Elevated Work Platform SWMS

For electricians, painters, builders, maintenance teams and plant hire customers who work from boom lifts or scissor lifts. It follows the job from choosing the machine and inspecting it through travel, ground set-up, power line clearances, working from the platform and platform rescue to parking, using the Queensland boom-type EWP licence class.

Using an EWP is not high risk construction work by itself; a SWMS is legally required when EWP work is construction work involving a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres or moving powered mobile plant (WHS Regulation s 299), and otherwise the document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment.

New to SWMS? Read What is a safe work method statement?

What is covered in our elevated work platform SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the task and select the EWP” to “Lower, stow, refuel and park the EWP”. The hazards and controls include:

• Falls from the platform or while climbing in and out
• EWP overturning on soft, uneven or sloping ground
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Crushing between the platform and structures
• Tools and materials falling on people below
• Operator stranded or trapped at height
• Suspension trauma after a fall into a harness
• Wind loading and sail area from signs and mesh
• Collisions while travelling with the EWP
• Suspended slabs and covers overloaded by the machine
• Fire and burns from fuel and battery charging

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:

• Involves a risk of a person falling more than 2m
• Is carried out in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, training and competency

• High risk work licence for the boom-type elevating work platform class where the boom length is 11 m or more
• Trainee boom-type EWP operators (boom length 11 m or more) are enrolled in a licence course and supervised by a licence holder (WHS Regulation s 82)
• Documented training and verified competency in the type of EWP used, including its controls (no licence class applies to scissor lifts or boom-type EWPs under 11 m)
• Ground person trained to use the ground controls and emergency lowering for the EWP model
• Training in fall arrest harness use and EWP rescue for everyone who works on the platform
• Safety observer trained for the role where the EWP works near overhead power lines
• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction

Legislation and codes of practice referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones, Schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• AS 2550.10 Cranes, hoists and winches – Safe use – Part 10: Mobile elevating work platforms (as named in the Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Elevating work platforms (guidance)

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 pages), laid out on 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 with non-slip soles; hard hat with chin strap; full-body fall arrest harness with a short lanyard attached to the platform anchor point (boom-type EWP); high-visibility clothing
• Emergency arrangements for: platform control failure, contact with a power line and worker hanging in a harness
• 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.

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