Working at Heights SWMS Australia: What to Include
When is a working-at-heights SWMS required?
Here is the direct answer: under the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Regulations, construction work involving a risk of a person falling more than two metres is one of the categories of high-risk construction work, and high-risk construction work needs a Safe Work Method Statement prepared before it starts. So if your crew could fall more than two metres — off a roof, a scaffold, a mezzanine edge, a formwork deck, an unprotected penetration — you need a working-at-heights SWMS. Requirements and thresholds can vary between jurisdictions, so check the regulator in your state or territory for anything specific to where you are working. This guide is about the SWMS itself; for the broader duties, see working at heights safety requirements in Australia.
What the SWMS has to identify
A working-at-heights SWMS is not a general safety poster. It has to name the specific high-risk work, the height hazards for this job on this site, the control measures, and how those controls will be implemented, monitored and reviewed. The most common mistake is a SWMS that says "working at height — use harness" and nothing else. That inverts the law, because a harness is one of the least-preferred controls, not the default.
Work down the hierarchy, not straight to a harness
For every fall hazard, the SWMS should show you worked down the hierarchy of control. Can the work be done from the ground or avoided altogether — assembling at ground level, using extendable tools? If not, can you prevent a fall with a physical barrier: a scaffold with edge protection, guardrails around the opening, a work platform or an elevating work platform? Only when a fall cannot be prevented do you move to minimising the distance and consequences with a fall-arrest or work-positioning system — and even then it needs anchor points, the right equipment and trained users. A regulator reading the SWMS after an incident will look first for whether you reached for collective, higher-order controls before relying on personal protection.
Access, egress and the edges
Height work is often most dangerous at the transitions. The SWMS should cover safe access and egress to the work area — how people get up and down, and how materials are raised — and the edge protection or working platforms in place before anyone works near an edge or opening. Fragile surfaces such as skylights and old roof sheets need to be identified and protected, and falling objects controlled with toe boards, exclusion zones and containment so no one below is hurt.
Rescue and emergencies
If your controls include a fall-arrest system, the SWMS has to deal with what happens if someone actually falls and is left suspended in a harness. A worker hanging in a harness is a time-critical emergency, and "call an ambulance" is not a rescue plan. Set out how a suspended worker will be reached and brought to safety quickly, and who is responsible.
Consult, induct and monitor
Write the SWMS with the people who will do the work — they know the awkward access and the real hazards — and induct every worker into it before they start, recording each sign-on. The SWMS then stays on site and has to be monitored against what is actually happening, and reviewed and revised whenever the method, the plant or the conditions change, including a change in the weather that makes height work unsafe. If you keep those sign-ons and inspection records against the job, you also have the evidence a principal contractor, a regulator or — after an incident — an insurer may ask to see. It is worth being able to create, issue and keep your SWMS records together with Complys rather than scattered across the site.
Working-at-heights SWMS checklist
- The specific high-risk work and where the fall-over-2m risk arises
- Access and egress to the work area, and raising/lowering of materials
- Collective fall prevention first: scaffold/edge protection/guardrails/platforms
- Fragile surfaces (skylights, old sheeting) identified and protected
- Falling-object controls: toe boards, exclusion zones, containment
- Fall-arrest details where used: anchor points, equipment, trained users
- A workable rescue plan for a suspended worker
- Weather and changing conditions
- Worker consultation, induction and recorded sign-ons
- How the SWMS is monitored and when it is reviewed
Related SWMS guides that build on this one: scaffolding SWMS, roofing SWMS, and the step-by-step on how to write a SWMS. When you are ready to produce and manage one, you can create and manage SWMS with Complys free for 90 days.
Questions, answered
When is a working at heights SWMS required in Australia?
Under the model WHS Regulations, construction work involving a risk of a person falling more than two metres is high-risk construction work, which requires a SWMS prepared before the work starts. Thresholds can vary by jurisdiction, so check your state or territory regulator.
Is a harness enough for a working at heights SWMS?
No. A fall-arrest harness is one of the least-preferred controls. The SWMS should show you first tried to avoid the work at height or prevent a fall with collective measures like scaffolds, guardrails or platforms, and only relied on personal fall-arrest where a fall could not otherwise be prevented — with anchor points, correct equipment, trained users and a rescue plan.
Does a working at heights SWMS need a rescue plan?
If the controls rely on a fall-arrest system, yes — a suspended worker is a time-critical emergency, so the SWMS should set out how they will be reached and rescued quickly, and who is responsible.
Who must be inducted into the SWMS?
Every worker carrying out the high-risk work must be inducted into the SWMS before starting. Recording each worker's sign-on is the standard way to evidence it and is usually required by principal contractors.
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