Hiring a tradie in Australia comes with one key question: is this person properly licensed? Each state and territory keeps its own registers, run by different licensing bodies, each with its own website and search. Checking a single electrician or plumber can mean jumping between several government sites. The Aus Trades set out to fix this with one national platform.

The idea

The Aus Trades (theaustrades.com) combines three things in one place:

• Verify: search trade licences from licensing bodies across Australia
• Find: browse a directory of licensed tradies and businesses
• Hire: post a task and let tradies find the job, or browse open jobs on a map

The challenge

• Licence data comes from 31 licensing bodies, in different formats and with different fields.
• The platform holds more than 1.5 million licence records, so search had to stay fast.
• Users search in different ways: by person, by business name or by licence number.
• Results had to be clear about status, expiry and which body issued the licence.
• The marketplace side needed to show jobs across a whole continent in a simple way.

What we built

1. One search for every licence

The homepage is built around a single search box: name or business, or licence number. Quick filters let users narrow by state or territory: ACT, NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, NT and TAS. Headline stats show the scale: 1.5M+ licence records, 31 licensing bodies and 50+ occupations.

2. Advanced search by state and occupation

Advanced Search adds state checkboxes and 59 occupation filters, from Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Architect and Asbestos Assessor to Builder, Bricklayer, Cabinet Maker, Electrician, Plumber and Surveyor. Users can combine filters to find exactly the trade they need in their region.

3. Clear licence result cards

Each result is a card showing the business name, occupation (for example Drainer, Plumber or Gasfitter), a status badge such as Current, the licence number, expiry date, licensing body (for example the Queensland Building and Construction Commission) and licence category. A bookmark icon saves records, and View Licence Details opens the full record.

[IMAGE: shot-at-3.jpg | alt: Licence result cards with status, licence number, licensing body and category]

4. Licensing bodies and occupations explained

Dedicated pages cover each licensing body, including the NT Plumbers and Drainers Licensing Board, Verify NSW, WorkSafe VIC, EnergySafe VIC, WorkSafe Tasmania and the state architects boards, so users understand who issues which licence. Occupation pages explain each trade.

5. A tradie directory and business listings

Find a Licensed Tradie lets customers browse professionals, and List Your Business lets tradespeople create a listing linked to their licence, which builds trust from the first click.

6. Post a task, browse tasks on a map

Customers post a task with a title, location and budget in AUD. Tradies browse open tasks on an interactive map of Australia, with pins for each job and a side list showing the title, suburb, state, budget and View Details. Jobs range from a hot water fix in Sydney to architecture design in Tasmania.

[IMAGE: shot-at-4.jpg | alt: Browse Tasks: interactive map of Australia with the open task list]

Architecture and technology

• Front end: Next.js and React, with server-side rendering for fast, SEO-friendly search and listing pages
• Back end: Node.js APIs for search, licence records, listings, tasks and accounts
• Data: licence data from 31 licensing bodies normalised into one consistent structure and indexed for fast search
• Maps: an interactive map for browsing tasks by location

Challenges we solved

Many sources, one format. Every licensing body publishes different fields. We mapped them into one schema covering name, occupation, status, licence number, expiry, body and category, so every result looks and behaves the same.

Speed at 1.5 million records. Indexed search, pagination and server-side rendering keep results quick, even for broad searches like “plumbing”.

SEO for every page. Licence searches, licensing-body pages and task pages are built to be indexed by search engines, helping the platform get discovered by people searching for tradies and licence checks.

The outcome

The Aus Trades turns a slow, multi-site process into a single search. Homeowners can confirm a licence in seconds, tradies can showcase their credentials and win work, and every job is visible on one national map.

Frequently asked questions

Can you build a search platform for large public datasets?

Yes. We import, clean and index large datasets, such as more than 1.5 million licence records, and build fast search with filters on Next.js and Node.js.

Can a directory and a job marketplace live on one platform?

Yes. On The Aus Trades, licence verification, the tradie directory and the task marketplace share one account system and one design.

Can jobs be shown on a map?

Yes. Tasks appear as pins on an interactive map, with a synced list showing location and budget.

Planning a directory or marketplace?

Alohomora Solution builds search platforms, directories and marketplaces for clients in Australia, India and the UAE. Talk to our team about your idea.