General information about the law, not legal advice. Licences are granted in New South Wales by the Commissioner of Police, in Victoria by the Chief Commissioner of Police, and in Queensland on application to the chief executive named in the Act. Penalties are as printed in the versions listed at the foot of this page.
Who countsThe two roles, in each Act’s words
New South Wales
- Bodyguard (s 4(2))
- “a person who is employed or engaged for the purpose of providing close personal protection to another person.”
- Crowd controller (s 4(2))
- “a person who, for remuneration, exercises one or more of the following functions at a relevant place as part of the person’s regular duties”: controlling or monitoring the behaviour of persons to maintain order; screening persons seeking entry; removing persons for behavioural or other reasons; any other function prescribed by the regulations.
- Relevant place (s 4(2))
- Licensed premises within the meaning of the Liquor Act 2007, a public entertainment venue, a place where a public or private event or function is held, a hospital, a quarantine facility, retail premises, or a public place, but not a place the regulations prescribe as not being a relevant place.
Victoria
- Bodyguard (s 3)
- Someone employed or retained to give another person a close personal protection service.
- Crowd controller (s 3)
- Someone employed or retained principally to keep order at a public place: screening who comes in, monitoring or controlling behaviour, removing anyone, or keeping order another way. Someone who only checks that people let in have paid, or hold an invitation or pass, is left out.
- Public place (s 3)
- Any premises holding a licence or permit under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998, and any place the public can enter or is allowed to enter, whether or not entry is paid.
Queensland
- Bodyguard (s 4A)
- “A bodyguard is a person who, for reward, provides a close personal protection service.”
- Crowd controller (s 5)
- “A crowd controller is a person who, for reward, is at a public place principally for keeping order in or about the public place, including, for example, by doing any of the following”: “(a) screening the entry of persons into the place; (b) monitoring or controlling the behaviour of persons in the place; (c) removing persons from the place.” The Act’s example is “a bouncer at a hotel, nightclub or rock concert”. Under s 5(2), a person is not a crowd controller “merely because the person checks that a person allowed admission to the public place has paid for the admission or has an invitation or pass allowing the admission.”
New South WalesClasses 1A and 1B
Section 4(1) of the Security Industry Act counts as security activities, when done in a business or in a person’s employment, “(a) acting as a bodyguard or acting in a similar capacity” and “(b) acting as a crowd controller, or acting in a similar capacity, by physical or electronic means”, among others.
Class 1 licences come in subclasses (s 11). Class 1A authorises the licensee “(i) to patrol, protect or guard property while unarmed, whether while static or mobile, and (ii) to act as a crowd controller or in a similar capacity”. Class 1B “authorises the licensee to act as a bodyguard or to act in a similar capacity”. More than one subclass may be endorsed on a class 1 licence.
Carrying on a security activity without a class 1 or class 2 licence that authorises it is an offence under section 7(2), with a maximum penalty of 500 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both.
The Security Industry Regulation 2026 commenced on 1 September 2026 and replaces the 2016 Regulation. It says that a health screening, “including a screening conducted as a condition of entry to a venue, is not a security activity”.
VictoriaThe individual operator licence
The Private Security Act names seven security activities: acting as an investigator, a bodyguard, a crowd controller, a security guard, a private security trainer, a security equipment installer or a security adviser (s 3).
Section 7(1) makes it an offence to carry on any security activity outside the specified security guard activities without a private security individual operator licence covering that activity; the penalty is 120 penalty units. Section 8(1) separately penalises indicating, without that licence, that you carry on or are willing to carry on such an activity: 20 penalty units.
The Act’s “specified security guard activities” are six kinds of guarding: armed guard, unarmed guard, guard with a dog, cash-in-transit guard, control room operator and monitoring centre operator. Bodyguards and crowd controllers are not among them, so section 7(1) is theirs, not section 7(2).
QueenslandThe appropriate licence
Section 4(1) of the Security Providers Act lists seven kinds of security provider: “(a) a bodyguard; (b) a crowd controller; (c) a private investigator; (d) a security adviser; (e) a security equipment installer; (f) a security officer; (g) a security firm.”
Section 9(1) reads: “Unless a person holds the appropriate licence, the person must not” carry out the functions of a security provider, or advertise or in any way hold out that they carry out, or are willing to carry out, those functions. The maximum penalty is 500 penalty units for a first offence; 700 penalty units or 6 months imprisonment for a second; and 1,000 penalty units or 18 months imprisonment for a third or later offence. Engaging an unlicensed person to do that work for reward carries the same scale (s 9(2)), and a person without the licence “is not entitled to any reward for carrying out the functions of a security provider” (s 9(3)).
A licensed crowd controller at work must wear the prescribed identification where it is clearly visible (s 47).
What it addsA licence for the role, not a power over people
The New South Wales Act is direct about the limit: “A licence does not confer on the licensee any function apart from a function authorised by the licence.” (s 8) Removal from a venue, arrest and weapons are set by other laws, read in the next guides. Licence fees, training and the other states and territories are outside this guide.