Mobile Scaffold SWMS

For trades, maintenance crews and contractors who use mobile (tower) scaffolds on floors and firm ground. It covers checking the parts and the surface, power lines and floor openings, building and handing over the tower, working from it, moving it with nobody aboard, wind and dismantling, and sets out when the scaffolding licence applies.

A SWMS is required under WHS Regulation s 299 when a person could fall more than 2 metres (s 291), so that is the item ticked; for a platform at 2 metres or lower this document works as a written safe work procedure, and you can tick energised electrical installations if the tower is used or moved near live overhead lines or cables.

Learn More: What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?
Have you ever been asked to provide a SWMS on a project in Queensland? Read our guide to what a Safe Work Method Statement is and when you need one.

What Is Covered In Our Mobile Scaffold SWMS?

The job steps run in the order the work is done, from pre-start checks to finishing up. The hazards and controls include:

• Tower tipping from soft ground, slopes or unlocked castors
• Falls while building, climbing and working on the platform
• Falls into floor openings, pits and over edges
• Contact with overhead power lines and live overhead cables
• Moving the tower with people or loose items on it
• Towers built from damaged or mismatched parts
• Overloading, overreaching and sideways loads on the tower
• Falling tools and materials
• Wind and storms overturning outdoor towers
• Unauthorised access to an unattended tower
• Pinch points and strains handling frames
• Erecting a tall tower without the right scaffolding licence

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

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work
• Site induction, including the site’s rules for scaffolds and floor openings
• High risk work licence, basic scaffolding class (covers prefabricated mobile towers), to erect, alter or dismantle a tower from which a person or object could fall more than 4 m
• Intermediate scaffolding class for a mobile tower built from tube and coupler
• Using or moving a mobile scaffold needs no licence; users are trained to keep it level, plumb and clear of power lines and open edges, to lock the castors before climbing and never to move it with anyone aboard; erectors of towers where a fall would be 4 m or less are trained, competent and supervised
• Trainees work towards a licence only under the direct supervision of a licence holder
• Competent person to inspect the tower before use and give written confirmation of completion (tower over 4 m)
• Engineer to design and verify any mobile scaffold with a top platform over 4 m (other than a standard aluminium mobile scaffold), any aluminium tower over 9 m, and any tower outside the manufacturer’s documented parameters
• Spotter briefed on hand signals and the power line exclusion zones where lines are near the route

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities 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
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• AS/NZS 1576.1 Scaffolding: General requirements (cited in the Scaffolding Code)
• AS/NZS 4576 Guidelines for scaffolding (cited in the Scaffolding Code)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages
• Business, client, job and document details typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• The high risk construction work checklist, worded as WHS Regulation s 291, and the construction project question (s 292)
• A worker and health and safety representative consultation record
• Qualifications, plant, PPE, hazardous chemicals, safety equipment, permits, references and emergency arrangements filled in for this work
• A 5 x 5 risk matrix, and job steps with initial and residual risk scores and the people responsible
• Implementing, monitoring and review requirements, an additional controls log, revision history and a worker sign-on sheet

Review and adjust it for your site, your plant and the way your crew does the job, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. If you have any trouble downloading this SWMS, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.