Compliance by state

How Victoria's cooling tower registration and audit rules work

In Victoria a cooling tower system is registered directly with the Department of Health, not the local council, for a term of 1, 2 or 3 years the owner chooses. The owner must have a risk management plan to control Legionella and have it independently audited every year (Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008). A penalty applies for operating unregistered.

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

Official name: Cooling tower system registration and risk management plan audit, under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008
Regulator: Department of Health (Victoria)
Who issues it: The owner of the cooling tower system, registered directly with the department (no council step)
When: Operating a cooling tower system in Victoria
Deadline: Register before operating, for a 1, 2 or 3 year term; independent RMP audit every year; notify changes within 30 days; notify Legionella detection within 24 hours; notify decommissioning within 30 days
Lodgement: Application for registration and notification forms emailed to legionella@health.vic.gov.au
Keep records for: The department holds the register; the current registration certificate must be on hand to attach to a decommissioning notice
Penalty: It is an offence to operate an unregistered cooling tower system, and a penalty applies for not developing a risk management plan or not having it independently audited every year. The Department of Health's published guidance does not state a specific dollar or penalty unit amount; the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 and Regulations 2019 set the offence.

Homeowner? If you manage a Victorian building with a cooling tower, check it is registered with the Department of Health (not the council) and ask for the current independent audit certificate, which is required every year.

What the certificate must show

Registration term chosen (1, 2 or 3 years) and the registration certificate
Risk management plan covering Legionella control for the specific system
Independent auditor's name, approval status and the audit date
Current contact details, ownership and water treatment service provider on the department's register
Sampling results, with any detection in three consecutive samples or a single result over 1,000 cfu/mL flagged for 24 hour notification

Recent change

Cooling tower registration fees increase on 1 July each year under the department's published fee schedule; the 2026 to 2027 fees took effect 1 July 2026.

Produce it from a ServiceM8 job

Record each cooling tower as an Asset in ServiceM8 with the Department of Health registration number, term (1, 2 or 3 years) and expiry date.
Build a form, Cooling tower RMP audit VIC, capturing the auditor's name and approval status, attached to a yearly recurring job so the audit never lapses past 12 months.
Add a Choice question, Change to notify, covering the six notifiable changes (contact details, ownership, water treatment provider, tower added or removed, relocation, term change), so a technician flags anything needing a 30 day notice to the department.
Add a Number field for each sample's Legionella cfu/mL result and a Checkbox for three consecutive detections, so a result needing the 24 hour notification is obvious on the day.
Set the registration renewal itself as a separate recurring job matched to the chosen term (1, 2 or 3 years), rather than assuming annual, so multi year registrations are not renewed early or missed.
When a tower is decommissioned, run a checklist item requiring the current registration certificate be attached to the 30 day decommissioning notice before the job closes.
Keep the registration and audit paperwork in the asset history so a multi tower site's full department register position is visible from ServiceM8 without opening the department's own portal.

State registration, not council

Victoria is the odd one out among the eastern states here. NSW and Queensland route cooling tower paperwork through the local council. Victoria's Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 requires every cooling tower system to be registered directly with the Department of Health. The owner applies by emailing the department's Legionella team the Application for registration form, and picks a registration term of 1, 2 or 3 years, which sets when the next renewal and fee fall due.

That single point of registration is convenient for a multi site operator, since the whole portfolio sits on one department register instead of a different council process per site, but it also means there is no local backstop: if the department registration lapses, there is no council fallback catching it.

What changes trigger a fresh notification

A registration is not a one time form. The owner must notify the department within 30 days of a change of contact details or address, a transfer of land or system ownership, a change of water treatment service provider, adding or removing a cooling tower from the registered system, relocating the system, or changing the registration term. Missing one of these notifications is the kind of gap that shows up when the department cross checks its register against an incident, not when the paperwork was actually due.

The risk management plan and the yearly audit

The owner must develop a risk management plan to control Legionella growth in the cooling tower system. The Act requires that plan to be independently audited by an approved auditor every year, separate from and in addition to routine maintenance. Victoria's guidance is explicit that the audit is annual regardless of how the system is otherwise performing, so a clean bill of health from the last audit does not push the next one out.

Detection and decommissioning both have a clock

If Legionella is detected in three consecutive samples, or a single sample exceeds 1,000 cfu/mL, the department must be notified within 24 hours. If a system is taken permanently out of service, the owner has 30 days to notify the department and attach the current registration certificate. Both of these sit outside the ordinary annual registration cycle and need their own reminder, because they are triggered by an event, not a date.

Registration is not free, and the fee resets each year

Registration fees are prescribed per tower and per registration term, and Department of Health guidance says they are scheduled to increase on 1 July each year, so a fee quoted to a client should always be checked against the current year's schedule rather than carried over from the last renewal. It is an offence to operate an unregistered cooling tower, alongside the separate offence of not having the RMP audited annually.

Sources

The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 requires all cooling tower systems to be registered with the Department of Health. Owners must develop a risk management plan (RMP) to control Legionella growth, and the RMP must be independently audited by an approved auditor every year. A penalty applies if you do not register a cooling tower system, develop an RMP, or have it audited every year. Department of Health (Victoria), Cooling tower systems, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Cooling tower systems are registered with the Department of Health for a term of 1, 2 or 3 years, chosen by the applicant, by emailing the Application for registration form to legionella@health.vic.gov.au. Registration holders must notify the department within 30 days of a change to contact details or address, a transfer of land or system ownership, a change of water treatment service provider, adding or removing a tower, relocating the system, or a change to the registration term. Department of Health (Victoria), Cooling tower systems registration and notification forms, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Legionella detection in three consecutive samples, or a single sample exceeding 1,000 cfu/mL, must be notified to the department within 24 hours. Decommissioning a system must be notified within 30 days, with the current registration certificate attached. Department of Health (Victoria), Cooling tower systems registration and notification forms, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Cooling tower registration fees for the 2026 to 2027 fee year are $129.50 per tower for 1 year, $241.80 for 2 years and $354.00 for 3 years. Fees are scheduled to increase on 1 July each year and are exempt from GST. Department of Health (Victoria), Cooling tower systems registration fees and refunds, checked 25 Sep 2026.
The risk management plan must be independently audited by an approved auditor every year, under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. Department of Health (Victoria), Auditing the cooling tower risk management plan, 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.
ServiceM8 recurring jobs are created from the Dispatch Board with New Recurring Job, a job template, automatic scheduling and a recurrence pattern with an end date. ServiceM8 Help Center, checked 25 Sep 2026.