Working at heights in Australia: managing the fall risk

Falls from height are consistently among the leading causes of death and serious injury on Australian construction sites and in general industry. This guide explains what the WHS Regulations require of a business managing the risk of falls, the order of control that must be worked through, when a Safe Work Method Statement is triggered, the equipment and competencies involved, and the records that prove you did it. Fall thresholds and some detail vary between states and territories, so check your regulator. For the SWMS itself, see what a working-at-heights SWMS must cover, and for scaffolding specifically, the scaffolding SWMS guide.

The duty to manage fall risk

The WHS Regulations require a business to manage the risk of a fall, so far as is reasonably practicable, wherever a person could fall from one level to another and be injured. On a construction site, work involving a risk of a fall of more than two metres is high-risk construction work, which means a SWMS is mandatory before the work starts. But the duty to manage fall risk is not limited to two metres or to construction, falls from ladders, vehicles, platforms and openings below that height still injure people, and the general risk-management duty applies.

The order of control

The Regulations set a specific order for managing falls, and it must be worked through rather than skipped. First: can the need to work at height be eliminated, can the work be done on the ground, or from a solid construction with its own edge protection? If not: provide a passive fall-prevention device that protects everyone without depending on the individual, a scaffold, guardrails, or a properly guarded elevating work platform. Only where that is not reasonably practicable do you move to a work-positioning system that holds the worker so they cannot fall, and only after that to a fall-arrest system, a harness and rated anchor that catches a fall after it starts, or a ladder, which are the least-preferred controls, not the default. A method that reaches straight for "wear a harness" or "use a ladder" has skipped the higher-order controls the law expects first.

Fall-arrest systems and rescue

Where fall arrest is genuinely the control, it must work as a system: rated and inspected anchor points, correctly fitted and in-date harnesses and lanyards, an energy absorber, and a configuration that limits both the fall distance and the pendulum swing. And it must include a rescue plan. A worker left suspended in a harness after a fall faces suspension trauma within minutes, so there has to be a way to reach and retrieve them quickly, "call an ambulance" is not a rescue plan. This is the element most often missing where harnesses are relied on.

Equipment and competence

Access equipment must be suitable for the task, inspected and maintained. Ladders have a place for light, short-duration access, but extended work from a ladder is usually a sign the wrong equipment has been chosen. Scaffolding over four metres must be erected by the holder of the relevant scaffolding high-risk work licence, and boom-type elevating work platforms with a boom of 11 metres or more need a high-risk work licence to operate. Harnesses and anchor points must be rated, inspected and used by trained workers. The control is only ever as good as the person using it and the state of the equipment.

Fragile surfaces, edges and falling objects

Many serious falls are through fragile surfaces, skylights, old roof sheeting, translucent panels, that look walkable and are not; these must be identified and protected. Edges and openings need protection or covering before anyone works near them. And a fall is not the only risk at height: tools and materials falling onto people below need to be controlled with toe boards, tethers, exclusion zones and containment.

Weather and changing conditions

Height work is exposed, and conditions change through the day. Wind is the big one, it destabilises workers and makes handling sheet materials dangerous, but rain, heat and poor light all raise the risk. Part of managing fall risk is setting the conditions in which work stops, and stopping when they are reached.

Keep it evidenced

A working-at-heights SWMS, current equipment and anchor inspection records, harness inspection records, scaffold and EWP records, and the right licences, all kept against the job, are what let you show a principal contractor, a regulator or, after an incident, an insurer that the risk was actually managed and not just asserted. Keeping that evidence together and current, with reminders before anything lapses, is what WHS compliance software and construction compliance software are built for.

Working at heights quick reference

• Manage the risk of any fall that could injure someone, so far as is reasonably practicable
• Fall risk over two metres on a construction site triggers a mandatory SWMS
• Work down the order of control: eliminate, prevent, position, then arrest/ladder last
• Fall-arrest systems need rated anchors, in-date harnesses and a real rescue plan
• Scaffold over 4m and boom EWPs 11m+ need high-risk work licences
• Identify fragile surfaces; protect edges and openings; control falling objects
• Set weather stop-work limits and keep the inspection and licence records

Related reading: working at heights SWMS, roofing SWMS, scaffolding SWMS and high-risk work licences. You can keep your height-work SWMS, inspections and licences in one place with Complys, free for 30 days.