More questions earthmoving and civil owners ask

There is no QBCC licence class for earthmoving, bulk excavation, civil engineering, roads or bridges. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission publishes eight builder and builder restricted classes, and none of them is a civil class. That is a finding, not a gap.

Licensable work can still sit inside a civil scope. QBCC requires a licence for building work valued over $3,300, and over $1,100 where it involves hydraulic services design. Drainage, plumbing and drainage, gas fitting, chemical termite management and fire protection are licensable at any value. So are completed residential building inspection, building design, site classification and mechanical services.

Drainage is the trap. Drainage is licensable at any value, with no dollar threshold at all, and QBCC lists separate drainage contractor, nominee supervisor and plumbing and drainage classes. Stormwater and sewer connection work has to be tested against the drainage classes rather than against the $3,300 figure.

Whether a particular earthworks package is licensable turns on the statutory definition of building work. Section 5(1) of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018 provides that work stated in schedule 1 is not building work. Read schedule 1 against your own scopes with your solicitor before you tell a buyer you are unregulated.

No. Prequalification attaches to the assessed entity and to the people Transport and Main Roads assessed, so it is not an asset you can hand over. An asset sale does not carry it across at all, because the acquiring entity is a different contractor.

Section 8.5 of TMR’s prequalification system requires a prequalified contractor to immediately advise TMR in writing of any change in circumstances material to prequalification status. That expressly includes any material change in ownership, holdings, management system status, financial and managerial capacity, and any change to key personnel including project managers, project engineers and supervisors.

So a share sale preserves the entity, but the change of control and any departure of named key personnel is a mandatory immediate notification and exposes the prequalification to review. Retaining the named key people through the transition is a value driver, not a courtesy.

Prequalification is also a hard tender gate. TMR states that where prequalification is required to deliver a project, the minimum levels are stipulated in the tender and TMR will only invite businesses meeting the nominated level. A buyer will discount pipeline it cannot bid.

Because serial number searching alone does not clear an earthmoving fleet. PPSR treats motor vehicles, aircraft, watercraft and some intellectual property as serial numbered property, and plant that fails the motor vehicle test is non-serial-numbered collateral that can only be found by searching the grantor.

PPSR addresses plant directly. It states that some motorised equipment, such as a bobcat, may not be regarded as a motor vehicle, while an excavator, harvester or backhoe might be, depending on speed and power. A skid steer, a tracked dozer, a crusher, a screening plant and attachments may be registered against your ABN or ACN only.

So the buyer runs an organisational search against the selling entity and serial number searches on every machine that meets the motor vehicle test. Each search produces a certificate that is proof of whether a security interest was registered at that time. Run both searches yourself before you go to market, because a surprise registration in week three of due diligence costs more than a search fee.

Not on your own. Under a hire purchase agreement the ATO states you do not own the goods until you have paid the final instalment. Under a lease the lessor is the owner of the goods and you never acquire ownership unless you buy the machine separately.

That is a title problem, not merely a security problem. The options are novation to the buyer with the financier’s consent, payout of the balance or residual and transfer of title, or excluding the machine from the sale altogether.

A chattel mortgage machine is different. You own it from the outset, the financier holds a registered security interest, and the machine conveys once the payout is made and the registration is released.

Every consent is a point at which a third party can reprice or delay your deal. Map the finance instrument against each line of your plant register before you list, so you know which part of the fleet is actually yours to sell.

No. WorkSafe Queensland states that workers no longer need to hold an earthmoving or particular crane certificate to operate various types of equipment. Queensland abolished the earthmoving occupational classes, including LE excavator, LZ dozer, LL front-end loader, LG grader, LR road roller, LP scraper, LS skid steer loader and LB front-end loader backhoe.

What replaced the licence is a duty, not a ticket. The person conducting a business or undertaking with management or control of the plant must ensure operators receive adequate information, training, instruction and supervision, that operators are competent, and that equipment is used appropriately to minimise risk.

High risk work licences still apply to specific tasks around the same site. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland licenses dogging, rigging, forklifts and order picking forklifts. It also licenses vehicle loading cranes at 10 metre tonnes and above, non-slewing mobile cranes over 3 tonnes, slewing mobile cranes, and boom-type elevating work platforms of 11 metres or more.

A per operator evidence file, machine by machine. WorkSafe Queensland accepts previous Queensland unit of competency statements, current national unit of competency certificates, on the job training by an experienced and competent person verified by logbooks or previous employer references, and in-house structured training.

Currency matters to a buyer. RII30820 Certificate III in Civil Construction Plant Operations is the relevant national qualification, and units move through releases. RIIMPO320F Conduct civil construction excavator operations is the current release, with RIIMPO320E and RIIMPO320D superseded. A buyer will look at whether your statements of attainment cite current or superseded codes.

Add the general construction induction position. Construction work requires the unit CPCCWHS1001 Prepare to work safely in the construction industry, delivered by a registered training organisation. A refresher is required where a worker has not carried out construction work in the previous two years.

This is the point sellers underrate. Because there is no statutory operator ticket for earthmoving plant, the buyer inherits the competency duty on day one and inherits any evidentiary gap with it. A documented file is worth real money against a business relying on the fact that the crew has been doing it for twenty years.

A share sale keeps the entity, so the ABN, trading history, any QBCC licence, TMR prequalification, Local Buy listing and conditional registrations stay where they are. The buyer takes the entity with its history attached, including unnotified incidents, levy shortfalls and environmental exposure.

An asset sale moves the plant, the contracts and the staff. It leaves prequalification behind entirely, and the buyer must re-register construction vehicles conditionally in its own name and re-establish its own heavy vehicle permit and notice position. That is a real transition timeline, not paperwork.

Queensland transfer duty pushes the analysis further. Business Queensland lists goodwill and personal property in Queensland, for example trading stock or plant and equipment, as dutiable business assets. In a fleet-heavy asset sale the duty base is very large, which is a structural argument for a share sale that generic advice misses.

Take advice from your accountant and solicitor on the specific structure. The tax position on disposing of written down plant can be the largest number in an earthmoving deal, and it is decided by structure rather than by price.

Queensland transfer duty applies to business assets. Business Queensland states that when acquiring a Queensland business by contract or agreement you may be liable for transfer duty on the transfer of business assets. It identifies personal property in Queensland, for example trading stock or plant and equipment, as a dutiable business asset.

Goodwill, statutory business licences, business names, franchise rights, debts, supply rights and intellectual property are also listed as dutiable business assets. Duty is assessed by the Queensland Revenue Office.

Business Queensland warns that if a business asset transaction is dutiable and is not lodged for assessment, unpaid tax interest and penalties may apply on the unpaid duty. In a plant-heavy deal the duty number is large enough to change the structure, so put it in front of your accountant before you agree a price, not after.

Treat it as a consent item and a due diligence item, not an assumption. Local Buy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Local Government Association of Queensland, established in 2001. It describes itself as the largest provider of legislatively compliant prequalified supplier Arrangements in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The commercial value is specific. Local Buy provides access to over 4,500 prequalified suppliers through more than 50 Arrangements, with pre-agreed terms and maximum pricing. Its Arrangements are subject to an exception within the Local Government Regulation 2012, so councils can buy through them without a full public tender.

Like TMR prequalification, an Arrangement listing sits with the listed entity. If council work is material to your revenue, confirm the position with Local Buy before that revenue is priced into goodwill.

They are entity-specific and do not travel with the machines in an asset sale. Construction vehicles used on a road must be conditionally registered with Transport and Main Roads. The scheme covers approved non-standard construction vehicles that do not comply with standard regulations, and grants only limited access to the road network.

The scheme covers tracked and wheeled excavators, graders in standard, excess dimension and excess mass variants, loaders and backhoe loaders, rollers and compactors, trenchers, pavers, forklifts, sweepers, line markers, and mining and construction trucks.

Float movements sit under the Heavy Vehicle National Law, administered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. Oversize overmass work is Class 1 where the vehicle or load combination exceeds prescribed mass or dimension requirements and carries a large indivisible item, and construction equipment is a listed example of such an item.

One date to check. The Heavy Vehicle Structural Assessment Permit System launched on 12 January 2026, replacing prior permitting procedures, so any historical permit position should be re-tested against the current system before a buyer relies on it.

Probably, from 5,000 tonnes a year. ERA 16 extractive and screening activities is prescribed under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld), and listed in schedule 2 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2019. Environmental authorities are administered by the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation.

The published thresholds separate extracting from screening. Extracting, other than by dredging, 5,000 to 100,000 tonnes in a year carries an aggregate environmental score of 22. More than 100,000 and up to 1,000,000 tonnes is a concurrence ERA with a score of 39, and more than 1,000,000 tonnes is a concurrence ERA with a score of 57. Screening 5,000 to 100,000 tonnes scores 13, and screening more than 100,000 and up to 1,000,000 tonnes scores 29.

The separation matters. A contractor who only screens recovered material is still caught once the tonnage crosses the floor.

Riverine work needs two authorisations, not one. Taking material from a watercourse or lake requires a quarry material allocation, authorising extraction of a given volume from a specific location. It also requires a development permit, because removal of quarry material from a watercourse or lake is assessable development under state planning laws. Riverine protection permits under the Water Act 2000 (Qld) apply to destroying vegetation, excavating or placing fill in a watercourse, lake or spring.

Make, model, year, serial or PIN, service meter hours, ownership and finance status, financier, registration and condition, on every machine. That is the document the whole deal is reconciled against, including the PPSR searches and the payout figures.

Service hours alone do not set a machine’s value. Major component life, meaning the remaining useful hours in the engine, transmission, final drives, hydraulic pumps and undercarriage, separates two machines with identical hours. A rebuilt machine, typically reset toward new-equivalent life with manufacturer-backed certification, carries materially more residual value than an overhauled one at the same hours.

Document any meter change. The service meter unit is the figure of record, and it diverges from the physical hour meter when a meter is replaced or fails. An undocumented divergence reads to a buyer as a valuation risk on that machine.

These are industry terms rather than statutory ones. Your buyer will still use them, and a plant register that answers them without a follow-up email shortens diligence.

As a contingent liability that survives a share sale, and as a proxy for how the business is run. A buyer’s work health and safety due diligence will pull your notifiable incident history, and an unnotified notifiable incident is a live problem the buyer inherits with the entity.

Two triggers are earthmoving-specific and are notifiable even with no injury. The first is plant failure or malfunction. The second is the collapse or failure of an excavation, or of any shoring supporting an excavation.

The fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing is also a dangerous incident, along with uncontrolled escapes, uncontrolled fire or explosion, electric shock and structural collapse. Serious injury or illness covers amputation, serious head, eye or burn injury, spinal injury, loss of bodily function and serious lacerations, along with specified work-related infections.

Get your notification records, Form 3 lodgements and incident investigations into one folder before diligence starts. Safe Work Australia’s model Code of Practice on managing the risks of plant in the workplace, November 2024, is the reference a buyer’s adviser will read alongside them.

Largely not, and that is genuinely useful to know. QBCC’s rollout excludes from project trust work the construction, maintenance or repair of a busway, road or railway, or a tunnel for a busway, road or railway, along with authorised resource activities.

The 50% test still bites. If project trust work exceeds 50% of total contract value, a project trust account is still required, so a contractor mixing civil and building work can be caught on a given contract.

The thresholds are worth knowing. From 1 January 2022 the threshold is $1 million or more excluding GST for Queensland Hospital and Health Services, and $10 million or more excluding GST for state authorities, local governments and private entities.

If any of your contracts are close to those lines, get the position confirmed with QBCC before contracts are exchanged. A trust account obligation discovered mid-diligence stalls a deal.

Check it directly rather than assume. The building and construction portable long service leave levy applies to work costing $150,000 or more excluding GST. The combined rate is 0.575%, described by QLeave as $5.75 for every thousand dollars or part of a thousand. Of that, 0.35% funds long service leave.

Timing is fixed. The levy is payable before a development permit is issued for building work, plumbing and drainage work, or operational work, or, where no development permit is given, before the work starts.

One honest caveat. QLeave’s published pages set out the cost of work and the $150,000 threshold, but do not state expressly whether civil infrastructure, earthworks, roads, bridges and drainage sit within building and construction work for levy purposes. Confirm your position with QLeave on 1300 753 283 before you warrant it.

The reason to bother is the tail. Unpaid or under-declared levies on past projects are a contingent liability that stays with the entity in a share sale.

It can, on two fronts. Transport and Main Roads requires immediate written notice of any change to key personnel including project managers, project engineers and supervisors, so a departure at settlement is a prequalification event as well as an operational one.

Design and construct civil work also needs sign-off from a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland. The Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland operates under the Professional Engineers Act 2002 (Qld) and states that anyone carrying out a professional engineering service in Queensland or for Queensland must be registered as an RPEQ.

If the RPEQ capability sits in one individual who is leaving, that is a key-person dependency and a buyer will price it. The usual answers are a handover period, a retention or earn-out tied to the person staying, or recruiting the replacement before you go to market rather than after.

The demand side is strong, funded and published, which suits a well documented business. Queensland total construction work done reached $16,868.4 million in the March quarter 2026, seasonally adjusted chain volume, up 2.1% on the quarter and 6.0% on the year. That is ABS Construction Work Done, Australia, Preliminary, released 27 May 2026. Queensland is the third largest construction market in Australia by work done.

The forward pipeline is on the record. The Queensland Budget 2026-27 carries a $29.616 billion capital program for 2026-27 and $119.242 billion over four years. That includes $55.9 billion for new and upgraded roads, bridges and transport, and a $9 billion Bruce Highway upgrade program on an 80:20 federal partnership. The Games venue infrastructure provision is $7.1 billion across 17 new and upgraded venues.

Read that against the Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program 2026-27 to 2029-30, which publishes planned road, rail, maritime and transport investment. A seller can evidence the demand environment from government sources rather than assertion.

One caution. A buyer discounts pipeline you are not prequalified to bid, which loops straight back to your TMR levels and your financial level. Fixing the prequalification position changes which of that pipeline a buyer can count, and waiting for a better quarter does not.

The central question of every earthmoving sale, and it deserves a straight answer. If the business generates earnings beyond what the plant alone would produce, through contracted work, prequalifications, a team and clients who stay, it earns a going concern price above asset value. If it is really you plus machines, the price gravitates to the market value of the gear. A confidential appraisal from someone who genuinely knows plant values tells you which side of the line you are on, and exactly what would move you to the stronger side.

Typically as a multiple of adjusted earnings, with plant either included or dealt with separately depending on the structure that suits the deal. The multiple moves with work in hand, client spread, owner dependence and the state of the fleet. Because the gear often carries a big share of the value, realistic market values across the register, not book values, are the foundation of pricing it right.

Financed plant is completely normal and does not stop a sale, but every encumbrance needs to be identified early and dealt with at settlement so the buyer takes clear title. Know your payout figures across the whole fleet before going to market. It protects your net position and prevents the late surprises that derail deals.

Not through a properly run process. It goes to market described by its capability, its plant and its numbers, with no business name and no yard address on it. Enquiries sign a confidentiality agreement and are qualified before anything identifying is released, and the detail a competitor could actually use comes last, to a committed buyer. In a tight industry like this one, confidentiality is not a courtesy, it is the process.

Your work in hand is usually central to the value of the deal, and the transfer of each contract is handled in the sale contract, commonly by assignment or novation with the client's consent. Contracts that are written, current and in the company's name transfer far more smoothly than handshake arrangements, which is one more reason to formalise client relationships well before market.

Now, whatever your timeline. If your exit is years away, knowing the number now is what turns the years in between into value building rather than drift. If it is closer, you may be able to fast track, and businesses with contracted work, rare prequalifications or specialised capability are saleable to strategic buyers today.