Compliance by state

How South Australia's Legionella regulations cover cooling towers and warm water

South Australia's Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 apply to both cooling water systems and warm water systems delivering water at a nominal 45 degrees Celsius, covering hospitals, aged care and other non domestic buildings. Owners inspect monthly, the relevant authority (usually the local council) inspects at least once a year, and systems and maintenance are registered with that authority for a fee.

Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

Official name: Registration and inspection of a cooling water system or warm water system under the Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013
Regulator: SA Health sets the rules and guidelines; the relevant authority for the premises (usually the local council) registers and inspects
Who issues it: The system owner registers and maintains it; environmental health officers from the relevant authority inspect it
When: Operating a cooling water system or a warm water system (nominal 45 degrees Celsius) in a non exempt building, including hospitals and aged care
Deadline: Owner inspection monthly; relevant authority inspection at least annually; Legionella detection notified within 24 hours with immediate shutdown
Lodgement: Registration, renewal, inspection and any alternative procedure application go to the relevant authority for the premises
Keep records for: SA Health's guidance does not publish a fixed record retention period; keep registration, inspection and maintenance records for the relevant authority's annual inspection
Penalty: SA Health's published guidance sets registration, renewal, inspection and determination fees but does not state a specific non compliance penalty amount; enforcement sits with the relevant authority under the Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 and the South Australian Public Health Act 2011.

Homeowner? If you run a South Australian aged care facility, hospital or building with a cooling tower, both your warm water system and your cooling tower can be covered by the same Legionella regulations, and both need monthly checks plus the relevant authority's annual inspection.

What the certificate must show

Which category the system falls in: cooling water system or warm water system, and its exemption status if any
Registration with the relevant authority and the fee paid
Monthly owner inspection and preventative maintenance records
The relevant authority's annual inspection result
Any Legionella detection notification, shutdown and decontamination record

Recent change

Registration, renewal, inspection and determination fees shown on SA Health's Legionella page are effective from 1 July 2026.

Produce it from a ServiceM8 job

Record each cooling water system and each warm water system as a separate Asset in ServiceM8, tagged with the relevant authority (local council) for the site.
Build a form, Legionella monthly check SA, with fields matching SA Health's monthly inspection and preventative maintenance requirements, and set it on a monthly recurring job per asset.
Add a Choice question for system type (cooling water / warm water) so the office can see at a glance which registration and fee schedule applies.
Track the relevant authority's annual inspection date as a separate recurring job, distinct from the monthly owner check, so the two cycles do not get merged into one visit.
Add a Checkbox question, Legionella detection, that when ticked prompts a mandatory Date and Time field for when the relevant authority was notified, keeping the 24 hour window visible to the office.
Where a client has an approved alternative maintenance program or decontamination procedure, note the approval reference on the asset so technicians follow the approved method rather than the standard guideline by default.
Keep registration, inspection and maintenance history in the asset record so it can be produced quickly if the relevant authority's environmental health officer asks for it during the annual inspection.

One regulation, two kinds of system

Most states write their Legionella rules around cooling towers alone. South Australia's Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 name two: a cooling water system, meaning heat exchange equipment such as a cooling tower or evaporative condenser with its piping and controls, and a warm water system, meaning one that distributes water at a nominal temperature of 45 degrees Celsius using a temperature controlling device. That second category is what pulls hospitals, aged care facilities and similar buildings into the same regulation as a rooftop cooling tower, because their tempered hot water systems for showers and handbasins fall squarely inside the definition.

A private home is generally exempt, as is a single dwelling unit, but a warm water system serving multiple dwellings, such as a shared hot water plant in an apartment building, is not automatically out of scope. If you service warm water systems for aged care or health clients specifically because of the legionella risk to a vulnerable population, this is the regulation that applies, not a general plumbing standard.

Two inspection rhythms

SA Health's guidance sets two different inspection cycles running at once. The owner carries out monthly inspections and the prescribed preventative maintenance for the system. Separately, environmental health officers from the relevant authority, typically the local council, inspect the system at least once a year. The monthly owner inspection is the one a service contract usually covers; the annual authority inspection is a compliance check on top of it, not a substitute for it.

Registration sits with the relevant authority, not SA Health directly

SA Health publishes the regulations and the guidelines, but registration, renewal and inspection fees are set for, and generally administered through, the relevant authority for the premises, most often the local council. Fees effective from 1 July 2026 are $48.25 to register the first system on a site and $32.25 for each additional system, $24.40 per system to renew, $193.00 for the first inspection and $129.00 for each additional one, with a $811.00 fee for a determination or approval such as an alternative maintenance program. Confirm which authority covers a given site before quoting registration, since a multi site operator may be dealing with several different councils' processes for the same regulation.

Detection means an immediate shutdown

If Legionella is detected at a level the regulations treat as significant, SA Health's guidance requires the system to be shut down immediately and the relevant authority notified within 24 hours, followed by decontamination. There are separate application processes for an alternative decontamination procedure, an alternative maintenance program, or a drift eliminator exemption, each needing its own approval before you depart from the standard method in the guidelines.

Sources

The South Australian Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 and accompanying guidelines apply to warm water systems and cooling water systems. A cooling water system means heat exchange equipment, including a cooling tower or evaporative condenser, with its interconnected piping and controls. A warm water system means one that distributes water at a nominal temperature of 45 degrees Celsius by means of a temperature controlling device. Private dwellings (Class 1a, 4 or 10 buildings) and certain individual Class 2 units are generally exempt. SA Health, Legionella, checked 25 Sep 2026.
System owners must carry out monthly inspections and prescribed preventative maintenance. Environmental health officers from the relevant authority (for example, the local council) inspect all regulated systems at least annually. SA Health, Legionella, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Fees effective 1 July 2026: registration $48.25 for the first system and $32.25 for each additional system, renewal $24.40 per system, inspection $193.00 for the first system and $129.00 for each additional system, and $811.00 for a determination or approval (such as an alternative maintenance program, alternative decontamination procedure, or drift eliminator exemption). SA Health, Legionella, checked 25 Sep 2026.
On detection of Legionella at a significant level, the system owner must shut the equipment down immediately, notify the relevant authority within 24 hours using the Notification of Legionella detection form, and proceed with decontamination. SA Health, Legionella, checked 25 Sep 2026.
SA Health publishes Guidelines for the Control of Legionella in Manufactured Water Systems in South Australia, plus separate application forms for an alternative maintenance program, alternative decontamination procedures for cooling water or warm water systems, and a drift eliminator exemption, and separate guidance for local authorities responding to a Legionella detection and for risk management in care facilities. SA Health, Legionella, checked 25 Sep 2026.
The South Australian Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 are made under the South Australian Public Health Act 2011. South Australian Legislation, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Completed ServiceM8 forms convert to a PDF saved to the job diary, where they can be emailed; form answers are placed into a Word document template using Template Field Codes. ServiceM8 Help Center, checked 25 Sep 2026.
A ServiceM8 form can be completed against an asset from the job's Assets menu; each question shows past values for that asset, and the completed form is listed in the asset's history and saved in the job diary. ServiceM8 Help Center, checked 25 Sep 2026.