Pool Excavation SWMS

Suits excavation contractors, pool builders and landscapers who dig in-ground pool shells with an excavator and remove spoil by tip truck. It covers planning and services, securing the yard, unloading the machine, digging in stages, checking levels, spoil removal, groundwater, and leaving the pit safe.

Excavating a pool shell is construction work. It is high risk construction work, so a SWMS is required before it starts (WHS Regulation s 299), when powered mobile plant such as an excavator or tip truck moves in the work area (s 291(o)), and that item is ticked. Also tick the trench or shaft item (s 291(g)(i)) when the pit is a trench or shaft with an excavated depth greater than 1.5 metres: a pit longer than it is wide and at least as long as it is deep is a trench under the Regulation, and this SWMS applies the trench controls to every pool pit. Tick the other items the job involves: energised electrical installations or services, gas or fuel lines, a road in use, deep standing water that carries a risk of drowning, and the contaminated atmosphere item (s 291(l)) when the work creates silica dust, as the approved silica code advises.

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

What Is Covered In Our Pool Excavation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the dig and check the ground, nearby structures and services information” to “Manage heat, noise, dust and fatigue”. The hazards and controls include:

• Pool wall collapse and engulfment
• Undermining a house, fence or neighbour’s structure
• Striking underground electrical, gas, water and sewer services
• Contact with overhead power lines and service drops
• Excavator rolling off the float or into the pit
• Workers struck by the excavator’s swing or tracks
• Grade checkers working in the pit
• Trucks reversing and bucket swings over cabs
• Groundwater, flooding and wet pumps
• Falls into the open pit and children entering the site
• Exhaust fumes in the pit
• Dust, noise and heat

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, and the site induction
• Excavator operators trained and assessed as competent on the machine and attachments (no high risk work licence class applies to operating an excavator)
• Tip truck drivers hold the driver licence class for the truck and are briefed on the loading, tipping and reversing rules for the site
• Competent person, for example a geotechnical engineer, to advise on ground conditions and to design or approve the batter, benching or shoring; a geotechnical engineer’s written, time-limited advice is needed if a shell 1.5 m or more deep will not be supported
• Competent person to inspect the excavation and its support before each shift, after rain and after any ground movement
• Grade checker briefed to stay out of the pit and out of the machine’s swing while it is working
• Spotter briefed on hand signals, blind spots, the exclusion zone and the power line distances
• Trained operator for the cable and pipe locator
• Crystalline silica training (VET accredited course or training approved by the regulator) where the dust assessment finds the work high risk
• At least one worker trained in first aid, and a first aid kit on site

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks 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
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (trucks entering, leaving or working 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

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (18 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 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; high-visibility long-sleeve shirt and trousers; hard hat when outside the cab or inside the pit; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: wall collapse or person trapped, power line contact and flooding or a damaged gas, water or electrical service
• 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 October 2026.