Vegetation Clearing and Grubbing SWMS

Suits land clearing and site preparation contractors, rural property owners and maintenance crews who clear scrub and grub roots with excavators, dozers, tractors, slashers and brushcutters. It follows the job in order, from planning and the site walk-through through services and overhead lines, clearing by hand and by machine, handling cleared material, fire, wildlife and weather, to shut-down. Chainsaw work and forestry mulching are outside this SWMS.

Clearing vegetation and grubbing roots with machinery on construction work is high risk construction work because powered mobile plant moves in the work area (WHS Regulation ss 289 and 291(o)), so that item is ticked and a SWMS is required before the work starts (s 299); clearing is construction work when it is site preparation connected with building or similar work (s 289(2)(g)). For hand clearing, or clearing away from construction work such as rural clearing or fuel reduction, this document works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment, so untick the item if no machine works in the area. You can also tick energised electrical installations or services if overhead lines or buried cables are near the work, a road in use, or the contaminated atmosphere item if clearing creates silica dust, as the Queensland silica code advises.

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 Vegetation Clearing and Grubbing SWMS?

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

• Thrown debris from brushcutters and slashers
• Machine rollover on slopes and soft ground
• Trees, stumps and logs falling or springing back
• Hidden obstacles, tanks, wells and wire
• Overhead power lines and buried cables
• Fire from sparks, hot exhausts and refuelling
• Snakes, spiders, ticks and stinging insects
• Dead and hung-up trees
• Workers on foot struck by machines
• Silica and organic dust
• Noise, vibration, heat and fatigue
• Remote work with no help nearby
• Loading machines on and off floats

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) when the clearing is construction work, such as site preparation for building (WHS Regulation s 289(2)(g)), and the site induction
• Operators trained and assessed as competent on each machine and attachment used (excavator, dozer, skid steer, tractor, slasher, brushcutter); Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for these machines
• Current driver licence for the class of each vehicle driven, including a truck, float or trailer carrying machinery
• Workers trained in the safe use of brushcutters, slashers, hand tools and power take-off (PTO) shafts on tractor attachments
• Spotter or safety observer trained for the role: hand signals, machine blind spots, tree fall zones and the power line exclusion zones
• Trained operator of the cable and pipe locator where underground services are possible
• Competent person (for example an experienced tree feller or arborist) to assess large, dead, leaning or hung-up trees and trees near power lines; chainsaw work and forestry mulching are not covered by this SWMS
• Asbestos awareness so workers recognise dumped sheeting, stop work and report it; workers the business reasonably believes may be involved in asbestos removal work or asbestos-related work also need the asbestos identification, safe handling and control measures training that WHS Regulation s 445 requires (asbestos work is outside this SWMS)
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders (or access to them) as the work needs (WHS Regulation s 42), including for snake bite, severe allergic reaction and heat illness

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
• Forest Harvesting Code of Practice 2007 (dead and hung-up trees, heat and fatigue; written for forest harvesting and used here as good practice)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021 (outdoor work, heat and UV, remote or isolated work)
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (fuel)
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (digging and underground services)
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (dumped sheeting)
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (work beside a road)
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead and underground electric lines, exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (chapter 6, clearing vegetation near lines; distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• AS 2294 Earth-moving machinery – Protective structures, as named in the Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (guidance)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (guidance)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Elevating work platforms (guidance); its power line contact advice is applied by analogy

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (19 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.