Geotextile and Geofabric Installation SWMS

Suits civil and landscape contractors who lay geotextile and geofabric as part of road, pavement, drainage and retaining wall works. It covers roll handling, plant placing rolls, slopes and batters, wind, trench and subgrade edges, fixing the fabric and placing cover material.

Laying geotextile in connection with a pavement, wall, drain or batter is construction work (WHS Regulation s 289(1) and (2)(a)), and plant placing rolls puts the job in an area with powered mobile plant movement (s 291(o)), so that item is ticked; untick it for a hand-laid job with no plant. Tick the other items the job involves: a fall of more than 2 metres from a batter or wall, a trench deeper than 1.5 metres, work in or beside a road in use, and energised electrical installations or services.

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

What Is Covered In Our Geotextile and Geofabric Installation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job, the ground and the weather” to “Complete the work and pack up”. The hazards and controls include:

• Rolls rolling or falling from trucks and stacks
• Plant placing rolls and striking workers
• Plant tipping on slopes and trench edges
• Overhead power line contact
• Slipping on wet fabric on batters
• Falling from batter crests and wall edges
• Wind lifting and dragging fabric
• Trench and subgrade edges
• Underground service strikes
• Manual handling of heavy rolls
• Cuts from hook knives and pins
• Cover material tipped over fabric

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
• Operators of the plant that moves and places rolls verified as competent on the machine and the roll attachment (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for excavators, skid steers or loaders); the plant has its own SWMS
• High risk work licence for the forklift truck class for anyone who operates a forklift truck to unload or move rolls (Schedule 3 item 24)
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3 items 4 to 7), for anyone who slings a roll or directs a plant operator in moving a roll that is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work)
• Competent person to assess the batter or slope for stability and to inspect any trench or pit before people work in it
• Workers who enter a trench or drain trained in the trench controls for the job and in the emergency plan
• First aid certificate for the person appointed as the job’s first aider (WHS Regulation s 42)
• Site induction, including exclusion zones, plant routes and the emergency plan

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024
• Hazardous Manual Tasks 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
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead and underground electric lines, ss 10 to 15 and Schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (14 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: safety boots with a non-slip sole; high-visibility long-sleeve shirt and trousers; hard hat; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: person trapped, struck or fallen on a batter or into a trench, plant tipping or a roll falling from a lifting device and contact with a power line by plant or a roll
• 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.