If you’re choosing which service to apply to, or just trying to set a training target, the beep test is the one physical standard that’s easy to compare across the country — because most services publish a single level. This is the side-by-side: every Australian and New Zealand fire service, what its beep-test cut-off is (or what it uses instead), and what that means for your training.
A note on sourcing: every figure below comes from the published recruitment material of the service named, and exact minimums are occasionally adjusted between intakes. Use this as orientation for choosing a target and confirm against the guide for the service you’re actually applying to.
The comparison
| Service | State / Region | Cardiovascular standard |
|---|---|---|
| ACT Fire & Rescue (ACTFR) | ACT | Beep test ≈ 10.6 (strictest) |
| Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) | NSW | Beep test ≈ 10.5 |
| Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) | VIC | Beep test ≈ 9.6 |
| SA Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS) | SA | Beep test ≈ 9.6 (stage 1 of a two-stage PAT) |
| DFES | WA | Beep test ≈ 9.6 |
| Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) | TAS | Shuttle run ≈ 9.6 |
| NT Fire & Rescue (NTFRS) | NT | Beep test ≈ 9.6 |
| Queensland Fire Department (QFD) | QLD | Beep test + a swim assessment |
| CFA | VIC | Brigade-set (volunteer pathway) |
| Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) | NZ | No beep test — task-based PFCA |
What the numbers mean
The headline split is simple: a small group of services sets a notably higher bar, and the rest cluster around the national-fallback standard.
ACTFR is the strictest in the country at around level 10.6 — a hard line where 10.5 doesn’t progress, so candidates train past 11.0 to be safe. FRNSW sits just behind at around 10.5. Both are demanding standards that fail under-prepared candidates outright.
The national-fallback group — FRV, SAMFS, DFES, TFS and NTFRS — sits around level 9.6. That’s still a real standard, but it’s a meaningful step below the NSW/ACT bar, and worth knowing if you’re weighing where to apply.
The services that don’t fit the chart
Three services need their own note, because a single beep number doesn’t capture them:
- Queensland Fire Department (QFD) runs a beep test plus a swim competency assessment. Strong runners who only trained on dry land get caught here, so the swim needs its own training block.
- CFA, since the 2020 Victorian reform, is overwhelmingly a volunteer service whose physical requirements are set brigade-by-brigade rather than as one state-wide cut-off. The career pathway in Victoria is FRV.
- Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) doesn’t run a beep test at all. It uses the Physical Functional Capacity Assessment (PFCA), a job-task-based test — so AU beep-test conditioning doesn’t transfer directly, and you should train to the PFCA’s protocol.
How to use this
Two practical takeaways. First, if you’re choosing where to apply and the beep test worries you, the difference between a 9.6 service and a 10.5–10.6 service is significant — though every service tests far more than cardio. Second, whichever you choose, train past the floor. A cut-off is a minimum, not a target. If your service sits at 10.5, build to a comfortable 11.5 so test-day isn’t a maximal scrape and you’ve got reserve for the strength stations that follow.
The FRNSW-specific detail — why 10.5 is harder than it looks given the circuit that follows it — is in the FRNSW beep test guide, and the wider picture of how fit you need to be puts these numbers in the context of the whole physical assessment.
Where this fits
The beep test is one gate in a multi-stage recruitment process — necessary to clear, but never the whole story. Inside FirePrep, the readiness check benchmarks your current beep-test level against your target service’s published cut-off and tells you how much margin you’ve got. Start with the free 15-minute readiness check to see where you stand.