serially produced vessels.
- amusement devices that are:
- class 1 devices
- playground devices
- water slides
- wave generators where users do not have contact with parts of machinery used for generating waves
- sealed inflatable devices
- inflatable devices that do not use a non-return valve.
Apply for plant item registration
Before you can register a plant item, the design must be registered in the ACT if it is not already registered in another Australian state or territory.
Before you start, you’ll need the:
- plant design registration number and issuing authority
- plant manufacturer name
- year of manufacture
- model number
- serial number or unique plant identification number
- date plant was commissioned or first registered (whichever occurred first)
- date of inspection
- name of the plant inspector
- digital copy of the inspection certificate to upload. The certificate should include the serial number or unique identifying number.
- address of plant.
Apply for plant item registration
After you apply
It can take up to 120 days to assess your application.
If we need more information
You’ll get a letter if you need to give us more information to help with your application.
If we approve your registration
We’ll send you the registration certificate within 14 days of assessing your application.
If your registration has conditions
We may place conditions on your plant item registration.
Conditions may include:
- the plant’s use and maintenance
- record keeping
- information you must give us.
It is an offence if you do not comply with a condition of registration.
If we refuse your application
You'll get a letter explaining why we refused your application.
Your refusal letter will:
- tell you what you need to do next
- explain how to ask for a decision review.
Your plant registration obligations
After you register your plant item, you have the following obligations.
Keep the registration available for inspection
You must keep the registration document available to inspect unless:
- you’ve returned the registration document to us for changes because we asked you to
- you’ve applied for, but not received, a replacement registration document.
Put the registration number on the plantÂ
The person who manages or controls the plant at a workplace must make sure the registration number is on the plant. It must be permanent and in a spot that’s easy to see.
Maintain, inspect and test
The person who manages or controls the plant at a workplace must make sure it is maintained, inspected and tested:
- by a competent person
- following the manufacturer's recommendations.
If there are no manufacturer's recommendations, you should follow the recommendations of a competent person.
You must get an annual inspection if:
- inspection of the plant is involved
- it is not practical to comply with the manufacturer's recommendations or a competent person.
Tell us about changes to your plant registration
You must tell us in writing within 14 days of:
- changes to your name or contact details
- changes to information you provided when you applied for registration
- alterations to the plant item
- moving an item of plant that is usually fixed
- changes to the person responsible who manages or controls the item.
To change a plant item registration:
- Fill in the online Plant item registration form.
- Choose ‘Variation’ as the ‘Type of licence’.
If you lose your registration document, it's stolen or destroyed
You must tell us in writing as soon as possible.
You can ask for a replacement document at the same time.
Email cwpl@act.gov.au and include why or how the document was lost or stolen.
Renew plant registration
Plant registration lasts for 5 years from the day we approve it.
To renew your registration:
- Fill in the online Plant item registration form.
- Choose ‘Renewal’ as the ‘Type of licence’.
New plant designs you must register
- Pressure equipment categorised as hazard level A, B, C or D in AS 4343:2005 (Pressure equipment-hazard levels) section 2.1
- Gas cylinders covered by section 1.1 of AS 2030.1:2009 (Gas cylinders-General Requirements)
- Tower cranes including self-erecting tower cranes
- Lifts, including escalators and moving walkways
- Building maintenance units
- Hoists with a platform movement exceeding 2.4 metres, designed to lift people
- Work boxes designed to be suspended from a crane
- Amusement devices covered by section 2.1 of AS 3533.1:2009 (Amusement rides and devices - design and construction).
Designs you do not need to register
- Amusement devices that are:
- class 1 devices
- playground devices
- water slides
- wave generators where patrons do not come into contact with the parts of machinery used for generating water waves
- inflatable devices that are sealed
- inflatable devices that do not use a non-return valve.
- Concrete-placement units with delivery booms
- Prefabricated scaffolding and prefabricated formwork
- Boom-type elevating work platforms
- Gantry cranes with a safe working load greater than 5 tonnes or bridge cranes with a safe working load of greater than 10 tonnes, and any gantry crane or bridge crane which is designed to handle molten metal or a dangerous substance mentioned in Schedule 1 of the Dangerous Substances (General) Regulation 2004
- Vehicle hoists
- Mast climbing work platforms
- Mobile cranes with a rated capacity of greater than 10 tonnes.
- Heritage boilers
- Cranes or hoists that are manually powered
- An elevating work platform that is a scissor lift or a vertically moving platform
- Tow trucks
Apply for plant design registration
Before you start, you’ll need digital copies of both of the following statements.
Design compliance statement
The plant designer must state that the design complies with:
- the designer's obligations under section 22 of the Work Health Safety Act
- published technical standards and engineering principles.
If the designer lives overseas in a non-English speaking country, the designer’s statement must be in English or translated into English.
Design verification statement
A design verifier must verify the design complies with the published technical standards or engineering principles specified in the designer's statement.
The verification statement must:
- be written and signed by the plant verifier
- describe the design verification process and results
- include the verifiers name, business address and qualifications.
The design verifier must have the skills, qualifications, competence and experience to either:
- design the plant
- verify the design.
The verifier must not have been:
- involved in the design of the plant being registered
- employed by the PCBU that produced the design, at the time it was produced.
If employed by a PCBU when the design was produced, the verifier may verify the design if the PCBU uses a system for plant design that has been certified by a body accredited or approved by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand.
It is an offence to make a design verification statement if:
- you are not eligible to
- you have not verified the design.
Apply for plant design registration
After you apply
It can take up to 120 days to assess your application.
If we need more information
You’ll get a letter if you need to give us more information to help with your application.
If we approve your registration
We’ll send you the plant design registration certificate within 14 days of assessing your application.
Your plant design registration starts on the day we grant it. Plant item design never expires.
If we refuse your application
You'll get a letter explaining why we refused your application.
Your refusal letter will:
- tell you what you need to do next
- explain how to ask for a decision review.
Your plant design registration obligations
After you register your plant design, you have the following obligations.
You must keep the registration document available for inspection unless:
- you’ve returned the registration document to us for changes because we asked you to
- you’ve applied for, but not received, a replacement registration document.
If you manage or control the plant at the workplace where the plant design is registered, you must make sure the design registration number is kept near the plant.
If you were issued the plant design registration, you must give the registration number to the manufacturer, importer or supplier of plant manufactured to that design.
If you hold the plant design registration, you must tell us within 14 days of:
- changes to your name or contact details
- changes to information you provided when you applied for registration.
To update your details:
- Fill in the Design registration application form.
- Choose ‘Update of details’ as the ‘application type’.
You must tell us in writing as soon as possible.
You can ask for a replacement document at the same time.
Email cwpl@act.gov.au and include why or how the document was lost or stolen.
Change a plant design
You must register changes that may affect health and safety.
To change a plant design:
- Fill in the Design registration application form.
- Choose ‘Design variation’ as the ‘application type’.
If you’ve already registered the alteration with the regulator that registered the original design, you do not need to register the change with us.
Application fees
Fees from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.
- Plant registration: $149.00
- Change a plant or plant design registration: $149.00
- Renew a plant registration: $149.00
- Plant design registration: $149.00
- Alteration to design approval: $149.00
Get a decision reviewed
You can ask us to review our decision if we:
- refused your application
- changed your application in a way you did not ask us to
- imposed conditions on your registration
- refused to issue a replacement registration document.
To ask for a decision review, you must be either:
- the registration holder
- a person with management or control of a plant item.
We’ll do an internal review first. If you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you can apply to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) for an independent review.
To ask for a review of the decision, contact us.
Report a workplace concern or issue
You can report a workplace concern or issue to either: