Fireworks Display Operation SWMS

For fireworks contractors, licensed fireworks operators and the crews and display hosts who work with them. It follows a display from planning and the notices to the inspector and emergency services through storage and transport, site set-up, assembly and wiring, the go or no-go check, firing, misfires and the post-display sweep to dismantling, accounting for every firework and the after-display notice.

A fireworks display staged for entertainment is not construction work, so no high risk construction work item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is not legally required for it (WHS Regulation s 299 applies to high risk construction work); this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. The Explosives Act 1999 and Explosives Regulation 2017 set the licence, notice, insurance and record rules for fireworks displays, and this template does not replace the licences, notices, insurance and records they require, or the Queensland fireworks code. If the display is part of construction work, tick the explosives item (h) and any other item that applies.

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

What Is Covered In Our Fireworks Display Operation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the display and agree the site with the display host” to “Dismantle, account for and return fireworks, and give the notices”. The hazards and controls include:

• Accidental ignition during assembly
• Unintended firing from wiring faults
• Spectators inside the fall-out area
• Misfires and failed fireworks
• Hot debris and spot fires
• Loss, theft or unauthorised access to fireworks
• Fireworks storage and transport
• Racks and tubes tipping
• Weather and wind change
• Hearing damage from firing
• Burns and blast injuries
• Night work, vehicles and crowds

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

• Fireworks contractor licence for the person who organises the display, engaged by the display host (Explosives Regulation 2017 ss 34, 38 and 163)
• Fireworks operator licence for every person who uses fireworks in the display (assembling the fireworks and equipment, discharging them, or disassembling the equipment), authorised to use the fireworks in the display; a display that uses only unrestricted fireworks is outside this part of the Regulation (Explosives Regulation 2017 ss 35, 39, 156, 161 and 165); the operator licence does not authorise buying fireworks
• Anyone a licence holder employs to assist is trained in the hazards of handling fireworks, knows the Explosives Act requirements for handling them and is competent to assist; the licence holder must be reasonably satisfied of this (Explosives Regulation 2017 s 147)
• Employees an employer allows to have access to fireworks are at least 18, or at least 21 if employed to drive a vehicle transporting explosives; where the employer holds a security sensitive authority, those employees also hold a security clearance or work under the direct supervision of someone who does (Explosives Act 1999 s 33; Explosives Regulation 2017 s 18A)
• People who store or transport fireworks do so as the licence authorises and as Parts 8 and 9 of the Explosives Regulation 2017 require
• Site controller, marshals and fire watchers briefed on the display plan, the exclusion zone, the stop signal and the emergency plan
• First aid training for nominated crew, with burn treatment equipment and clean running water on hand (WHS Regulation s 42)
• Site induction and a briefing for all crew before the display

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld): ss 16 and 46 (more than one duty holder, consult, cooperate and coordinate)
• Explosives Act 1999 (Qld): ss 32 to 34, 44, 50, 53, 54, 56 and 57 (duty of care, employers and access to explosives, possession, storage, transport, use, notice of explosives incidents, not interfering with the site of an incident)
• Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld): Part 10, Division 3 (use of fireworks, ss 156 to 174)
• Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld): ss 34, 35, 38 and 39 (fireworks contractor and fireworks operator licences)
• Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld): ss 50 and 147, and Parts 8 and 9 (public places, employer obligations, storing and transporting explosives, including s 101 for particular fireworks and ss 136 and 137 for the transport code)
• Queensland code of practice, Control of outdoor fireworks displays, first edition (2003), published on a Queensland Government website and called the Queensland fireworks code in the Explosives Regulation 2017. It is outside this SWMS: obtain it and follow it, or the alternative safety and security measures the Regulation allows for it, for an outdoor display
• Australian Code for the Transport of Explosives by Road and Rail, third edition (the Australian explosives code named in the Explosives Regulation 2017 for class 1 explosives; outside this SWMS)
• Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (Cth): Part 101, Subpart 101.I (firework displays)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Work Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 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; safety glasses or a face shield at the firing position; hearing protection (earmuffs or earplugs) at the firing position, as the last control for noise
• Emergency arrangements for: misfire or fire at the firing area, burn or blast injury and debris or fireworks reaching spectators, or a crowd problem
• 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.