How do I get my boat licence in Queensland?

Yes. The Queensland Government issues boaters with a physical licence that looks a lot like your driver’s licence but is coloured green rather than yellow. You must always carry your licence with you out on the water.

The only powered boats that are exempt from requiring a licence are those using outboard engines or motors producing less than 4.5kW, or around 6.0hp.

There is no option yet in Queensland to have a digital copy of your marine licence on your smartphone.

Once you have your boat licence you can drive any boat as long as it is registered as a recreational boat and is used recreationally. You can’t do things such as charge people to jump onboard – but asking them to chip in for fuel is okay – and you can’t catch fish and sell them to someone else.

Queensland has changed its marine licence framework so that it now works more like a master’s ticket where the skipper is responsible for everything that happens on a boat. 

This means you can let someone else without a licence drive the boat, but you must be ready to step in and take over at the first sign of trouble. If you’re towing a skier or inflatable tube, only someone who holds a boat licence can drive.

To qualify for a Queensland boat licence, you first need to complete a BoatSafe course that involves answering 50 multiple choice questions on navigating the state’s waterways safely – there’s no chance of getting a question wrong – as well as complete a set of assessments of boating skills.

These skills include getting someone who has fallen off back onboard a boat, how to safely come off a plane, docking, navigation, and slow-speed manoeuvring.

In all, you’ll spend around six hours qualifying for a certificate of competency that you then have six months to take into a transport and motoring customer service centre to convert into a marine licence.

In Queensland, the minimum age to get a marine licence is 16. 

No. But it pays to spend a bit of time with an experienced boater so that you learn the basics, as boats drive very differently from cars.

You can’t. Instead, you will have to find someone who provides BoatSafe courses expressly for Queenslanders wanting to get their boat licence.

It’s expensive. The BoatSafe course will cost you anywhere between around $350 to $400, and if you don’t pass the first time you may be able to re-sit the assessment at a reduced cost.

No sweat. It never needs renewing.

No. You need to do a separate BoatSafe course costing around $300 to gain a personal watercraft endorsement for your marine licence. Once you have your extra certificate of competency, a jet ski licence costs the same one-off fee as a boat licence.

If your sailboat is powered only using the wind, in theory, you don’t need a marine licence. However, if it has an outboard or inboard engine or electric motor producing more than 4.5kW, you will.