ASRA - Australian Skateboard Racing Association

The laws of skateboarding. Taken from the Australian Road Rules as approved by the Australian Transport Council and published by the Australian Transport Commission Feb 2009.

The Australian Transport council was setup to streamline national road rules under agreement by all states and territories' transport and roads Ministers. Under agreement of the Australian Transport Council all states and territories are obliged to create legislation that is constant with the National Road Rules 2009. Given that our members come from all over Australia this is the most relevant document.


In the absence of local exceptions the following information should be considered the law:

Q - What is a skateboard under the law?
A - For the Australian Road Rules, a person in or on a wheeled recreational device or wheeled toy is a pedestrian, not a rider (as in cyclist) and not a vehicle. The laws that relate to skateboards apply within Part 14 (Rules for pedestrians) of the Australian Road Rules. Part 14 - Division 1 is about pedestrian laws. Division 2 relates to pedestrians of wheeled recreational devices.

Q - Where and when can I use this toy?
A - On roads that satisfy these conditions:
  • a road with no dividing line and no median strip; and
  • a road on which the speed-limit is equal to or less than 50 kilometres per hour; and
  • a one-way road with less than 2 marked lanes.
note 1: The exception to this is when a road is clearly marked as no recreational devices allowed.
note 2: You are permitted to be on a prohibited road on your skateboard for the purpose of crossing that road and only when taking the shortest possible route. You are not required to get off your skateboard to do this

Q - When can I use my skateboard?
A - During daylight hours

Q - How can I skate?
A - When on a road you can skate as fast as you want with as many people as you want but you must not be any more than 2 abreast with other riders. You must also stay to the left of the road.

Q - Can I skate on the footpath?
A - Yes. However you must keep to the left of the footpath or shared path unless it is impracticable to do so; and you must give way to any pedestrian (except a person traveling in or on a wheeled recreational device or wheeled toy) who is on the footpath or shared path. On a footpath or shared path bicycle riders must give way to skateboarders.
note: You must not skate on a footpath that has been specifically signposted as no wheeled toys allowed.

Q - Skitching looks fun, am I allowed to do that?
A - NO. A skateboard cannot be towed by a car nor can a skateboarder hold onto a car if it is moving. A skateboarder also cannot travel within 2m of a car continuously for any distance over 200m

Q - Do I have to be wearing a helmet?
A - No, but you might be considered stupid not to. (Except in SA where a bicycle helmet is mandatory)

Q - Can the Police or a security guard confiscate by skateboard?
A - NO. For the state to confiscate your property there has to be special legislation or the item in question must be illegal to possess. ie drugs, knives. The only time they can confiscate something that it is legal to own is in the circumstance where special legislation allows or when a magistrate rules on this ie. the car hoon laws and this is tightly regulated as in they can't confiscate your car because you ran a red light or because of a minor traffic offense. A security guard is just another public citizen and has no special or implied powers.

The illegal dispossession of somebodies personal property is considered theft be that by Police, security guards, or any other person in the community.

The exception to this rule is in Tasmania where the state has special laws that allow you to either pay the fine or hand your skateboard over to police for 7 days but not both

Q - What should I do if the police bust me for breaking skateboard laws?
A - Be polite. If your are issued a fine than cop it like a man and move on. The fine is similar to a cheap or medium quality set of bearings ($40-$60) so don't whinge or sook about it.

Q - What is the penalty for committing one of the above offeneces?
A - Fines vary from state to state:
---- NSW - $54
---- QLD - $40
---- ACT - $67
---- SA - $87
---- VIC -$60
---- TAS - $35-$50 or except 7 day confiscation with no financial penalty
---- WA - $50

Attached is a full copy of the Australian Road Rules 2009

Tags: FAQ, Laws, Skateboard laws, cops, lawyer, lawyers, legal, police, road rules, rules

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I think that the difference is that there is a approved braking system fixed, but you have a point, a shotty bike will have shotty breaks, and I used to have a bike that had about 0.000001% of its breaking ability, I used wind resistance as a major way to stop... never got checked by a cop, and did over 50km/hour plenty of times on it!
I've been stopped by uni security before. He threatened to confiscate my board etc etc... I just show me the signs or at least the written rules. He told me to look it up online. lol. The only rules i could find were "not allowed to skate indoors".

On another occasion, a guard tried to talk to me while I was cruising thru uni. I just kept on rolling while talking to him. He got tired of trying to keep up and talk, and walked off. =] I was moving at about a brisk walk speed.








adrian ho said:
I was longboarding in uni today and got stopped by the security, he told me that it's not allowed in uni and i could be issued a 500 dollar fine. whaaat?!
haha! Referring to your old man as an anal cop is odd... Take him out and show him Tim. If it is something your still learning then show him a video with sliding and footbraking. People do find it very hard to picture sometimes no matter how well you explain it.

I think my last fine was 57 (in SA) but that was a year and a half ago and the crime levy's have risen since I believe. There is a police contact center in each state that you can ring and ask all of these questions. I rang and asked about riding the Adelaide freeway and what the penalty was. She told me straight up the amount of the fine and any extras (which there weren't).
Man, you guys must be skating in the wrong unis. 90% of our encounters with uni security go something along the lines of "take it eas... oh, you've got helmets and pads on, its good to see. Well, then dont hurt yourselves, stay away from cars, and dont get caught by security" and we laugh as they drive off.

Gotta love how chilled the south coast is!

Ben Shane said:
I've been stopped by uni security before. He threatened to confiscate my board etc etc... I just show me the signs or at least the written rules. He told me to look it up online. lol. The only rules i could find were "not allowed to skate indoors".

On another occasion, a guard tried to talk to me while I was cruising thru uni. I just kept on rolling while talking to him. He got tired of trying to keep up and talk, and walked off. =] I was moving at about a brisk walk speed.








adrian ho said:
I was longboarding in uni today and got stopped by the security, he told me that it's not allowed in uni and i could be issued a 500 dollar fine. whaaat?!
the security and staff at UWA are really chilled, while i'll probs get the shit ripped through me for saying this, i skitch around uni on the grounds staff and security cars around campus all the time. and they really dont mind, i always get wave when i say thanks for the lift around uni. going a max of 20km/hr and hanging onto the back of a utes tray, seems pretty good to me.

so you have a shit uni :P
this is the law for WA, i'm going to try find out what the fine is like.

4.2 Wheeled Recreational Devices (WRDs)
People using WRDs (skates, skateboards, scooters etc) are a category of pedestrian and in most regards they are required to obey the same laws as pedestrians. While some of the special provisions that relate to WRDs are mentioned in the above, there are several other important regulations that relate to their use. For instance regulation 206 prohibits travel by WRDs on carriageways that have dividing lines or lane lines, or those that have median strips. They are also not permitted to travel on carriageways where the speed limit is higher than 50km/h. In essence they are restricted to local streets. Regulation 207 also requires that they keep left on carriageways and travel in single file, while regulation 210 prohibits WRD riders from being drawn by vehicles or travelling close to the rear of vehicles.
Laws in WA are the same as everywhere else. Do you know what the fine is?
most roads in university campuses are public roads subject to the same road rules as everywhere else (footpaths etc are a diffrent story)

I guess for the grommies it might be worth noting that on the spot fines if not paid after a certain period can effect your ability to get a drivers licence after a period of time just like transit fines, so if they start to accumulate think of getting them paid

after that gympie newspaper thing i had some thoughts about those guys...i think that was problematic as there was a photo implying that they were breaking the law (or about to) if you lived in gympie i bet it wouldnt be to hard to identify the guys in the photo? There are laws in most states that protect the identity of young offenders...i dunno, I would have my parents complain. Media watch!
I scored a $300 fine for a video i posted on youtube. In court (qld) the police were charging me with dangerous operation of a vehicle under the transport act. I actually pled guilty straight up...but the magistrate started questioning the police as to how a skateboard is a vehicle, the pigs then asked for an agernment to sort their shit. I had to come back a month later, I'm unsure for the wording of the fine...(i'll have to dig it out of some where) but the fine was mainly to do with crossing double white lines. I chopped the S going into a hard left corner and crossed the line again as i exited the same corner.

moral of the story. stay in ur lane....don't chop cause you'll get smoked
Yours was a special case Manchild. One of those things that could only happen in QLD, totally outside the normal protocols of the law. Basically a magistrate creating a decision that holds absolutely no future precedence on a law that does not exist. It was almost like a civil case where the magistrate used all of their possible discretion to create a penalty related to a situation rather than an actual offence
Manchiled - I'd be interested to hear more detail of the magistrate's reasoning in your case. What merited the $300 fine versus the standard fine? If you have any info of the case please post it up.
$60 in victoria
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