Fence Post Driver SWMS

For fencing contractors, farmers and landscapers who drive posts with tractor-mounted, excavator-mounted or hand-held drivers. It follows the work from the pre-start and locating services through setting up, positioning and driving posts to clearing jams, travel and pack-up. Digging or drilling post holes is covered by the separate auger and post hole digger SWMS.

Building a fence is construction work: a fence is a structure (anything constructed, WHS Act s 4) and construction work includes building or repairing a structure (WHS Regulation s 289(1)). A SWMS is required by law for high risk construction work (s 299). Movement of powered mobile plant and energised electrical installations or services are pre-ticked because tractor and excavator post driving runs near plant, overhead lines and underground services. Testing, maintenance or repair work of a minor nature is not construction work (s 289(3)(d)), so routine farm fence repairs may not need a SWMS by law: untick the items if the job is only that kind of repair, and tick any other item that applies. Otherwise this works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Fence Post Driver SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the fence line and locate services” to “Refuel, shut down and make the site safe”. The hazards and controls include:

• Hands and arms crushed between the post and driver
• Hammer or post rebounding at the operator or bystanders
• Post splitting and flying chips
• Tractor or excavator roll-over on slopes
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Striking underground services
• Pressurised hydraulic oil injected through the skin
• PTO shaft and hitching hazards
• Noise and hand-arm vibration
• Fire in dry grass when refuelling
• Strains from carrying posts
• Heat, fatigue and remote-area work

High Risk Construction Work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Is carried out on or near energised electrical installations or services
• Is carried out in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, Training and Competency

• No high risk work licence is required to operate a tractor, an excavator or a post driver; Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no class for them
• Operator trained and instructed in the specific tractor or excavator and post driver, including the hitching, hydraulic and emergency stop procedures
• Trained person to operate the cable and pipe locator and mark underground services
• Training in the manual handling and safe use of hand-held post drivers
• Site or property induction, with the landowner’s or principal contractor’s rules
• General construction induction training card (white card) for anyone building a new fence or doing other construction work (WHS Regulation s 317); minor repair work may not need one (s 289(3)(d))

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 205 to 216 (plant controls, guarding, powered mobile plant and roll-over protection on tractors)
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2, and underground electric lines
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (guidance)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (13 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 8 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: safety boots with toe protection; safety glasses or a face shield against splinters, chips and steel flakes; hearing protection suited to the noise, as the last control
• Emergency arrangements for: tractor or excavator roll-over or a person struck by a post or hammer, hydraulic fluid injected through the skin and contact with an overhead power line
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed November 2026.