Spider Lift SWMS

Suits tree, glazing, painting, building and maintenance contractors who use tracked spider lifts in tight or sensitive sites. It covers planning, transport, inspection, travel and outrigger set-up, working near power lines and structures, rescue and shutdown.

A spider lift’s telescoping, hinged or articulated boom supporting a platform fits the Schedule 19 definition of a boom-type elevating work platform. A high risk work licence is needed only where the boom length is 11 metres or more (WHS Regulation Schedule 3 item 21); check the length for your model. Working at heights above 2 metres and moving plant make this high risk construction work, so those two items are ticked. Tick the other items the job involves, such as energised electrical services.

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

What Is Covered In Our Spider Lift SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the lift and check the work area” to “Lower, shut down, refuel or recharge and park”. The hazards and controls include:

• Tip-over on slopes and soft ground
• Outrigger set-up and ground bearing
• Platform overload and load limits
• Falls from the platform
• Overhead power lines
• Crushing against overhead obstructions
• Dropped tools and falling objects
• Loading and unloading from a vehicle
• Entrapment and platform rescue
• Refuelling and recharging hazards

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 (Schedule 3 item 21) where the boom length is 11 m or more; boom length is the greater of the vertical distance from the supporting surface to the platform floor and the horizontal distance from the centre of the boom’s rotation to the platform’s outer edge, with the platform fully extended (note to Schedule 3 item 21)
• Where the boom length is under 11 m, no licence class applies, but the operator is trained, instructed and assessed as competent in the make and model (WHS Regulation s 39)
• Trainee operators of lifts with a boom length of 11 m or more work only while training towards the licence and under the supervision of a licence holder (WHS Regulation s 82)
• Operator trained in the model’s tracked travel, outrigger levelling, load chart, ground and platform controls, and emergency lowering
• Ground person trained to use the ground controls and emergency lowering for the model on site, and to raise the alarm
• Training in fitting, inspecting and using a work-positioning or restraint harness and lanyard as the manufacturer requires
• Safety observer trained for the role where the lift 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)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): Schedule 3 item 21 (boom-type elevating work platform, boom length of 11 m or more) and Schedule 5 part 1 item 1.11 with s 243 (the design of a boom-type elevating work platform must be registered; this is a design-stage duty, so ask the supplier or hirer)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 78 to 80 and 306D (falls), ss 206 to 215 (plant and powered mobile plant), ss 54 and 55 and 315B to 315M (falling objects)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace 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
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones, Schedule 2 and s 13
• 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)

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 non-slip soles; hard hat with chin strap when working at height or under structures
• Emergency arrangements for: tip-over or platform entrapment, operator unwell or trapped on the platform and contact with a power line
• 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.