Night Works SWMS

Suits civil, building and maintenance contractors who work after dark. It covers night works planning, fatigue and fitness for work, temporary lighting and glare, high-visibility, plant and pedestrian separation, work on or next to a road, emergency response at night and the drive home.

Night construction work with powered mobile plant moving in the work area is high risk construction work (WHS Regulation ss 289 and 291(o)), so that item is ticked. Tick the road item (s 291(n)) when the work is on, in or adjacent to a road in use by traffic other than pedestrians, and tick the other items the job involves. Testing, maintenance or repair work of a minor nature carried out in connection with a structure is not construction work (s 289(3)(d)), so for that work the document is a written safe work procedure.

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

What Is Covered In Our Night Works SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the night works and the lighting” to “Finish the shift and travel home”. The hazards and controls include:

• Planning night works and temporary lighting
• Glare from lighting towers
• Fatigue and fitness for work
• Reduced visibility and low light
• Plant colliding with pedestrians
• Traffic striking workers on or beside a road
• Electric shock from temporary power and leads
• Light towers tipping or touching power lines
• Slips and trips in the dark
• Delayed emergency response at night
• Crashes on the drive home after a shift

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 in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work
• Site induction, including night works arrangements and the lighting plan
• Licences, tickets and verification of competency for the plant operated at night
• Traffic control training for workers who control traffic (under the separate traffic SWMS)
• First aid certificate for the first aider on each shift

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace 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
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones (ss 10 to 13 and sch 2) and construction work (s 140)
• 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
• 9 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: high-visibility clothing with retroreflective strips, suitable for night use; safety boots; hard hat with a head torch where task lighting is needed; hearing protection near noisy plant
• Emergency arrangements for: injury at night and lighting failure
• 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.