Victoria Marine Licence Test 2026: Free Practice Questions by Topic

Who needs a marine licence in Victoria?

In Victoria the licence obligation is written into the Marine Safety Act 2010. Under section 52, the owner of a registered recreational vessel must not cause or allow another person to be its master unless that person holds a marine licence, and under section 61 a licence holder must have the licence in their possession while acting as master, with a 5 penalty unit fine for leaving it at home. If you want to drive a personal watercraft, a marine licence alone is not enough: regulation 32 of the Marine Safety Regulations 2023 makes a personal watercraft a prescribed type of vessel, so you also need a PWC endorsement, shown on the licence document by the code PWC. There are narrow exemptions. Under regulation 29 a person who holds a valid certificate of competency that is not subject to health or fitness conditions is exempt, provided they carry that certificate while acting as master. Restricted licence holders face extra limits under regulation 44: no operating between sunset and sunrise, no operating at 10 knots or more, and no towing a person, vessel or object. And under regulation 43 an unlicensed person may operate a vessel only while a licence holder who is over 18 is on board and in a position to take immediate control.

How does the Safe Transport Victoria knowledge test work?

The knowledge test is a written test approved by the Safety Director under regulation 33, covering the Marine Safety Act, the Marine Safety Regulations and any rules made under section 184 of the Act that apply to recreational vessels. The general marine licence test is 30 multiple choice questions with 4 options each, and the pass mark is 26 out of 30: you can afford at most 4 wrong answers. No official time limit is published. The PWC endorsement has its own shorter test of 15 questions with a pass mark of 13. The application itself must be in writing and include your personal particulars with verifying evidence, a declaration that you are not ineligible under regulation 30 (which excludes anyone whose licence is suspended or who is disqualified, including under an interstate law), plus a photograph or digitised image and a specimen signature for the grant of the licence. Once granted, a marine licence runs for either 1 year or 5 years under regulation 35, and it can be renewed up to 5 years after expiry under regulation 38.

The six topics the test covers

Each guide below answers the real questions Victorian candidates ask, explains the governing provision of the Act, the Regulations or the COLREGS, gives you a comparison table for the points people confuse, and lets you try free practice questions drawn from a 536-question bank. Together they walk the whole syllabus:

• Registration and licensing: registering your vessel for up to one year, the 14-day transfer rule, identification marks, marine licence terms, restricted licences and the PWC endorsement.
• Collision rules: give way and stand on, head-on, crossing and overtaking situations, look-out, safe speed and risk of collision under the COLREGS steering and sailing rules.
• Safe operation: overloading and how children are counted, the master's duty of care, towing with an observer, dangerous operation and unsafe vessel detention.
• Lifejackets and safety equipment: the Schedule 3 equipment tables for coastal, enclosed and inland waters, fire extinguishers and fire blankets, and when lifejackets must be worn.
• Lights, shapes and signals: navigation light colours and arcs, day shapes, whistle signals and the sound signals used in restricted visibility.
• Duties and incidents: the duty to assist a person in distress, distress signals, and the step-by-step obligations after a reportable incident.

Where the questions come from, and how to use this hub

Every question in our bank is original wording grounded in a specific passage of the public text of Victorian law: the Marine Safety Act 2010, the Marine Safety Regulations 2023 or the COLREGS (which Victoria applies to vessels on State waters, and which the fitness-for-purpose registration condition in regulation 27 references directly through Annex I for navigation lights). Each question cites the provision it is built on, so when you get one wrong you can read the actual rule rather than memorise an answer letter. A sensible study plan is to work the free practice questions on each topic page first to find your weak areas, then drill those topics until the misses stop. The collision rules and the lights and signals topics reward systematic study because the COLREGS are highly structured; the registration and licensing topic rewards repetition because it is dense with specific numbers such as the 14-day transfer window, the 3-month registration renewal grace period and the 150-millimetre identification mark height. Each topic page exposes a small slice of the same question bank that powers our offline app, so you can sample the real difficulty for free before deciding to unlock all 536 questions. The facts here were last reviewed on 2026-07-13; always verify anything time-sensitive against Safe Transport Victoria before you rely on it.