Australian Capital Territory

Car parks and other road related areas

The rule is about who can see the light rather than where you are, so a car park may not change the answer. Not confirmed.

Where you can use it

Vehicle standards govern vehicles used on roads. A vehicle that is not on one is outside them.

• Not visible to other motorists

  This jurisdiction's own guidance accepts under-body lighting provided it does not flash and cannot be seen by other motorists, moving or parked.

  But: Stricter than it sounds. A driver in a low car seeing the lamps, or light reflecting off chromed underbody parts, is expressly given as grounds for a defect notice.

• Show cars and display vehicles

  A vehicle that is not used on a public road is outside these rules. Any colour, any pattern, any brightness.

  But: The moment it is driven on a public road it is a road vehicle again, and everything on this page applies to it.

• Transported on a trailer

  A car being carried is a load, not a vehicle in use, so it does not have to comply while it is on the trailer. This is how a show car reaches a show with the lighting fitted.

  But: The trailer and the towing vehicle still have to comply. Switching the lighting on during transport is a separate question — a lit load on a public road can still be caught by what the combination shows. Run it at the venue.

• Private property

  Driveways, private land, workshops and car parks that are not open to the public are not roads or road related areas.

  But: Many car parks that feel private are road related areas in law. If the public can drive in, assume the road rules reach it.

• Off-road and private land

  Paddocks, private tracks, farms and 4WD parks are not public roads or road related areas.

  But: Getting there is usually road use. National parks and reserves have their own rules, and some tracks within them are gazetted roads.

• Race circuits and track days

  A closed circuit is not a public road, so vehicle standards do not reach it. The circuit's own rules apply instead, and at a sanctioned event so do the sanctioning body's technical regulations. A scrutineer can require lighting to be removed or disabled.

  But: Red facing rearward means something specific on a circuit. Rain lights — a red rear lamp within 100 mm of the centreline — have been mandatory at Motorsport Australia race events since 2020 and must be an FIA or CIK approved unit. Approval attaches to the device rather than to the light it emits, so configuring this product to look like a rain light does not make it one. It will fail scrutineering, and until it is checked it tells drivers behind you something untrue. Fit a real one.

• Stationary at a show, on display

  Parked at a venue with the bonnet up, doors open, engine bay and cabin lit.

  But: A vehicle parked on a public street is still on a road, and several jurisdictions word their rules as applying whether you are driving or stationary.

• Fitted but switched off

  Where the rule is about the light a vehicle shows rather than about what is fitted to it, an installation that is switched off is a different question from a lit one.

  But: This does not apply everywhere, and it is left off the jurisdictions where the rule prohibits fitting the lamp at all.

Where you mount it

• Inside the cabin

  Conditional

  Allowed only if no colour is visible to other motorists through the glass.

  The rule is that no colour beyond the mandatory ones should be visible to other motorists, driving or stationary. It is written about what others can see, not about where the lamp is, so interior lighting is not automatically outside it.

• Engine bay

  Conditional

  Allowed only where the light cannot be seen by other road users — bonnet closed while driving, or the vehicle stationary.

  Lighting here is hidden by a closed bonnet. Because the rules turn on what other road users can see, a bay light that cannot be seen while you drive is a different proposition from one showing through the grille or panel gaps. With the bonnet up at a show the vehicle is stationary and usually off a road anyway.

• Ute tray or tub

  Conditional

  Allowed only as a work light: white, switched separately, and used while the vehicle is stationary.

  Work lights are provided for by name: white, switched separately, and used only while the vehicle is stationary. Coloured tray lighting run while driving is not a work light and does not carry that permission.

• On a trailer

  Conditional

  Allowed only if no colour is visible to other motorists. The trailer is registered and defected in its own right.

  A trailer is its own registrable vehicle with its own required lamps, so it is inspected and defected separately from the car towing it. The same rule about lamps that are not permitted applies to it, and added lighting must not reduce the effectiveness of the trailer's tail lamps, indicators or reflectors.

What you must not do here

• Anything imitating a regulated lamp — a rain light, brake light, indicator, hazard or emergency warning lamp. Those are approved units doing a defined job, and a copy that looks right is worse than one that looks wrong, because other drivers act on it.
• Any colour visible to another motorist, moving or parked.
• Blue, green or magenta — the page groups these as emergency colours.
• Anything that could confuse other road users, or that causes glare or reflection off the road or bodywork.