Poultry Catching and Loading SWMS

For poultry catching crews, contractors, growers and processors who catch, crate and load birds, often at night. It follows the job from biosecurity checks and shed set-up through catching and crating, dust and ammonia control, carrying crates, forklift and truck loading, wound and infection control and night fatigue, to decontamination at the end. Cleaning out the empty shed is covered by a separate SWMS.

Poultry catching and loading is rural work, not high risk construction work, so a SWMS is legally required only if the work is part of high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 299). Otherwise this works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment, and no item is pre-ticked. If the work is part of construction work, tick the items that apply.

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

What Is Covered In Our Poultry Catching and Loading SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the catch, check biosecurity and brief the crew” to “Check the shed is clear, decontaminate and hand over”. The hazards and controls include:

• Ammonia and organic dust in the shed air
• Mould spores and endotoxins from litter
• Strains from repeated catching and crate carrying
• Scratches, pecks and infected wounds
• Q fever, avian influenza and psittacosis
• Forklift collisions with people on foot
• Falls from truck decks and crate stacks
• Crates falling from stacks and forks
• Exhaust fumes in closed sheds
• Night work fatigue and tired driving
• Heat in warm, humid sheds
• Working alone in a remote shed at night

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Induction in this SWMS, the grower’s and processor’s biosecurity rules, the shed layout and each person’s role before the first shed
• High risk work licence for the forklift truck class (Schedule 3 item 24) for anyone who operates a forklift truck, which Schedule 19 defines as a powered industrial truck with a mast and elevating load carriage whose fork or other arms can be raised 900 mm or more above the ground (not a pedestrian-operated truck or a pallet truck; order-picking forklift trucks are item 25); verified competence on other loading machines
• Training in the hazards of the work: dust, ammonia, zoonotic illness such as Q fever, avian influenza and psittacosis, respirators and hygiene (WHS Regulation s 39)
• Respirator training and fit-testing for anyone who must wear a tight-fitting respirator
• Close supervision and training of young or inexperienced workers (Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006)
• Licensed electrical worker for repairs to shed wiring, lights and power outlets (Electrical Safety Act 2002 s 55)
• First aid facilities and an adequate number of trained first aiders, or access to them, as the first aid assessment shows (WHS Regulation s 42)
• Licence for any vehicle driven on a public road

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• WHS Act 2011 (Qld) ss 36 and 38 and WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 699: notifying a serious illness, such as Q fever, avian influenza or psittacosis, contracted through contact with animals or animal waste
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 49 and 50 (exposure standards and air monitoring), ss 56 to 58 (noise) and s 60 (hazardous manual tasks)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 214 and 215 (powered mobile plant), ss 78 and 79 (falls) and s 48 (remote or isolated work)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): Schedule 3 items 24 and 25 (forklift truck licence classes) and Schedule 19 (forklift truck definition)
• 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 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
• Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): s 55 (only licensed electrical workers do electrical work)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): s 17 (unsafe electrical equipment is disconnected or isolated)
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld): s 6 (heavy vehicle means a vehicle with a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t), s 26C (primary duty of each party in the chain of responsibility), s 96 (compliance with mass requirements), s 110 (national regulations may prescribe loading requirements), s 111 (compliance with the loading requirements) and s 228 (duty of driver to avoid driving while fatigued or unfit to drive)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)
• AS/NZS 1715 Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment (as named in the Safe Work Australia model biological hazards code, which is guidance only; applied here as good practice)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: fit-tested respirator with a filter suited to dust and, where ammonia is present, ammonia (chosen with the supplier and the SDS)
• Emergency arrangements for: breathing difficulty, burning eyes or collapse in the shed, person struck or crushed by the forklift, crates or truck and heat illness
• 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.