Where it is legal

Fitting underglow and switching it on while driving are two different questions, and in most places they have two different answers. Pick where you drive.

This is not legal advice, and it was not written or reviewed by a lawyer. It is our reading of publicly available legislation and government guidance, done by engineers, and it may be wrong or out of date.

Road rules change, they differ between states, and an officer at the roadside is not bound by anything we have written. Where we cite legislation, follow the link and read it — that is what governs you. For anything you intend to rely on, ask your state’s transport authority or a lawyer.

State or territory

Vehicle lighting is regulated by each state and territory, on top of the Australian Design Rules that apply nationally. An installation that is legal in one state is not automatically legal in another.

Never make your car look like an emergency vehicle

Red and blue flashing lights identify police, ambulance and fire vehicles. Showing something another driver could take for one is an offence in its own right — impersonating emergency services — and it is handled under criminal law rather than the vehicle standards the rest of this page is about. The penalties are of a different order to a defect notice.

What matters is how it reads to somebody else on the road, at night, in their mirror. A pattern that looks like an approaching patrol car is that pattern whether it was set up as a party mode or not, and intent is not the test.

So: no red and blue together, nothing flashing, strobing or sweeping side to side, and nothing forward-facing that could pass for a light bar. Those colours and patterns belong to the vehicles that need them.

This page is a starting point, not legal advice. Road rules change, and an officer at the roadside is not bound by what we have written here. Where we cite legislation, follow the link and read it — that is the thing that governs you, not our summary of it.