What are the ordinary trading hours for licensed premises in Queensland?

Some general comments on trading hours:

• The rules governing trading hours for Community Other and Special Facility licences are not considered on this page. If you require information about these licence types, or on any other matter, please contact us.
• An increase in trading hours, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, does not apply to trading on Christmas Day, Anzac Day or Good Friday except under narrowly defined circumstances. Therefore, licensees with a permanent approval to trade past midnight must close at midnight on the day before each of these special days.
• All licensees (other than Community Other) are approved to trade until 2am on New Year’s Eve and no application is required, unless there is a condition on your licence requiring you to make one.
• A permanent increase is known as an ‘Extended hours approval’ and a temporary increase is granted under an ‘Extended hours permit’.

Extended hours approvals

An application for a permanent increase in trading hours will usually need to be supported by a Community Impact Statement and may require advertising. If the application is advertised, members of the public who are affected by the application can lodge an objection. If the application is granted a valid objector will also have appeal rights. A permanent approval triggers an increase in the licensee’s annual licence fees. Current licensing fees are at the OLGR website.

Approval to trade after midnight

• Midnight to 2am – available in all areas of Queensland.
  • Note: premises with an on-premises licence, where the principal activity is the provision of meals or prepared food (restaurants and cafes), cannot obtain permanent approval to trade past 1am.
• Midnight to 3am – only available in a Safe Night Precinct.

Approval to trade before 10am

Approvals to trade before 10am are subject to the following  additional criteria:

• 7am to 9am
  • Community club licences – generally available for golf and lawn bowls clubs. Otherwise the club must demonstrate there is a genuine community need.
  • All other licences – only available for sale of liquor to people attending a function on the licensed premises. Functions are defined in the Liquor Act to mean an event or occasion to which people are invited by an organiser, and where the benefit to the licensee is limited to charges for room hire and catering.
• 9am to 10am – only available where the licensee can demonstrate genuine community need for the increased trading hours.

Extended hours permits

Applications for temporary increases require the licensee to pay an application fee calculated on the number of days sought. The application must be lodged at least 21 days before the earliest date sought and must be endorsed by the local police.

Each calendar year a licensed premises may obtain the following maximum number of permits:

• Midnight to 5am – 6 permits;
• Before 10am – 4 permits.

Permits to trade between midnight and 5am

Permits to trade between midnight and 5am are subject to the following additional limitations:

1. The permit must relate to special occasion that is:
   1. a private function that is not open to the public – this includes weddings, birthdays etc; or
   2. an event of local, state or national significance – this includes certain public holidays, local festivals, televised international sporting events etc; and
2. Where the application relates to a special occasion that is a public event, the extended hours must generally coincide with the event; and
3. Permits are only available for one special occasion in each calendar month and if the permit is granted for more than one day each day counts towards the annual limit. Examples of how this works are:
   • a licensee cannot obtain a permit for New Year’s Eve and Australia Day because they are both in January (the permit for New Year’s Day allows trading on 1 January);
   • a permit allowing 3 nights of extended trading for a music festival over a single weekend in a month will be considered 3 permits for the purposes of calculating the annual limit.

For more information on extended hours permits for late night trading see this article.

Permits to trade before 10am

Permits to trade before 10am are subject to the same limitations as permanent approvals (see above).

How we can help

Liquor and Gaming Specialists regularly assists licensees with applications for permanent and temporary extensions of trading hours. For information on our services, please call us on 07 3252 4066 or contact us through this website.

If you are a Queensland liquor licensee you may be able to apply for an extension to your trading hours, depending on your licence type. For most licence types, extended hours means any hours of trade before 10am and after 12 midnight.

Extensions to trading hours are either temporary (one-off) or permanent (ongoing):

Temporary (one-off) extended trading hours

The following one-off extensions to trading hours are available upon approved application:

• 7–9am for the purpose of a function only for all licences except community other licences (see definition of 'function' in the table below).
• 7–9am for community club licences only who can demonstrate a need in the community for this trading, or the club is a lawn bowls or golf club.
• 9–10am for all licences except community other licences who can demonstrate a need in the community for this trading.
• 9–10am for takeaway liquor sales for commercial hotel licences, community club licences and commercial special facility licences.
• 12 midnight to 5am for all licences except community other licences.

The number of temporary extended trading hours permits that can be issued for trading prior to 10am is limited to 4 dates per any 1-year period. Permits for trading between 12 midnight to 5am is limited to 6 dates per calendar year.

All applications for temporary trading after 12 midnight must be for a special occasion. Read liquor-related permits to learn the definition of a 'special occasion'. Lock out conditions may be imposed.

Permanent (ongoing) extended trading hours

Pre-10am trading

All licence types

• Approved extended trading between 7–9am for the provision of functions only is available to all licensees upon approved application with the exception of community other licensees (see definition of 'function' in table below).
• Approved extended trading between 7–9am is available upon approved application for community clubs only when need in the community is demonstrated or the club is a lawn bowls or golf club.
• Approved extended trading from 9am is available to licensees, with the exception of community other licensees, upon approved application who can demonstrate a need in the community for this trading.
• Approved extended trading for takeaway liquor sales from 9am is available to licensees of commercial hotel licences, community club licences and commercial special facility licences upon approved application who can demonstrate a need in the community for this trading.
• Approved extended trading between 7–10am will incur annual fees payable within 28 days of the grant of the application and then by 31 July each year.

Takeaway liquor

• 9am to 10am for commercial hotel licences, community club licences or commercial special facility licences for takeaway liquor sales that can demonstrate a need in the community for this trading.

12 midnight to 5am trading

• Extended trading permissible between 12am–2am (excluding takeaway liquor sales and community other licences) for premises located outside a safe night precinct, subject to approval based on strict criteria.
• Extended trading permissible between 12am–3am (excluding takeaway liquor sales and community other licences) for premises located within a safe night precinct.
• Extended trading permissible between 12am–5am for commercial special facility licences relating to an airport or casino only.
• Extended trading permissible between 12am–1am for subsidiary on-premises restaurant and café licences.
• Approval to trade during this period is subject to annual late trading fees payable within 28 days of application approval and then by 31 July each year.
• Approved extended trading hours will be endorsed on the licence.

Extended trading hours for weekends only

All licensees (except community other licensees) have an option to apply for extended trading hours during weekends. The weekend extended trading periods are:

• prior to 10am Saturday and Sunday
• 12 midnight to 5am Friday night/Saturday early morning and Saturday night/Sunday early morning (refer to table below for details).

The annual fees payable for extended trading are reduced for weekend-only trade, if applicable.

Summary of permanent (ongoing) extended trading hours

Also consider...

• Last reviewed: 3 Feb 2020
• Last updated: 16 Sep 2020