Tools
Log book hours planner
7 of the 8 Australian states and territories publish a supervised driving hours requirement this site read off the agency's own page, and they run from 50 hours in Western Australia to 120 hours in New South Wales and Victoria. The night hours sit inside that total rather than on top of it, at 5 hours in Western Australia and 20 in New South Wales and Victoria. Northern Territory publishes no mandatory figure this site could verify, so this planner counts down to nothing there. Department of Transport WA, Learn to drive and log your hours. Checked 28 August 2026. Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Driving on your Ls. Checked 28 August 2026. Northern Territory Government, Get your driver licence. Checked 28 August 2026.
The hours are the wall almost everybody hits, and they are the one part of getting a licence you can actually schedule. Put in what you have logged and when you want to sit the test, and this works out whether the two meet.
Put in where you are, the hours already in the book and the date you want to sit the test. The planner works out whether the two meet, how many hours a week it needs from here, and how much of what is left has to be at night.
- What it needs from you
- A jurisdiction, hours logged so far, night hours logged, and a target date.
- What it gives back
- Whether the date is reachable, the weekly rate it needs, and the night hours still owed.
- Where the requirements come from
- Agency pages, seven of eight, each named in the table below with the day it was read.
- What it will not do
- Plan a Northern Territory logbook. No mandatory hours figure has been verified there, so the planner says so instead of picking one.
Where you are learning
The hours run from the day you get your learner licence to the day you sit the driving test. Night hours are counted between sunset and sunrise.
Credits you have earned
Available once you have 50 log book hours of on road driving, not counting 3 for 1 bonus hours, and have done some of that driving at night. The credit is given once. Each hour with a licensed NSW driving instructor logs as 3 hours. Only 10 instructor hours qualify, so the bonus tops out at 20 hours.
Fill in a target date
Add a target test date and we will work out the weekly rate it needs.
- Hours required
- 120 hours
- Learners under 25. 20 of them at night.
- Counted so far
- 0 hours
- Your logged hours.
- Night hours still owed
- 20 hours
- Night hours count inside the total, not on top of it.
- Driving still to do
- 120 hours
- The larger of the two gaps above, since night driving also counts towards the total.
Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026.
The hours, drawn to scale
The gap between the largest requirement and the smallest is the single biggest difference between the eight systems, and it is much wider than the difference between any two knowledge tests.
Supervised hours required before the practical test
Seven bars and one gap. The bar is the standard requirement, and the note under each one carries the night hours and who it applies to.
- New South Wales120 hours20 of them at night. Learners under 25
- Victoria120 hours20 of them at night. Learners under 21
- Queensland100 hours10 of them at night. Learners under 25
- Australian Capital Territory100 hours10 of them at night. Learners whose ACT learner licence was issued before they turned 25
- Tasmania80 hours15 of them at night. Novice learner licence holders since 1 December 2020
- South Australia75 hours15 of them at night. Learners taking the Vehicle On Road Test pathway
- Western Australia50 hours5 of them at night. Learners under 25
- Northern TerritoryNot published hereNo mandatory hours figure has been verified against an agency page, so no bar is drawn.
Bars run from zero to 120 supervised hours. 7 of 8 rows have a figure. The other 1 row is drawn as a gap rather than filled in.
Each row carries its agency page in the table below, with the day it was read. Where a jurisdiction sets a smaller requirement for older learners, the bar shows the standard figure and the table carries the rest.
What each place actually asks for
Seven of the eight publish a figure. The eighth does not, and this page says so rather than borrowing a number from somebody who guessed.
| Where | Hours | At night | Who it applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 120 | 20 | Learners under 25 | Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book, checked 28 August 2026 |
| Victoria | 120 | 20 | Learners under 21 | VicRoads, Driving on your Ls, checked 28 August 2026 |
| Queensland | 100 | 10 | Learners under 25 | Queensland Government, Learner logbook, checked 28 August 2026 |
| Western Australia | 50 | 5 | Learners under 25 | Department of Transport WA, Learn to drive and log your hours, checked 28 August 2026 |
| South Australia | 75 | 15 | Learners taking the Vehicle On Road Test pathway | My Licence South Australia, The Driving Companion log book, checked 28 August 2026 |
| Tasmania | 80 | 15 | Novice learner licence holders since 1 December 2020 | Transport Services Tasmania, If you hold an L1 licence, checked 3 September 2026 |
| Northern Territory | Not published here | Not published here | Not published here | Northern Territory Government, Get your driver licence, checked 28 August 2026 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 100 | 10 | Learners whose ACT learner licence was issued before they turned 25. At 25 or over, 50 hours including 5 at night. | ACT Government City Services, Learner and provisional driver safety, checked 28 August 2026 |
The two things this gets right that most planners get wrong
Both of them change the answer, and both of them are arithmetic rather than opinion.
Night hours sit inside the total, not on top of it
If you are in New South Wales with 110 hours logged and none of them at night, you do not have 10 hours of driving left and you do not have 30 either. You have 20, because the 20 night hours you still owe also count towards the 120. The planner takes the larger of the two gaps rather than adding them together, which is why the number it gives you is usually smaller than the one you were dreading.
Western Australia counts its hours before the assessment
The 50 hours are logged once you have passed the Computerised Theory Test and hold the learner's permit, and they have to be in the book before the Practical Driving Assessment can be booked. Western Australia asks for the fewest hours in the country and then runs the assessment with the lowest pass rate in the country, so treating 50 as a target rather than a floor is how people end up paying for a second attempt.
Credits, and what they are worth
New South Wales is the only jurisdiction where we hold verified credit rules, so it is the only one the planner adds hours for.
The Safer Drivers Course adds 20 hours to the log book. You can take it once you have 50 hours of on road driving that do not include bonus hours, and you need some night driving behind you first. Structured lessons with a licensed New South Wales instructor log at three hours for every hour driven, but only 10 instructor hours qualify, so the bonus stops at 20 hours however many lessons you take.
Neither credit helps with the night requirement. Bonus hours from a lesson taken after dark still only count the hour you actually drove in the dark. That is the detail that catches people who have done all their maths on the total.
The Australian Capital Territory credits lessons at three hours for each hour with an accredited instructor, capped at 10 hours. We have not been able to confirm whether that cap counts lesson hours or credited hours, so the planner leaves the credit out entirely rather than showing you a number that might be a third of the truth.
Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026.
Common questions
Every answer here is built from the same agency figures the table above prints, and names the page each one was read from.
- How many supervised driving hours do Australian learners need?
- 7 of the 8 Australian states and territories publish a supervised driving hours requirement this site read off the agency's own page, and they run from 50 hours in Western Australia to 120 hours in New South Wales and Victoria. The night hours sit inside that total rather than on top of it, at 5 hours in Western Australia and 20 in New South Wales and Victoria. Northern Territory publishes no mandatory figure this site could verify, so this planner counts down to nothing there. Department of Transport WA, Learn to drive and log your hours. Checked 28 August 2026. Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Driving on your Ls. Checked 28 August 2026. Northern Territory Government, Get your driver licence. Checked 28 August 2026.
- How many of the supervised hours have to be driven at night?
- New South Wales: 20 of 120 hours. Victoria: 20 of 120 hours. Queensland: 10 of 100 hours. Western Australia: 5 of 50 hours. South Australia: 15 of 75 hours. Tasmania: 15 of 80 hours. Australian Capital Territory: 10 of 100 hours. This planner counts the night hours inside the total rather than on top of it, so a learner who owes both drives the larger of the two gaps and not the two added together. Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Driving on your Ls. Checked 28 August 2026. Queensland Government, Learner logbook. Checked 28 August 2026. Department of Transport WA, Learn to drive and log your hours. Checked 28 August 2026. My Licence South Australia, The Driving Companion log book. Checked 28 August 2026. Transport Services Tasmania, If you hold an L1 licence. Checked 3 September 2026. ACT Government City Services, Learner and provisional driver safety. Checked 28 August 2026.
- At what age do you stop having to fill in a learner log book?
- New South Wales: no log book from 25. Victoria: no log book from 21. Queensland: no log book from 25. Western Australia: no log book from 25. Australian Capital Territory halves the requirement to 50 hours including 5 at night for a learner licence issued at 25 or over. This site has verified no age exemption for South Australia and Tasmania, so the planner applies the same figures at every age there. Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026. VicRoads, Driving on your Ls. Checked 28 August 2026. Queensland Government, Learner logbook. Checked 28 August 2026. Department of Transport WA, Learn to drive and log your hours. Checked 28 August 2026. ACT Government City Services, Learner and provisional driver safety. Checked 28 August 2026. My Licence South Australia, The Driving Companion log book. Checked 28 August 2026. Transport Services Tasmania, If you hold an L1 licence. Checked 3 September 2026.
- Do driving lessons count for extra log book hours?
- New South Wales is the only jurisdiction whose credit rules this site has verified. Safer Drivers Course adds 20 hours. Available once you have 50 log book hours of on road driving, not counting 3 for 1 bonus hours, and have done some of that driving at night. The credit is given once. Structured lessons at 3 for 1 adds 20 hours. Each hour with a licensed NSW driving instructor logs as 3 hours. Only 10 instructor hours qualify, so the bonus tops out at 20 hours. The ACT credits lessons with an accredited instructor at 3 hours for each hour driven, capped at 10 hours. We have not verified whether the cap counts lesson hours or credited hours, so the planner leaves it out. Confirm it with Access Canberra before you rely on it. Transport for NSW, Using your Learner Driver Log Book. Checked 28 August 2026. ACT Government City Services, Learner and provisional driver safety. Checked 28 August 2026.
- Why does this site publish no supervised hours figure for Northern Territory?
- The Northern Territory issues a supervised driving log book and runs a minimum learner period, but we could not verify a mandatory hours figure or a night hours figure on the territory's own pages. The Northern Territory Government publishes 100 hours of practice as the level at which crash risk drops by about a third. That is a safety finding, not a licensing requirement, and we will not present it as one. Plan against the agency's own guidance until we can verify a figure. Northern Territory Government, Get your driver licence. Checked 28 August 2026.
Where we stopped
The Northern Territory issues a supervised driving log book and runs a minimum learner period, and it publishes 100 hours of practice as the point where crash risk drops by about a third. That is a road safety finding, not a licensing requirement, and we will not turn one into the other. Until we can verify a mandatory figure, the planner has nothing to count down to there.
South Australia and Tasmania both run split systems where the number depends on which pathway you are on. The figures in the planner are the ones their own pages state for the main pathway. Read the notes under your jurisdiction before you plan a date around them.
The requirement itself, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, is set out on log book hours by state. When the hours are handled, the next thing standing between you and the licence is the knowledge test. Every state and territory has a pass mark worth knowing before you sit it, and the cost of the whole thing is worth seeing in one list.
The pages these figures come from
Every figure above is read off one of these pages, where it sits next to the agency that published it and the date it was checked.