Selling, Home Business & Farm-Stay Rules in Australia: A General Guide

Australia has no blanket "cottage food law" the way the US does. Selling produce, running a home business, and hosting farm-stay guests each sit under a different approval system, and every state sets them up a little differently.

Selling what you grow, running a business from home, and hosting paying guests are three separate legal questions in Australia, and this guide explains the pattern that holds across every state before diving into your specific state's article.

There's no national "cottage food law" — every state runs its own food safety system

Unlike the US, Australia has no blanket exemption letting home cooks sell freely up to a dollar threshold. Every state requires some form of notification, registration, or licence before selling food, even from a farm gate stall or a market table. Most states (NSW, VIC, SA, TAS) use a notification or registration system for lower-risk food, escalating to a licence or annual registration for higher-risk categories like meat, dairy and eggs. Queensland and the NT lean more heavily on council licensing even for everyday home cooking like preparing a farm-stay breakfast. The ACT takes the most prescriptive approach, publishing an actual itemised list of exactly which foods a home kitchen can produce.

Egg-selling thresholds are the clearest small-scale exemption, and they vary by state

Selling eggs is the activity most states have a specific, generous threshold for. NSW and QLD both exempt egg sellers moving 20 dozen (240 eggs) or fewer a week from needing a full food authority licence, just council notification. Tasmania goes further with a two-tier system: under 20 dozen a week needs notification but no formal accreditation, while backyard producers with fewer than 20 birds selling occasionally to friends and neighbours are fully exempt from the Egg Food Safety Scheme altogether.

Home business approval runs on a completely separate track from food safety

Whether you need planning approval to run a business from home has nothing to do with the Food Act — it's governed by planning legislation, and the specific mechanism differs by state. NSW and Victoria each have one statewide exemption clause with standard conditions (employee numbers, amenity impact, signage). WA splits home-based work into two different categories, a "home business" and a "home occupation," with different approval requirements for each. Queensland and Tasmania leave the specific thresholds to individual councils' own planning schemes rather than one state-wide rule. Either way, council will generally confirm your planning approval before it will register the food side of the business.

Farm-stay accommodation ranges from a dedicated statewide code to council-by-council thresholds

NSW built a entirely dedicated Agritourism Code into its planning system in 2022, with specific land uses for farm stay, farm gate and farm experience premises. WA recently reformed its short-term accommodation rules statewide, exempting "hosted" stays (where the owner lives on-site) from planning approval entirely. Other states, like Queensland, leave the specific guest numbers and floor area thresholds to each council's own planning scheme. It's worth being careful to distinguish farm-stay accommodation for paying guests from a separate category several states have: exemptions specifically for housing seasonal agricultural workers, which is a different thing entirely and doesn't extend to tourists.

How to actually find your specific rules

For selling food, your council's environmental health department is the first point of contact, and they'll tell you whether notification or a licence applies to your specific product. For home business and farm-stay, your council's planning or development department can confirm which category your activity falls into and whether a permit is needed. If anything is unclear, a direct phone call to council is usually the fastest way to a definitive answer for your specific property.

We've also built researched deep dives for every state and territory, each covering what's actually set at state level for selling, home business, and farm-stay:

• NSW — the Food Authority licence threshold, the Codes SEPP home business exemption, and the 2022 Agritourism Code
• VIC — the FoodTrader statewide registration platform, Clause 52.11, and Farming Zone bed and breakfast conditions
• QLD — the Food Act 2006 licence categories, council-set planning thresholds, and the rural worker accommodation exemption
• WA — the home business/home occupation planning split, and the new statewide STRA reform exempting hosted short-term rentals
• SA — the Food Act 2001 notification system and the single statewide Planning and Design Code's Home-based Business provisions
• TAS — tiered egg-selling thresholds, and the Tasmanian Planning Scheme's home business and visitor accommodation Use Classes
• NT & ACT — NT's Priority risk classification, and the ACT's explicit itemised low-risk food list

An important disclaimer, worth taking seriously

Everything in this guide is a general pattern, not a substitute for checking your own council's current rules directly. Food safety, planning, and tourism regulations all change over time, and several states in this series have reformed their rules within the last few years. Treat this as a map of what to look for and why the rules vary the way they do, not as a definitive answer for your specific address.

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