Rotary Hoe and Cultivator SWMS

Suits landscapers, groundskeepers, farm and horticulture crews and turf and garden contractors who prepare soil with a rotary hoe, tiller or cultivator. It covers locating underground services, preparing the site, checking guards and controls, hitching, tilling, clearing the tines, transport and dust, noise and heat.

Tilling soil is usually not high risk construction work, so no item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is required by law only where the work is high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 299). Where the tilling is site preparation for a structure, tick the items the job involves: a trench or shaft deeper than 1.5 metres, gas, fuel or electrical services, and powered mobile plant movement.

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

What Is Covered In Our Rotary Hoe and Cultivator SWMS?

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

• Striking buried electric, gas, water and communications services
• Contact with the turning tines
• Entanglement in the power take-off shaft
• Stones and debris thrown at the operator and bystanders
• Wire and roots wrapping around the tines
• Tractor rollover on slopes and soft edges
• Crushing during hitching and loading
• Fire from refuelling a hot engine
• Engine and tine noise
• Dust from soil, lime and fertiliser
• Heat, sun exposure and strains to the back and arms

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

• Operators trained and assessed as competent in the rotary hoe, tiller or tractor and implement combination they use
• No high risk work licence class in Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation covers a rotary hoe or cultivator
• General construction induction training card (white card) when the tilling is construction work, for example site preparation for a structure
• Site induction
• Training in the maker’s operating, guarding and shutdown instructions

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024
• Managing Risks of Plant 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 Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)

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
• 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: sturdy closed boots (steel-capped where heavy items are handled); long trousers and close-fitting long sleeves with no loose cuffs; safety glasses or a face shield; hearing protection
• Emergency arrangements for: tines or shaft catch a person and service line struck
• 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.