In Victoria a noise complaint against a restaurant is tested against a night limit that can never exceed 55 dB(A) between 10pm and 7am, and your day limit is calculated from your zoning rather than published anywhere.
Skai Solutions builds phone agents for Australian and New Zealand venues, and the first step in almost every noise complaint is a phone call nobody answered. This page sets out what the Victorian rules actually say, the one number that is fixed, and who pays when the building next door changes.
In Victoria the answer has three time bands and one hard ceiling. Under regulation 116 of the Environment Protection Regulations 2021 the day runs 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, the evening runs 6pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 7am to 10pm on Sundays and public holidays, and the night runs 10pm to 7am. Regulation 118(3) then sets the only absolute figure in the whole scheme: the night period noise limit must not exceed 55 dB(A).
| Period | When it applies | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Day | 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, not public holidays | Site specific |
| Evening | 6pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday; 7am to 10pm Sunday and public holidays | Site specific |
| Night | 10pm to 7am | Site specific, but can never exceed 55 dB(A) |
For a venue that trades at night, that 55 dB(A) ceiling is the number that matters, because the band it sits in starts at 10pm on a Saturday. Your busiest hour and your tightest limit are the same hour.
Because it is not written down anywhere as a number. This is the single most common error in what gets published about restaurant noise, and it is worth being blunt about it. The Victorian regulations do not fix the day and evening limits. They are calculated under the EPA's Noise Protocol from three inputs: the land use zoning around your premises, the background noise level measured at that location, and whether you are in a major urban area or a rural one.
So a venue on a main road beside a commercial zone and a venue on a side street beside a residential zone have different lawful limits, and neither of them can read their own limit off a web page. If an article tells you the limit for a Victorian restaurant is a single figure, it is wrong, and acting on it is how operators end up spending money on the wrong fix.
The other half of the measurement that surprises people: compliance is usually assessed at a noise sensitive area, which means a residence, a school or a caravan park, not at your boundary and not at your speaker. What your neighbour's living room hears is the test, so the distance, the walls in between and which window is open all sit inside the result.
This is the part almost nothing written for hospitality covers, and it is the fact most likely to save you money. Victoria applies the agent of change principle through planning scheme clause 53.06, explained in the state's planning practice note on live music and entertainment noise. The rule is that whoever introduces the new use into an established situation carries the cost of dealing with the noise.
| Situation | Who pays for noise attenuation |
|---|---|
| You open a new venue near existing homes | You do. The development must include noise control measures protecting a noise sensitive residential use within 50 metres |
| New homes are built near your existing venue | The residential developer does. The new housing must be designed and built with measures that reduce noise from your venue |
Read that second row again if a development application has just gone up on the block behind you. The obligation to deal with your noise lands on the developer, not on you, and 50 metres is the distance that triggers clause 53.06 either way.
There is also a specific figure for outdoor trade. An outdoor live music venue is assessed against 45 dB(A), measured as an equivalent continuous sound level over 15 minutes. Indoor venues fall back to the Environment Protection Regulations limits above. If you are weighing up a courtyard or a footpath area, that number belongs in the decision alongside the outdoor dining permit cost.
One caveat the practice note states itself, and leaving it out would misrepresent the rule: agent of change does not mean anybody else is free of responsibility, and an existing venue must keep complying with the regulations whatever is built next door. It shifts who pays for the new attenuation. It does not give you a licence to get louder.
The order matters because the cheapest resolution is always available at step one and almost never at step four.
The practical lesson from that ladder is unglamorous. The venues that get into trouble are rarely the loudest. They are the ones that never answered the first call.
The decibel figures, the time bands and the agent of change rule above are Victorian. Every Australian state runs its own noise regime and its own planning scheme, and New Zealand handles noise through district plans under the Resource Management Act rather than anything resembling these regulations. The structure of the problem travels. The numbers do not.
So treat this as the shape of the question and get your own limit from your council or from the EPA Victoria noise pages if you trade in Victoria, or from your council's environmental health team if you do not. We are a phone agent company, not an acoustic consultancy, and on anything that reaches step three above you want somebody who measures for a living.
More than it looks. Step one of that ladder is a phone call, and it arrives during service, which is exactly when a venue cannot reach its handset. A neighbour who rings twice at 9pm on a Saturday and gets nobody does not ring a third time. They ring the council. The difference between a conversation and a complaint file is often just whether anyone picked up.
Skai Solutions answers every call on the first ring and sends you what was said, so the complaint that was going to become a council matter reaches you while it is still a neighbour with a reasonable request. It will not make your room quieter. It will stop the first call going unanswered, and on the evidence of that ladder that is where the money is. If your phone mostly carries bookings and nothing else, read what an AI receptionist for restaurants does and judge it on the bookings instead. Setup takes five days.
While you are in the compliance pile, the adjacent one most venues get wrong is music licensing, which is a separate obligation to a separate pair of organisations and has nothing to do with how loud you are. See what a music licence costs a restaurant or cafe.
What is the maximum noise level for a restaurant in Victoria at night?
Regulation 118(3) of the Environment Protection Regulations 2021 states the night period noise limit must not exceed 55 dB(A). Night runs from 10pm to 7am. The actual limit for your premises is calculated under the EPA Noise Protocol and can be lower.
What are the noise periods in the Victorian regulations?
Day is 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday excluding public holidays. Evening is 6pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 7am to 10pm on Sundays and public holidays. Night is 10pm to 7am.
Who pays for soundproofing when a new apartment is built next to my venue?
Under the agent of change principle in Victorian planning scheme clause 53.06, the party introducing the new use pays. New housing built near an existing venue must be designed and constructed with noise control measures, so the cost sits with the residential developer.
Does agent of change mean I can ignore noise complaints?
No. The practice note is explicit that an existing venue must keep complying with the noise regulations whatever is built nearby. Agent of change decides who funds new attenuation, not whether the limits apply to you.
What noise limit applies to outdoor live music?
An outdoor live music venue is assessed against 45 dB(A) as an equivalent continuous sound level over 15 minutes, under the Victorian planning practice note on live music and entertainment noise.
Where is noise measured, at my boundary or at the neighbour's house?
Compliance is usually assessed at a noise sensitive area, meaning a residence, school or caravan park, rather than at the venue boundary.