Check a Queensland environmental authority

Type the EA reference as it appears on the permit or the tender document, or the holder's name. 15,141 authorities from the Queensland public register — and 6,921 of them are no longer in effect.

The number on the document is not the answer

An EA reference proves a permit existed. It does not prove it still confers anything — and on this register 45.7% of authorities have been surrendered, cancelled, suspended, or have expired. That is 6,921 references that can be quoted truthfully on paper and mean nothing in practice.

That is the whole reason this site exists: the register publishes the status, and nothing lists it.

Why the authority is required at all

In Queensland, carrying out an environmentally relevant activity without holding or acting under an environmental authority is an offence under section 426 of the Environmental Protection Act 1994, with a maximum penalty of 4,500 penalty units.

The activities are numbered — ERA 1 to ERA 63 — and each authority names the ones it covers. 5,751 of the 15,141 authorities carry at least one ERA code; the rest are resource activities such as exploration permits, which are regulated differently.

Among them, ERA 57 — Regulated Waste Transport is the Queensland counterpart of the waste carrier registration a producer must check before handing over waste.

By industry

• Minerals — 5,866
• Waste & Resource Recovery — 2,294
• Gemstones — 1,506
• Coal — 1,198
• Industry and Development — 1,010
• Extractive — 964
• Sewage Treatment — 628
• Petroleum and Gas — 627
• Manufacturing — 249
• Chemical — 221
• None — 156
• Food Production — 103
• Transport — 88
• Aquaculture — 68
• Energy — 58
• Reef — 48

The most common regulated activities

• ERA 57 — Regulated Waste Transport — 2,041
• ERA 16 — Extraction and Screening — 1,294
• ERA 63 — Sewage Treatment — 821
• ERA 62 — Resource recovery and transfer facility operation — 710
• ERA 54 — Mechanical waste reprocessing — 350
• ERA 8 — Chemical Storage — 187
• ERA 60 — Waste disposal — 170
• ERA 7 — Chemical manufacturing — 166
• ERA 50 — Mineral and bulk material handling — 147
• ERA 33 — Crushing — 140
• ERA 53 — Organic material processing — 120
• ERA 55 — Other waste reprocessing or treatment — 106
• ERA 1 — Aquaculture — 85
• ERA 47 — Timber Milling and Woodchipping — 80
• ERA 15 — Fuel burning — 80
• ERA 25 — Meat Processing — 66
• ERA 61 — Thermal waste reprocessing and treatment — 56
• ERA 38 — Surface Coating — 54

All 16 industries · 31 ERA codes · Status

Need an activity done, or a contractor checked?

An authority tells you someone was permitted to carry out a regulated activity. It does not tell you they still are, that they are available, or that they will quote. Tell us what you need and roughly where, and we will put it in front of holders whose authority is in effect. We are not a broker, we hold no prices, and we take no booking.

We read every message ourselves. Your email is used to reply and to pass the enquiry on, and nothing else — see the privacy page.

Bulk checks and API · Buy the prepared dataset · What this site is and is not