For painters, tilers, fencers, roofers, carpenters, landscapers and other Border trades: a site that says which side of the Murray you work, carries the NSW licence or Victorian registration each job calls for, and makes calling you a single tap.
On the Border the river decides the paperwork. A $12,000 job that is only wall and floor tiling needs a NSW contractor licence in Lavington, yet falls under Victoria's single-trade exemption from registration in West Wodonga. A fence that needs no permit on one bank can need approval on the other. Customers rarely know any of this, so the site should answer it before they ring.
NSW wants a contractor licence for trade work worth more than $5,000 in labour and materials, GST included, and that takes in fencing, tiling and glazing as well as building. Victoria asks for registration on domestic building contracts over $10,000, but exempts a job involving only one trade such as painting, plastering, tiling or glazing. Whatever you hold goes in the footer, labelled with its state and worded the way its register shows it.
Under the NSW codes, side and rear fences up to 1.8 metres (1.2 metres in masonry) and front fences up to 1.2 metres can often go up without planning approval, though not on a heritage item or a flood control lot, or along the street front in a conservation area. Wodonga Council's list lets side and rear fences under 2 metres and timber front fences under 1.5 metres go ahead without a building permit, while a brick front fence over 1.2 metres needs one. A fencing page that puts the two side by side answers the question owners ask first.
In NSW a certificate of compliance, or a relevant occupation certificate, has to be attached to a new lease for a property with a pool, and the certificate lasts three years; a sale contract can carry a non-compliance certificate instead. In Victoria the pool is registered with council and its barrier inspected and certified every four years. Pool fencers and glaziers can say which barrier work they take on, and where.
Victoria requires registration to reblock, restump, demolish or remove a home whatever the job is worth, and Wodonga Council lists restumping as needing a building permit. Changing terracotta tiles to corrugated iron, or the other way round, needs a permit there too, while corrugated iron to Colorbond doesn't. Carpenters and roofers can say which of these they do and who organises the permit.
Wodonga's list puts retaining walls of a metre or more, and decks whether attached or freestanding, on the permit side, and leaves off it an unroofed pergola of up to 20 m², no more than 3 metres high and no further forward than the house. Paving, concreting and landscaping aren't covered unless a retaining wall over a metre comes into it. Landscapers and concreters can quote that plainly on the services page.
Six councils meet around the cities: AlburyCity, Greater Hume (Jindera, Culcairn, Holbrook), Federation (Corowa, Howlong, Mulwala), the City of Wodonga, Indigo (Beechworth, Chiltern, Rutherglen, Yackandandah) and Towong (Tallangatta, Corryong). Name only the councils you really work in, which weekday you usually head to each, and whether the drive is charged.
Albury is on the NSW bank of the Murray and Wodonga on the Victorian bank. Around them sit Greater Hume Shire, seated at Holbrook, and Federation Council, formed in 2016 from the Corowa and Urana shires, on the NSW side; Indigo Shire, run from Beechworth with service centres at Chiltern, Rutherglen and Yackandandah, and Towong Shire, seated at Tallangatta with a service centre at Corryong, on the Victorian side. People shop, work and live across all of them, but each job is governed by the state the property sits in, so a Border trade site has to be clear about which side it serves.
Licensing follows the river. In NSW, Building Commission NSW handles contractor licences and advertising carries the licence name and number, as our Sydney tradies page sets out. In Victoria, builders and plumbers are registered by the Building and Plumbing Commission and electricians licensed by Energy Safe Victoria, as our Melbourne tradies page explains. For the trades with the most cross-border paperwork, mutual recognition included, see our Albury-Wodonga pages for builders, electricians and plumbers.
For everyone else the thresholds are the main difference. NSW's line is $5,000 including GST, and its fencing guidance covers fences and gates on or within residential boundaries whatever they're made of. Victoria's line is a $10,000 contract, with a list of single-trade jobs that don't need registration: plastering, wall and floor tiling, glazing, floor coverings, insulation, painting, and fixing awnings, security screens, insect screens or balustrades. Consumer Affairs Victoria adds that combining trades on one job, plastering and painting for example, brings registration back in. Restumping and reblocking need registration in Victoria at any value. Your site should only offer, on each side, the work you're allowed to take on there.
Small jobs on the Victorian side often turn on Wodonga Council's permit list: sheds over 10 m², carports attached to another building, side fences over 2 metres, attached decks and verandahs, pool safety fences, retaining walls of a metre or more, and any reblocking or restumping all need a building permit. In NSW, many fences and other minor works fall under the state's exempt development codes instead, with council or a certifier involved when a job goes past them. A short note on your services page about who arranges approvals keeps a customer from finding out halfway through the quote.
When a problem sits between the two states, the NSW Office of the Cross-Border Commissioner exists to advocate for border communities and businesses on issues that cross state lines. We're an Adelaide team at Ste 3/110 Hutt St, and we work with Border trades by phone and email: you send your licence or registration details for each state, your services, the towns you cover and some job photos; we reply with a draft link you can open between jobs, and payment waits until you approve it.
We haven't built for a Border trade yet. Two of our trade builds cover the pieces an Albury-Wodonga site would use: an area search across a big region, and a lean one-page layout built around the phone.
Painting company working across Adelaide and regional South Australia, with 12 service pages, region pages and a suburb and postcode search. On a Border site, the same kind of search can sort NSW postcodes from Victorian ones and show a customer straight away whether you come to them.
Visit the SA Painting Professionals site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Family-owned tree service in Western Sydney. Everything sits on one page: services, the areas covered, reviews, two separate quote forms and call buttons all the way down. Many one-person trades need little more than that to begin.
Visit the WS Stump Grinding site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“…gave us a fixed quote so we knew exactly what we were paying, and turned around the build faster than we thought possible.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
Want numbers from a trade site? Western Sydney Stump Grinding has landed at least 62 jobs, about $46,500 of work, from a single-page site we built. Read the case study.
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
$399
One page: your trade, the towns you cover on each side, credentials marked by state, job photos, a quote form and tap-to-call.
Room for both sides
$899
Three pages: a home page, your services, and an areas page with NSW and Victoria listed separately, plus the permit and certificate notes for your work on each bank.
$1,499
A page per service plus separate Albury and Wodonga pages, each with local job photos, the right credentials and its own approval notes.
Only for work you're allowed to do there. A single-trade painting or tiling job may not need Victorian registration, but a contract over $10,000 that combines trades does, and so does any restumping. Check your position with the Building and Plumbing Commission, tell us what applies, and we'll word the Victorian side to match.
Briefly. Owners mostly want to know whether their job is likely to need one and who will arrange it. Two short lists, one for each side, with a link to AlburyCity or Wodonga Council for the detail, do the job. Give us the facts in your own words and we'll set them out as two tidy lists.
Only the ones you'll actually drive to. Jindera, Howlong and Baranduda are close; Corowa, Holbrook, Beechworth, Rutherglen, Tallangatta and Corryong are a longer run. Listing each town with the day you're usually out that way, and any travel charge, saves calls that end with a no.
Yes. We're an Adelaide (South Australia) web design team working with businesses Australia-wide by phone and email, and our current clients are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. You send your details and photos, we send a draft link, you ask for changes until you're happy, and you pay once you approve it. We reply within 24 hours.
No. It's $399 for one page, $899 for up to 3 pages and $1,499 for up to 8, the same as anywhere, with no GST added. After launch, hosting is $30 a month and covers text and image changes on your existing pages, so adding a town or updating a permit note doesn't cost extra.
Email or ring with what you do, the state or states your credentials cover, and the towns you'll travel to. We'll send a quote, then a draft to check, and nothing is owed until you approve it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au