· Written and maintained by Nonimo
On a South Australian drivers licence the card number is on the back, up in the top right hand corner. If you’ve been hunting for it on the front, turn the card over.
The two numbers do different jobs. Your licence number follows you from card to card. The card number is tied to the physical card in your wallet, changes when the card is replaced, and is the piece an online identity check asks for on top of your licence number. Before a photo of your licence goes to a property manager in Adelaide, a new employer or a car hire desk, that’s the field to redact.
The tool above handles it from a phone photo or a scanned PDF, and your licence is read in your browser, so it doesn’t leave your device.
How to redact the card number on your SA licence
1. Load the back of your licence
Begin with the back, since that’s the side with the card number. Snap it with your phone camera or pick an image or scan you saved earlier: JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC and PDF all load. If the request is for both sides, add the front as well. The tool recognises both sides of a South Australian licence and gives every field it reads a chip of its own, with nothing redacted until you tap.
2. Choose Card number, plus whatever else should stay private
At first every field is showing. Tap “Card number” and the top right corner of the back is blacked out. On the front, tap “Licence number”, “Date of birth” or “Address” if the person asking doesn’t need them, and “Signature” or “Expiry date” too. With “Redact by hand” you can draw your own box wherever one is missing. The tool leaves your licence class and conditions alone.
3. Save the redacted copy
Download it as PNG, JPG or PDF. The boxes are flattened into the image, so there’s no hidden layer for anyone to peel back, and the download is stripped of metadata such as the phone model and GPS position. If you’d rather mark the copy with who it’s for, our guide to watermarking an SA licence walks through the wording.
Where the card number is on an SA licence
The Tasmanian Government’s card number guide, which lists the position for every state and territory, puts the South Australian card number on the back in the top right hand corner. The SA Government’s page on replacing a licence after a data breach describes it as a unique security number printed on the back of the card, and one that a Document Verification Service (DVS) check requires.
The mySAGOV app shows a Card Identification Number on the detail page of your digital licence, a field the State Government of South Australia added in an app update. When a card is replaced, the SA Government says the licence with its new card number is available in the app straight away, which makes it the quickest place to check which number is current.
The spot varies between states. Western Australia also prints it on the back, but towards the middle on the right, and the WA guide to that card shows its layout. On a Victorian licence it’s on the back as well, in a different place, which the VIC card number guide explains. A Queensland card can show it on either side (our QLD card number guide), an ACT card prints it on the front (our ACT card number guide), and a Northern Territory card issued since November 2020 carries it on the back, after the licence classes table (our NT card number guide). Tasmania prints it on the back too (our TAS card number guide). Our guide to card numbers on other states’ licences puts all eight states and territories in one table.
Which fields to redact, and what to leave visible
South Australian rental rules are specific about this. The state’s guidance on choosing a tenant says a prospective tenant can’t be asked for more than two documents to verify identity. A licence copy is often one of the two, so send it with only what the agent needs to read.
| Field | Send it or redact it? |
|---|---|
| Name and photo | send them, they prove who you are |
| Licence class and conditions | stays readable, the tool doesn’t touch them |
| Licence number | redact it unless a form needs it |
| Date of birth | redact it if only your identity is being checked |
| Address | redact it if they already have it |
| Expiry date, signature | redact them when nobody needs them |
| Card number, top right of the back | redact it |
The OAIC’s tenancy guidance encourages renters to consider removing details an agent has no use for, and says an agent copying an ID document generally has to blank out a government-related identifier, for instance a licence number. Need one of those fields back for a particular form? One more tap on its chip brings it back while the rest stay hidden. Property managers on the agency side will find what Nonimo does for real estate agents.
Sending a passport alongside? Watermark the passport copy too, so it says who it was sent to and when. You can also blank out the passport number, machine-readable lines and birth details in about a minute, with no sign-up needed. Longer files, such as a full application pack, are a job for Nonimo’s desktop app, on Mac and Windows.
Common questions
Where is the card number on an SA drivers licence?
On the back, in the top right hand corner. That's where the Tasmanian Government's identity guide places it for South Australian licences, and the SA Government describes the card number as a security number on the back of the card. Your licence number is a separate field on the front, so you need both sides to see both numbers.
Can I see my card number in the mySAGOV app?
Usually, yes. The mySAGOV app shows a Card Identification Number on the detail page of your digital driver's licence, according to the app's release notes, published by the State Government of South Australia. When you replace your card, the SA Government says the new number appears in the app straight away, before the plastic card arrives in the post.
Why does a DVS check need my card number as well?
The Document Verification Service matches your licence against government records, and the SA Government says both the licence number and the card number have to be supplied to verify a South Australian licence. Replacing the card changes the card number, which the SA Government says protects you from unauthorised checks using the old card's details.
Does my licence number change when I get a new card?
No. Replace an SA licence card and you keep the same licence number but get a new card number. Changing the licence number itself is a separate process: you complete the change of licence form and take it to a Service SA centre, with evidence that your personal details have been compromised.
My details were in a data breach. Do I need a new SA licence?
Possibly. The SA Government suggests replacing your card only if both your licence number and card number were exposed. If you've renewed or replaced the licence since you gave your details to the breached organisation, you may not need to do anything. A replacement can be ordered online through mySAGOV, using a web browser rather than the app.
Which side of my SA licence should I send to a real estate agent?
Often the front is enough, because that's where your name, photo and licence number sit. If the agent asks for the back too, redact the card number in the top right corner first. South Australian rental rules cap identity documents at two per application, and the OAIC suggests blanking out details an agent doesn't need.
Does the tool read both sides of a South Australian licence?
Yes. On the front it picks out the licence number, your name, date of birth, expiry date, address, photo and signature. On the back it finds the card number. Each one becomes a chip you can tap, and the licence class and conditions are left visible. Anything else you want hidden can be redacted by hand.
What if I renewed my SA licence after the breach?
Then the card number in the leaked data may already be out of date. The SA Government notes that if your licence has been renewed or replaced since the details went to the organisation that suffered the breach, you may not need to replace it again. Check the card number on your current card, or in mySAGOV, against what you originally gave them.