Is a licence from another state valid in Victoria?

Not automatically. Licensing is administered state by state and there is no national register. Mutual recognition schemes exist and can let a licence holder apply to be recognised in another jurisdiction, but that is an application the tradesperson has to have made — it is not automatic, and the register for Victoria is what settles it.

What percentage of VIC businesses publish an ABN you can check?

6.9% of the 8,586 VIC businesses in this directory, against 9.8% nationally.

Does an unlicensed tradesperson have to fix bad work?

Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of whether the tradesperson is licensed — an unlicensed operator cannot escape them by being unlicensed. Enforcing them is another matter, which is why the licence check is worth the minute it takes. If it has already gone wrong, see the guide on what to do when work goes wrong in Victoria.

Check a tradie licence in VIC

Short answer

In Victoria, licences are issued and published by Victorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical, covering building practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria. Search the licence number the business gives you on that register before work starts — it is free and takes about a minute. There is no national licence register in Australia, so a licence from another state does not automatically apply to work done in Victoria.

Licensing in Australia is a state matter. There is no national register, no single number to look up, and a licence issued in one state does not automatically authorise work in another. In Victoria, the authority is Victorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical.

Which register to search in Victoria

Victorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical covers building practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria.

Victoria splits this across two bodies and it catches people out. The Victorian Building Authority registers builders and plumbers; electricians are licensed by Energy Safe Victoria, a different regulator with a different register. Checking the VBA for an electrician returns nothing, which reads as 'unlicensed' when it actually means 'wrong register'.

What to actually look at when the register returns a result

That the licence is current, not expired or suspended. An expired licence is the single most common problem a check finds.
That the name on the licence matches the name on your quote. A licence held by a related company is not a licence held by the business you are contracting with, and it is the contracting entity that owes you the work.
That the licence class covers this job. A general building licence is not an electrical licence, and a plumbing licence does not automatically include gas fitting.
Any conditions on the licence. Conditions exist for a reason and are published where the register shows them.

What 8,586 VIC businesses publish about themselves

A licence is not the only thing you can check from outside a business, and the rest is not encouraging. Across every VIC business in this directory:

What we checked	VIC	Australia
Publish an ABN we could confirm	6.9%	9.8%
Listed phone matches their own website	37.7%	39.2%
Listed phone contradicts their own website	4.7%	4.8%
Website responded when we checked	64.4%	64.7%
Median Google reviews	30	29

7,994 VIC businesses — 93.1% of them — publish no ABN anywhere a customer can find it. An ABN is free to obtain and free to publish, so this is not evidence of anything improper. It does mean the cheapest identity check available to you is unavailable for most of the market, and that asking is reasonable.

What a licence check does not tell you

Whether the work will be any good. A licence is a floor, not a rating.
Whether they carry insurance. That is a separate question with a separate answer, and you should ask it.
Whether the licensed person will be the one on site. Ask who is actually doing the work and whether they are supervised.
Whether they are solvent. A licence stays current right up until a business stops trading.

Common questions

Who licenses tradespeople in Victoria?: Victorian Building Authority, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical, covering building practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria. Victoria splits this across two bodies and it catches people out. The Victorian Building Authority registers builders and plumbers; electricians are licensed by Energy Safe Victoria, a different regulator with a different register. Checking the VBA for an electrician returns nothing, which reads as 'unlicensed' when it actually means 'wrong register'.
Is a licence from another state valid in Victoria?: Not automatically. Licensing is administered state by state and there is no national register. Mutual recognition schemes exist and can let a licence holder apply to be recognised in another jurisdiction, but that is an application the tradesperson has to have made — it is not automatic, and the register for Victoria is what settles it.
What percentage of VIC businesses publish an ABN you can check?: 6.9% of the 8,586 VIC businesses in this directory, against 9.8% nationally.
Does an unlicensed tradesperson have to fix bad work?: Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of whether the tradesperson is licensed — an unlicensed operator cannot escape them by being unlicensed. Enforcing them is another matter, which is why the licence check is worth the minute it takes. If it has already gone wrong, see the guide on what to do when work goes wrong in Victoria.

How to check a tradesperson's licence in Victoria