For owners / managers

You must manage the risks associated with plant.

Don’t commission, decommission or dismantle any plant if you believe doing so carries a risk to someone’s health or safety.

Also, ensure you get a competent person to install, assemble, construct, commission, decommission or dismantle the plant, and give them all available information for eliminating and minimising risks. Throughout the process, inspect  and monitor the risks associated with any activities related to the plant.

You must prevent unauthorised alterations to or interference with any plant.

Only use plant for the purpose for which it is designed.

If you propose to use it for some other purpose, get a competent person to determine whether the plant is safe for such use.

Those who use the plant must be trained in using its safety features and warning devices according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Even idle plant can be dangerous. Make sure plant that is not being used doesn’t create a risk to anyone’s health or safety.

Guarding must be permanently fixed if access to the guarded area is not required when the plant is being operated, maintained or cleaned. If frequent access is required, guarding must be interlocked.

You must ensure the guarding:

• is solid and securely mounted
• makes bypassing or disabling the guarding difficult
• does not create a risk in itself
• is properly maintained
• controls any risks from broken or ejected parts.

Ideally, when the guarding is removed, the plant won’t start.

If any part of the plant is associated with heat or cold, it needs to be guarded or insulated.

The operator’s controls must be:

• labelled, to indicate what they’re for and how to use them
• conveniently located for each operator
• designed to prevent accidental activation – eg by guarding.

When cleaning or maintaining the plant, the operator’s controls should only be used by the person doing the cleaning or maintaining – or by an authorised person.

Emergency stop controls must be prominent, clearly marked, accessible and coloured red. . If there are multiple emergency stop controls and more than one person is required to operate the plant, the controls must be the ‘stop and lock-off’ type, so the plant can’t be restarted until the emergency stop control is reset.

If included in the plant design – or if necessary as a risk minimisation measure – a warning device must be positioned so as to provide the best effect.

You must ensure a competent person maintains, inspects and, if necessary, tests the plant according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

If you use mobile plant, make sure:

• it can’t overturn, or collide with anyone or anything
• the operator can’t be hit by falling objects, or ejected
• fluid that might be released from the plant in the event of a mechanical failure doesn’t pose a risk to anyone’s health or safety
• the plant  has a suitable combination of protective devices – and they are used and maintained properly
• no-one rides on the plant without the appropriate protective devices.

If you use a tractor with a mass between 560 kg and 15,000 kg, it must have a securely fitted, roll-over protective structure.

You can lower or remove the structure only if the work demands it – and after other control measures are implemented to reduce the risk of a roll-over.

If you use an industrial lift truck, it must:

• be used safely
• have suitable lifting attachments
• not carry passengers unless equipped to do so – ie it has a passenger seat, seat belts and overhead protection.

If you operate a forklift, you must have a high risk work licence.

If you use plant that lifts people or objects, it must:

• be designed to do so
• have suitable lifting attachments
• be used within its safe working limits
• not be used to suspend or carry loads over people, unless designed to do so.

You must also ensure:

• the loads remain under control
• no load is lifted simultaneously by more than one item of plant (unless the load placed on each item of plant is within its rated capacity).

If you need to lift people and you don’t have the plant specifically designed to do so, you can use plant that has a work box (with a safety harness and safe exit) attached to it.

When tree-lopping, you can lift or suspend a person in a harness with a crane and place them in the tree, provided it has been risk assessed as being the safest way to carry a person – and provided the person is in visual or verbal communication with the crane operator at all times.

If you use an industrial robot, don’t let anyone within its vicinity if it could start without warning and cause a hazard.

You must isolate the robot by providing interlocked guards or presence-sensing devices.

If you use laser equipment, make sure it is designed, made and installed so accidental irradiation won’t occur.

Never expose anyone to direct radiation, radiation produced by reflection or diffusion, or secondary radiation. Everyone using the equipment must be properly trained.

Ensure that any visual equipment used to observe or adjust the laser equipment is safe to use and does not create a risk to health and safety from the laser’s rays.

Don’t use Class 3B or Class 4 lasers in construction work.

You must ensure that pressure equipment is tested regularly by a competent person and gas cylinders are marked with their inspection date.

If you manage a gas cylinder filling-station, don’t fill a cylinder that has no current inspection date and only fill it with gas for which the cylinder is designed.

If your work involves a suspended, cantilevered, spur or hung scaffold – or any scaffold from which a person could fall more than four metres – you must not use it until you have written confirmation from a competent person who has inspected the scaffold that construction of the scaffold has been completed.

A competent person must also inspect a scaffold:

• after an incident that may affect the scaffold’s stability
• before it is used again after repairs
• at least every 30 days.

If an inspection reveals that repairs, alterations or additions are required, they must be carried out – then the scaffold and supporting structure must be inspected again by a competent person before the scaffold is used.

If a scaffold is incomplete or unattended, you must prevent unauthorised access.

If you use mobile cranes or tower cranes, you must get a competent person to give them a major inspection – ie examine the critical components – in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations, or every 10 years from when the crane was commissioned or registered (whichever occurs first).

If you have lifts at your workplace, make sure you put barriers across the lift opening when it is being worked upon – and install secure platforms on which to work. Also, ensure the worker is protected from falling objects.

All lifts must have a safe entry and exit at the base of the lift-well, and a sign in the lift to indicate its safe working load.

If you have an amusement device or passenger ropeway at your workplace, you must ensure that:

• the operator is properly trained
• the device or ropeway is checked every day before operation
• the device or ropeway is operated every day without passengers, before being operated with passengers
• daily checks and operations without passengers are recorded in a log book
• the device or ropeway is stored by a competent person (who is supervised by a competent person), in a way that avoids damage
• maintenance, inspection and testing is carried out by a competent person, according to the designer’s and/or manufacturer’s instructions
• electrical installations and inspections are done by a qualified person
• a detailed inspection is carried out by a competent person every 12 months
• records, a log book – including details of each occasion the device is erected and stored – and operating and maintenance manuals are kept.

Where amusement devices or passenger ropeways are involved, the competent person you use must be:

• a registered professional engineer
• a chartered professional engineer and member of Engineers Australia, or
• on the national professional engineers register (administered by the Institution of Engineers Australia).

When carrying out detailed inspections of amusement devices and passenger ropeways, the competent person must also have specific knowledge and skills acquired through training, qualification and experience.

For all registered plant, you must keep a record of:

• inspections
• maintenance
• commissioning
• decommissioning
• dismantling
• alterations.

For items of plant with presence-sensing safeguarding systems, you must also keep a record of safety integrity tests.

For amusement devices, you must also keep log books and operating and maintenance manuals.

Keep records until you sell or dispose of the plant. And give a copy to whoever buys it.

The types of plant listed in Part 1 of Schedule 5 must have their design registered. Use this form to register a plant design.

Each item of plant listed in Part 2 must be registered. Use this form to register an item of plant.

If you lose or damage your registration documents, use this form to replace them.