It depends entirely on the state: New South Wales requires no liquor licence at all to run a BYO restaurant, Victoria charges A$345.40 for a BYO permit and wants eleven weeks notice, and Queensland leaves it to your council.
Skai Solutions publishes this because every government page on the subject answers for one state, and the question operators actually ask is which rule applies to them and what it costs. The three regimes below are read straight off the state sources, dated, with the fees and the lead times attached.
Three of the biggest hospitality states answer this three different ways, and the difference is not a detail. One charges you, one does not regulate it at all, and one sends you to your council.
| State | Do you need a permit? | Who decides | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | No | Nobody. A liquor licence is not required to run a BYO restaurant under the Liquor Act 2007 | Nil |
| Victoria | Yes, unless you already hold a qualifying licence | Liquor Control Victoria | A$345.40 application fee, non-refundable |
| Queensland | Not from the liquor regulator | Your local council. Some councils want to be told and will endorse BYO on your food licence | Set by the council |
Read 23 September 2026 from NSW Government, BYO restaurants, Liquor Control Victoria, BYO permit, and Business Queensland, BYO alcohol for restaurants and cafes. Council requirements are set locally and change, so confirm yours in writing.
In Victoria the application fee for a BYO permit is A$345.40 and it is non-refundable, so a refused or withdrawn application is money spent. The fee is the small part. Liquor Control Victoria asks you to apply at least eleven weeks before you need the permit, and says it may take longer if more information is needed or if there are objections.
Eleven weeks is the number that actually costs money. If your opening date is eight weeks out and your concept depends on customers bringing wine, you are trading without it or you are not trading. The permit is also narrow: it covers restaurants including cafes, clubs and commercial party buses, and if your venue is another type you cannot apply for it at all.
Victoria also lists the licences that already allow BYO, so a venue holding one of these does not need a separate permit: general, restaurant and cafe, on-premises, full club and restricted club. The most common mistake is a venue applying for a permit it already has the benefit of.
This is where the New South Wales answer gets misread. No licence does not mean no obligations. The NSW Government page is explicit that BYO restaurants still carry responsibilities under the liquor laws, and the penalties attach to the venue and its staff, not only to a licensee.
In Queensland the liquor regulator does not regulate BYO for restaurants, but the same practical point holds: your council may require notification and may endorse BYO on your food licence, and a licensed venue can refuse BYO outright. Customers should not bring alcohol without your consent, and for some licensed premises types bringing it in is an offence.
One thing that does not change at the border is who fields the question. Most BYO enquiries arrive by phone, during service, and our page on an AI phone answering service for restaurants covers what happens to them when nobody is free.
Because BYO is regulated as part of liquor licensing, and liquor licensing is a state matter with no national scheme behind it. New South Wales deregulated it, Victoria kept a permit with a fee and a queue, Queensland pushed it down to local government. There is no federal rule sitting above them to bring the three into line.
That is the same pattern operators run into with award coverage, where three different awards can apply to rooms that look identical from the street. If you have not settled which one covers yours, that question is worth an hour. Music is the other licence that catches unlicensed venues out, and it is charged nationally rather than by state, which is set out in what a music licence costs a restaurant or cafe.
BYO removes the highest margin line on a hospitality menu and replaces it with a corkage charge. That is a commercial decision, not a legal one, and it usually comes with a different kind of customer: larger groups, longer sittings, more phone bookings, and far more questions before they arrive.
The questions are predictable and they arrive at the worst time. Can we bring wine. Is there corkage. How much per bottle. Per person or per bottle. Can we bring beer as well. A BYO venue fields those calls all afternoon, and most of them come in while somebody is on the floor. It is the same problem as a surcharge that has to be explained: a policy that is completely reasonable, asked about constantly.
Skai Solutions answers that line, gives the same answer every time, takes the booking and passes it through. Setup takes five days. If your corkage policy is on the page, the caller gets it without anyone leaving the floor.
If those corkage calls are the bulk of your inbound, the question stops being a licensing one and becomes a staffing one. What an AI receptionist for a hospitality venue does with a question like "how much is corkage" is answer it the same way every time, without pulling anybody off the floor to do it.
If the phone is the part of the night that suffers while you are checking corkage and service rules, the case for and against handing it to software is set out on our page on whether an AI receptionist works for a coffee shop, which runs the same arithmetic for a small venue.
If you are in New South Wales, nobody should be selling you one. If you are in Victoria and you already hold a restaurant and cafe licence, an on-premises licence, a general licence or a club licence, you already have the benefit and a permit application is A$345.40 you do not need to spend. And if your trade is mostly takeaway and delivery, BYO does nothing for you at all: the corkage revenue needs people sitting down.
If you are running an unlicensed dining room in Victoria and you want the permit, apply early. Eleven weeks before you need it is the published guidance, not a worst case.
Footpath seating is licensed separately again, and the fee depends on which council owns the pavement outside your door. We priced it in what an outdoor dining permit costs, where a 24 seat footpath at one Melbourne council works out near A$3,430 a year.
The other alcohol rule that changes at every state border is who may be in the room at all. Minors on licensed premises sets out why New South Wales allows minors in many venues while Queensland bans them unless an exemption applies, and what the 5pm nightclub cliff does to the meal exemption.
If you let customers bring their own, your staff are still serving alcohol in the eyes of the regulator. What an RSA certificate costs sets out who on your floor needs one and by when.
The other complaint a licensed venue gets from the street rather than from a regulator is noise. What happens when someone complains about your restaurant noise explains how a complaint escalates from a neighbour to a permit condition, and where it can be stopped cheaply.
If you will sell alcohol rather than let customers bring it, BYO is the wrong question and the fee is a different order of magnitude. See what a restaurant liquor licence costs to apply for in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, read from the government fee schedules.
Do you need a licence for BYO in NSW? No. A liquor licence is not required to operate a BYO restaurant under the Liquor Act 2007. Council building and development approvals still apply, and the liquor law offences about minors still apply to you and your staff.
How much is a BYO licence in Victoria? The BYO permit application fee is A$345.40, non-refundable, and Liquor Control Victoria asks for at least eleven weeks notice.
Can I charge corkage? Yes. Corkage is a price you set, not a licensing matter. Display it the way you display any other charge so a customer sees it before they order.
Can I refuse BYO? Yes. You and your staff can refuse BYO at your venue. Customers should not bring their own without your consent, and at some licensed premises types bringing alcohol in is an offence in itself.