AS 2545 subcontract conditions: the older form still turning up on government and civil work

AS 2545-1993 is the subcontract companion to AS 2124-1992, the generation of Australian Standard contracts that came before AS 4000 and AS 4901. It is older, but it has not gone away: AS 2124 is still used by some government agencies and on civil work, and where the head contract is AS 2124 the subcontract underneath is often AS 2545 or a template modelled on it. The form is copyright Standards Australia, so this page describes it rather than reproducing it.

What the drafting says

What it is

Subcontract conditions, 1993, drafted to sit under an AS 2124-1992 head contract.

Where you will see it

Government and civil packages, and long-running builder templates that were first written in the 1990s and never rebuilt.

Notification of claims

Stricter than the AS 4000 family, AS 2124 says the principal is not liable on certain claims unless notice was given within the stated time, and AS 2545 carries the same approach down. AS 4000 and AS 4901 softened this to a breach that does not bar the claim.

Who administers it

The main contractor's representative, as with every subcontract form, the certifier is on the other side.

Termination for convenience

Not in the standard form, added by special condition where it appears.

Figures read from publicly published documents analysed in the Australian Subcontract Index corpus, August 2026.

How it compares

On notice, the unamended AS 2545 sits closer to the amended contracts in the Index than the unamended AS 4901 does. The habit that protects you is the same: written notice the day the event happens.

Security of payment legislation was passed after this form was written. The Act's payment timetable and your right to adjudicate apply regardless of what a 1993 clause says.

What to do about it

Read the notification clause first

Find the clause on notification of claims and the time it allows. Ask for late notice to be treated as a breach sounding in damages rather than a bar, which is the position the later Australian Standards adopted.

Make the payment clause match the Act

A payment period longer than your state's security of payment Act allows has no effect to that extent. Have the subcontract state the statutory period so nobody argues about it in month three.

Ask why this form

If the head contract is not AS 2124, there is no structural reason to use AS 2545. Proposing AS 4901 as the base is a reasonable request.

The version you were handed is not the pattern. It's a specific document.

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Common questions

What is AS 2545?

AS 2545-1993 is the Australian Standard subcontract conditions published as the companion to the AS 2124-1992 head contract. It predates AS 4901.

Is AS 2545 still used?

Yes, mainly where the head contract is AS 2124, which some government agencies and civil principals still use, and in builder templates derived from it.

AS 2545 or AS 4901: which is better for a subcontractor?

Unamended, AS 4901 is generally kinder on late notices. In practice both are issued with special conditions, so compare the amended documents, not the cover pages.

Keep reading

General information for Australian subcontractors, not legal advice. Patterns describe publicly published documents analysed in the Index corpus, and standard forms are described from their published, unamended editions; the document you are handed governs, and only a reading of that specific document (or advice on it) can tell you your position. Written by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.