Queensland is unusual. In most of Australia, anyone can call themselves an engineer. In Queensland, the Professional Engineers Act 2002 makes it an offence to carry out a professional engineering service unless you are a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (an RPEQ), or you are working under the direct supervision of an RPEQ who takes responsibility for the work. The Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ) runs the register and investigates complaints.
That rule reaches further than most clients expect, so it is worth understanding before you brief a job.
What counts as a "professional engineering service"
The Act defines it broadly: an engineering service that requires, or is based on, the application of engineering principles and data to a design, or to a construction, production, operation or maintenance activity relating to engineering. In plain terms, if someone has to exercise engineering judgement to decide whether something is adequate, that is a professional engineering service.
Typical examples on the sites we work on:
- Designing a platform, walkway, pipe support, lifting lug or equipment frame.
- Assessing whether an existing structure can take a new load, or whether a corroded member is still fit for service.
- Approving a repair method, a material substitution or a change to a drawing.
- Signing an as-built drawing that records deviations from the original design.
- Writing or reviewing a pressure test procedure.
There is one important exclusion. Work done only in accordance with a prescriptive standard, where no engineering judgement is needed, is not a professional engineering service. Fabricating exactly to a drawing that an RPEQ has already signed is a good example. The moment the fabricator has to decide how to handle something the drawing did not anticipate, the exclusion no longer applies.
It applies to the work, not the postcode of the engineer
The requirement follows the service. An interstate or overseas engineer designing something for a Queensland site still needs to be an RPEQ, or be directly supervised by one. This catches a lot of vendor-supplied packages: the skid arrives with drawings signed by a competent engineer in another state, and nobody has checked whether that engineer is registered in Queensland.
Why it matters to you, not just the engineer
The penalties in the Act fall on the person providing the service, but the practical risk lands on the asset owner and the project:
- Building work. Certifiers will generally not accept a design certificate (a Form 15 under the Building Act) from someone who is not an RPEQ for that area of engineering.
- Mine sites. Site engineering standards and management-of-change procedures almost always require RPEQ certification for structural, mechanical and pressure equipment changes, and the Mines Inspectorate will ask for it after an incident.
- Insurance and disputes. If something fails, the first question asked is who was responsible for the engineering. "Nobody registered" is a bad answer.
RPEQ and CPEng are not the same thing
The two are often printed side by side, which hides an important difference.
| RPEQ | CPEng | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Statutory registration under Queensland law | Chartered credential issued by Engineers Australia |
| Where it applies | Queensland (and work done for Queensland) | Nationally recognised, not a legal requirement on its own |
| What it proves | The engineer is legally permitted to take responsibility for engineering services in Queensland | The engineer has been independently assessed as competent to a professional standard |
| Upkeep | Annual renewal, continuing professional development | Ongoing CPD and periodic review |
CPEng, or Engineers Australia's National Engineering Register, is one of the assessment routes an engineer can use to apply for RPEQ, which is why the two so often go together. Having both means the engineer has been competency-assessed by a national body and is legally registered to practise in Queensland.
Registration is by area of engineering
An RPEQ is registered in one or more areas: mechanical, civil, structural, electrical and so on. A mechanical RPEQ should not be signing a structural design outside their competence, and vice versa. Small industrial jobs often sit right across that boundary (a pipe rack is structural, the pipe stress on it is mechanical), so it is worth asking which areas your engineer holds and how the interface will be covered.
How to check before you hire
- Ask for the RPEQ number. Every registered engineer has one and will give it to you without hesitation.
- Look the number up on the BPEQ online register. It shows the registration status, expiry and areas of engineering.
- Confirm the area of engineering matches the work you are briefing.
- If an engineer says they are "working under an RPEQ", ask who that RPEQ is and confirm that person will be reviewing and signing the work.
if a drawing, calculation, procedure or assessment will be relied on to decide that something is safe or adequate, an RPEQ needs to be responsible for it. If you are not sure whether your job crosses that line, it is a five-minute conversation to find out. Vendors and fabricators outside Queensland: see RPEQ certification for equipment supplied into Queensland.