Victoria’s recreational marine licence is the gateway to operating a powerboat on the state’s rivers, bays and coastal waters. To get the licence, you sit a knowledge test covering registration rules, collision avoidance, safety equipment, and more. This guide explains who needs the licence, what the test involves, and what each topic area covers.
Who needs a marine licence in Victoria?
You need a marine licence to operate a registered recreational vessel powered by a motor of more than 4.4 kilowatts on Victorian State waters. The Marine Safety Act 2010 (Vic) and the Marine Safety Regulations 2023 (Vic) set out the framework; Safe Transport Victoria administers the test.
Vessels that are not powerboats are exempt from registration and from the licence requirement. A separate PWC endorsement is required on top of the marine licence to ride a personal watercraft such as a jet ski.
What does the knowledge test involve?
The marine licence knowledge test is 30 multiple-choice questions, each with four options. Tests are sat at a VicRoads outlet or an accredited training provider. No official time limit is published for the knowledge test; Safe Transport Victoria’s own online practice test is untimed.
The pass mark is 26 correct out of 30, meaning no more than four wrong answers are allowed. Accredited Victorian training providers publish this 26 of 30 threshold.
What topics does the test cover?
The 30 questions are drawn from six areas of Victorian marine law and the international collision rules:
- Registration and licensing: vessel registration requirements, who must hold a marine licence, the PWC endorsement, restricted licence conditions, and special identification plates.
- Collision rules: give-way and stand-on duties, head-on and crossing situations, overtaking rules, safe speed, and the look-out requirement. These rules come from the COLREGS, the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.
- Safe operation and speed: speed limits, required distances from swimmers and structures, towing and water-skiing rules including the requirement for an observer on board, and careless or dangerous operation offences.
- Safety equipment and lifejackets: required safety equipment, flares and fire extinguishers, and when lifejackets must be worn. Children under 12 must wear a compulsory lifejacket in an open area of a vessel while it is underway.
- Lights, shapes, and signals: navigation lights for different vessel types, day shapes, sound signals, and distress signals. Key definitions: a short blast lasts about one second; a prolonged blast lasts four to six seconds.
- Duties and incident reporting: the master’s duty of care, the obligation to proceed to assist a person in distress (unless it would be unsafe, unreasonable or unnecessary), and reporting requirements for reportable incidents.
Do I need a separate test for a jet ski?
Yes. The PWC endorsement is a separate test: 15 questions with a pass mark of at least 13. You must already hold a marine licence before adding the endorsement. The 30-question marine licence knowledge test does not cover PWC-specific rules in depth.
What is the official source for this test?
The test draws from publicly available Victorian law and the COLREGS. The primary sources are the Marine Safety Act 2010 (Vic) and the Marine Safety Regulations 2023 (Vic), both available at legislation.vic.gov.au. The collision-avoidance questions come from the COLREGS, adopted under the Marine Safety Act.
Every question in the RiverMap app cites the specific provision it tests, so you can follow the reasoning back to the law rather than memorising rules without context.
How should I prepare?
No single topic dominates the 30 questions enough to safely skip the others. The collision rules and safety-equipment sections catch many candidates off guard because they rely on specific numbers and definitions: which vessel gives way in a crossing situation, which safety items are required, or what a prolonged blast means. Practising topic by topic, then running full 30-question mocks against the 26 of 30 pass mark, gives you a clear read on where you stand.
The RiverMap app for the Victoria marine licence knowledge test covers all six topic areas with over 500 practice questions and 480 flashcards, each built directly from the Marine Safety Act 2010, the Marine Safety Regulations 2023, and the COLREGS.