No general licence; Stocked Impoundment Permit (SIPS) for stocked dams. Read from Queensland DPI on 2026-09-23, schedule 2026-07-28.
Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence for salt or fresh water. A Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to line fish in the scheme’s stocked dams and weirs (over 60 impoundments) if you are 18 or over.
| Permit | Fee |
|---|---|
| Stocked Impoundment Permit, one week | A$13.60 |
| Stocked Impoundment Permit, one year | A$64.58 |
| Stocked Impoundment Permit, one year, concession | A$46.45 |
Prices in AUD, the same for residents and visitors. The permit money funds the fish stocking groups that keep the impoundments stocked with native fish that mostly do not breed there.
Concessions. The concession yearly permit is for holders of a Queensland Government Seniors Card, a Pensioner Concession Card, a Health Care Card and the other cards the page lists.
Exemptions. Children and teenagers under 18 do not need a permit.
The permit page was last updated on 28 July 2026.
Online through the Queensland Government’s permit portal and at Australia Post outlets; the page links both.
Buy from the agency or its official portal, linked in the sources below. A site that adds a processing fee on top of the agency price is a reseller.
Queensland is a no-licence state. There is nothing to buy to fish the beaches, the reefs, the estuaries or the rivers; what governs you is the rule book of size limits, bag limits, closed seasons and closed waters, and the Great Barrier Reef zoning where it applies. The exception is a single permit, the Stocked Impoundment Permit, and it is a good example of a user-pays scheme done in the open: it applies only to line fishing in the sixty-odd dams and weirs the scheme stocks, and the money goes straight back to the stocking groups that put the barramundi, bass and golden perch there in the first place.
Anyone 18 or over must hold a permit to line fish a scheme impoundment; children and teenagers under 18 fish free. A week costs A$13.60 and a year A$64.58, with a concession year at A$46.45 for holders of a Queensland Seniors Card, a Pensioner Concession Card, a Health Care Card and the other cards the government page names. We read those figures on 23 September 2026 from a page last updated on 28 July 2026, and it is worth saying that the stocking dams are put-grow-and-take fisheries: most of the stocked species cannot breed in them, so the permit is literally what keeps the fish coming.
Not needing a licence is not the same as not needing to know the rules. Queensland runs some of the most detailed recreational rules in the country, including a closed season for barramundi on the east coast, regional limits for coral reef fin fish, and no-take zones inside marine parks, and the department publishes them by species on its fishing rules pages. The daily report on each Queensland water on this site links the relevant rule page rather than repeating figures that can change with a gazette notice.
The scheme covers more than sixty dams and weirs, and the list of which waters are in it lives on the Queensland Government’s SIPS pages alongside a finder for the nearest one; a permit is only needed on those, so check the list before buying for a dam you are not sure about.
No. Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence. The one permit that exists is the Stocked Impoundment Permit for line fishing in the scheme’s stocked dams, needed from age 18.
A$13.60 for a week or A$64.58 for a year, and A$46.45 for a year with a Seniors Card, Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card, read from the Queensland Government permit page (last updated 28 July 2026).
No. Anyone under 18 can line fish the stocked impoundments without a permit.
No. It applies only to the stocked impoundments in the scheme; everywhere else in Queensland there is no licence or permit for recreational fishing, only the size, bag and closed-season rules.
Every Queensland water on this site carries a daily report and links back to this page. The Queensland hub has today's verdicts side by side; all Australia waters are filterable by type and species.