Linking and downloads
Downloading individual documents
Most documents on the Federal Register of Legislation (the Register) website can be downloaded and printed using the "Download" tab at the document level. Documents are usually available as a PDF file and a formatted text (.doc, .docx. or .rtf) file. Please contact us if you have any difficulty accessing a document.
Linking to the Register
Linking to individual download files is not recommended because it may not be obvious whether the text in question has been repealed or otherwise superseded—it is better to link to a webpage such as https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A01224. There are generally three options for linking to a registered law, as follows:
Link format | What it links to |
|---|---|
www.legislation.gov.au/[title ID] | always the latest version of a law |
www.legislation.gov.au/[title ID]/[yyyy-mm-dd] | a particular version of a law - use only if the intent is to link to a historic version |
www.legislation.gov.au/[title ID]/versions | the series page - this shows all available versions of a law and any instruments or notices enabled by it |
Summary of URL Redirects (old Register links to new Register)
Old URL Title ID link that presents as | Redirects to |
|---|---|
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Latest/[Title ID] Example | Redirects to the latest version on the title page Example |
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/[Title ID] Example | Redirects to the latest version on the title page Example |
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/[Title ID] Example | Redirects to the all versions tab on the title page Example |
Old URL Compilation ID link that presents as | Redirects to |
|---|---|
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/[Compilation ID] Example | Redirects to selected compilation version Example |
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Latest/[Compilation ID] Example | Redirects to the latest version on the title page Example |
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/[Compilation ID] Example | Redirects to the all versions tab on the title page Example |
It is not recommended to create deep link URLs to the Register. Where a link is deep linking into a HTML document it will no longer take you to the relevant section of the document but will return a "404 The page you requested could not be found." error:
Old deep link URL that presents as: | Redirects to: |
|---|---|
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/[Compilation ID]/[Document]/Toc Ref Example | Redirects to a blank page at https://www.legislation.gov.au/not-found Message appears '404 The page you requested could not be found.' |
Automated downloading or spidering
Automated processes can be used to download or spider (crawl) this website, but please respect the crawl-delay instruction in our robots.txt file.
Before doing a full site crawl or anything else that may use significant system resources, it is advisable to contact us 1-2 weeks beforehand, to ask about any planned outages or other issues that may be relevant. Any further incremental crawls of this website should be scheduled to occur outside the hours of 0800 to 2000 Australian time.
Failing this, users who impose a large load on this website or otherwise interfere with its operation may have their access to this website blocked without notice.