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safetyinspectors.com.au
Record
Guide 04 of 06
Subject
Gas safety regulators
Applies in
Victoria and Western Australia
Checked

Gas safety, and who checks the gasfitter’s work

In Victoria, plumbers and gasfitters certify their own everyday gas work, the Building and Plumbing Commission audits and inspects a sample of it, and Energy Safe Victoria must accept complex installations and Type B appliances before gas is supplied to them. In Western Australia, the gas fitter signs a Notice of Completion for every fixed installation, and every fuel gas accident or incident, near misses included, must be reported to the gas supplier and to Building and Energy.

General information, not technical advice. Energy Safe Victoria says never to do gas work yourself, and always to use a licensed gasfitter for any installation, repair or renovation involving gas. Your state or territory’s gas safety regulator is the official place to check.

If you smell gas, in Victoria

Energy Safe Victoria’s steps, in its order.

  1. If there is a fire or other emergency, call 000 immediately.
  2. To report a gas leak or other gas emergency, call the emergency number on your gas bill, at any time.
  3. If it is safe to do so, try to put out flames with a fire blanket or a suitable extinguisher, and turn off the gas at the meter or cylinder.
  4. If you smell gas: turn off the gas at the meter (natural gas) or at the tank or cylinder (LP gas), but only if it is safe to; put out all flames, and don’t smoke or strike matches; don’t use electrical switches or devices; if you are inside, open doors and windows to air the area; and keep people away from it.
  5. If you suspect natural gas is escaping inside your home, contact your gas distributor immediately; its details are on your last gas bill, and Energy Safe lists Victoria’s three distributors on its gas emergencies page. Each one’s own page gives its line: Multinet Gas, 132 691 for faults and leaks; Australian Gas Networks, 1800 427 532 for leaks; and AusNet Services, 13 67 07 for gas emergencies, faults and leaks.
  6. For LP gas, most cylinders and tanks show the supplier’s name and emergency contact details. Keep them close at hand and use them if you think a cylinder or tank is leaking.

In Western Australia, Building and Energy’s incident page lists the gas suppliers to contact.

Gas work gets checked at three points: by the gasfitter, who certifies it; by a regulator, which audits, inspects or accepts it; and after anything goes wrong, when an incident must be reported and may be investigated. Victoria and Western Australia set out all three on their own pages, so this guide follows those two states. The emergency steps are at the top of this page.

Victoria

Two regulators, one gas installation

A rusted hand-wheel valve set into a yellow-painted gas pipe, with the wheel’s shadow falling across a pale wall.
A hand-wheel valve on a yellow-painted gas pipe. Photo by ds_30 on Pixabay

Energy Safe Victoria and the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) regulate Victoria’s gas industry together.

Energy Safe Victoria

  • The state’s gas safety regulator, enforcing standards under the Gas Safety Act 1997, as well as the Electricity Safety Act 1998 and the Pipelines Act 2005.
  • Must accept an application for a complex gas installation or a Type B appliance before gas is supplied to it.
  • The lead agency when a gas incident is investigated, because of the safety implications.

Building and Plumbing Commission

  • Licenses and registers plumbers and gasfitters, and enforces plumbing standards.
  • Regulates domestic gasfitting installation work.
  • Runs random audits and inspections of standard gas installations, the work plumbers certify themselves.
  • Handles complaints about non-compliant gas installations in homes that do not pose a safety risk.

Standard or complex

Energy Safe explains that plumbing and gasfitting in homes and light commercial premises generally counts as a standard gas installation. Other work in industrial, commercial and public premises, such as high-rise buildings, schools and hospitals, is complex gas installation work, and so is work on a Type B gas appliance and the consumer piping connected to it. Type A appliances are the domestic and light commercial kind: cookers, space heaters, central heaters, water heaters, catering equipment and leisure appliances.

The certificate that makes an audit possible

When a standard gas installation is finished, the plumbing practitioner must give the customer a compliance certificate and lodge its details with the BPC within five days. Energy Safe says your copy protects you if a fault in the installation shows up later, because the gasfitter will then have to come back and fix it. It also warns that a cheap job offered without the compliance certificate is an offence under the Building Act 1993, because it denies you that guarantee and stops the work being audited for compliance and quality.

Gasfitters hold different licences for different work, and each carries a photo ID card listing what they may do. Energy Safe suggests asking to see the card when they arrive, including the registered classes on the back.

When something goes wrong

Under the Gas Safety Act 1997, a gas company must report an incident as soon as practicable if it involves a death or injury, a transmission pipeline, significant disruption to the community, significant damage to property or an explosion, and happens at the gas company’s own facility or at a gas installation it supplies or sells gas to. For a complaint about safety or technical compliance, rather than quality of work or a bill, Energy Safe takes reports through its online form.

Western Australia

The Notice of Completion, and the duty to report

  1. The gas fitter certifies the work

    The Gas Standards (Gasfitting and Consumer Gas Installation) Regulations 1999 require a Notice of Completion for every fixed installation, sent to the gas supplier, or to Building and Energy where the supplier is not known. The person who signs it is responsible for making sure the work complies, and Building and Energy calls a lodged notice a legal document certified by a gas fitter.

  2. You get a copy, and a badge goes on

    Lodged through Building and Energy’s eNotice system, a copy is emailed to the gas supplier and to the customer, as long as the gas fitter entered the customer’s email address. Except for installations on a reticulated natural gas network lodged through eNotice, the gas fitter must also fill in a compliance badge and fix it in the gas meter box or at the tank or cylinder.

  3. No leak is allowed

    Western Australia has no allowable leakage rate: every gas installation must be gas-tight, and before commissioning one, the licensed gas fitter must make sure the pressure testing rules have been met. Building and Energy says failing to comply can bring infringements, prosecution, or suspension or cancellation of a gasfitting permit or authorisation.

  4. Anything that goes wrong is reported

    Every fuel gas accident or incident in Western Australia must be reported to the gas supplier and to the Director of Energy Safety at Building and Energy, including near misses, injuries and damage to property, for natural gas, LP gas, CNG and LNG. Building and Energy’s freecall line is 1800 678 198, at all hours, from anywhere in the state.

A change on the way: Type B logbooks

Building and Energy has announced that service records for Type B gas appliances are moving from paper logbooks to Gas eBooks, kept in eNotice. From 24 July 2027, paper logbooks will no longer meet the regulations; until then, gas fitters may keep using them. Owners and operators of Type B appliances can view their appliance logbooks online at any time. Check Building and Energy’s page before relying on these dates.

Elsewhere

Other states and territories

Safe Work Australia’s list of regulators shows how the job is split elsewhere: in South Australia, the Office of the Technical Regulator covers electrical, gas and plumbing safety. For the rest, start from that list and follow it to your state’s own pages. Electrical safety, which some of the same bodies regulate, is in the guide to electrical safety inspections.