Primary source: https://transport.vic.gov.au/road-rules-and-safety/child-car-seats-and-restraints/child-car-seat-and-restraint-road-rules
Victoria places the duty on the driver to make sure anyone under sixteen uses the right child seat, booster or seatbelt for their size. Transport Victoria’s public rules page uses the same age categories as the national model and adds a practical note that a good adult seatbelt fit usually happens when children are around 145 centimetres tall and can pass the five-step test.
The Victorian table covers birth to six months, seven months to under four years, four years to under seven, and seven to sixteen. The agency’s own wording is the one to follow if a heading on another site says “six months” or “seven months” in a slightly different way — always open the current Transport Victoria page. The behavioural advice is the same as elsewhere: only move up when the child outgrows the current restraint.
Front-seat rules in Victoria follow the national pattern, with the public page discussing five-to-seven-year-olds in the front only when the back seats are taken by passengers under seven, and reminding readers that children who cannot pass the five-step test are at risk if an airbag deploys. The legal home for the rules is Part 16 of the Road Safety Road Rules 2017, including rules 266 and 267.
VicRoads and the TAC sit in the same public-education neighbourhood as CREP (TAC is a CREP partner). Use CREP for consumer test information and Transport Victoria for the rule. Do not treat a TAC campaign line as a substitute for the Road Rules.
## After you read the local page
Come back to the national explainers if you need the “why”, not only the “what”. Ages and stages explains the shared bands. AS/NZS 1754 explains the mark. Travel and taxis collects hire-car and taxi differences so you do not mix NSW wording with Tasmanian wording.
If you are moving interstate with the same seat, the seat does not need a new mark — the Standard is national — but the taxi and penalty conversations do need a new tab.
This page is general information for Australian readers. It is not safety advice, a product ranking, or a fitting service. Always read the restraint label and the manufacturer instructions, confirm the current rule with the road agency in the state or territory where you are driving, and have the finished install checked by an authorised fitter.
Live source: Transport Victoria / TAC.
<!-- expanded -->
TAC, CREP and the Road Rules
Victoria can feel like it has three voices: Transport Victoria for the rules, TAC for campaigns, and CREP for consumer tests. Use each for its job. A TAC film is not rule 266. A CREP score is not a Victorian exemption.
If you live across the Murray, remember that a Saturday in Albury and a Saturday in Wodonga are two agency pages. The seat does not need a new mark. Your memory might need a new bookmark.
<!-- pass2 -->
How this state page should be used on a Tuesday
Print or bookmark the live agency link at the bottom of the page. If you are standing beside a car, you want the agency wording, not our paraphrase. Use this explainer to understand how the local page sits on the national model: the same four age doors, the same front-row caution in multi-row vehicles, and the same insistence on an AS/NZS 1754 mark.
Then do the physical checks this site repeats everywhere. Look at the shoulder markers. Look at the tether. Look at whether the seating position is a lap-sash position if you are using a booster. If you are about to cross a border later in the week, open the next state’s page before you treat a taxi exemption as portable.
If a family member forwards a social-media graphic that “summarises the law”, compare it with the agency page. Graphics drop exemptions, taxi notes and the stay-in-stage sentence. This page exists to put those pieces back.
For fittings, use Kidsafe and the CREP station finder rather than a random workshop. For recalls, use the ACCC. For consumer tests, use CREP after — not before — the Standard mark. That order does not change because you changed postcode.
Finally, remember the dual disclaimer. This is general information. A fitter who can see your child and your car outranks a carefully written map.