Banana Bunch Harvesting and Handling SWMS

For banana growers, farm managers, harvest crews and contractors who cut, carry, hang and load banana bunches. It follows the work from planning the rows and checking tools to cutting, carrying, the cableway, trailer loading and unloading at the packing shed.

Banana harvesting is farm work and not construction work, so no high risk construction work item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is not legally required for it (WHS Regulation s 299 applies to high risk construction work); the document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. If the work is part of construction work, tick any reg 291 item that applies, for example movement of powered mobile plant (item o) or work near energised electrical installations or services (item k).

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

What Is Covered In Our Banana Bunch Harvesting and Handling SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the harvest rows and check the farm hazards” to “Manage heat, noise, fatigue and end of shift”. The hazards and controls include:

• Cuts from knives and machetes
• Falling bunches, plants and leaves
• Plants falling onto power lines or workers
• Back, shoulder and neck strain carrying bunches
• Cableway load or track failure
• Hands and clothing caught in cableway hooks
• Tractor and trailer rollover or run-over
• Bunches falling from the trailer
• Snake, spider and wasp bites
• Heat illness in humid rows
• Sap in eyes and on skin
• Slips on wet, muddy ground

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Training and verified competency for each worker in the harvest method: safe use of the knife or machete, cutting and lowering the plant, supporting and carrying the bunch, and loading
• Training and verified competency for anyone who operates the tractor, trailer or cableway, including its controls, braking, loading limits and emergency stop
• Driver licence for any vehicle driven on a public road; no high risk work licence applies to a tractor or trailer in general
• Dogging high risk work licence (Schedule 3) only if a worker slings a load or directs a plant operator moving a load that is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19 ‘dogging work’); hanging a bunch on a purpose-made cableway carrier as the maker designed is not of itself slinging a load
• Induction on the farm: no-go areas, overhead power lines, tracks, steep ground, chemical-treated rows and emergency points
• Workers trained in the hazards and in first aid response for cuts, snake and spider bites; an adequate number of workers trained in first aid (WHS Regulation s 42)
• Competent person (a person with the knowledge, training or experience for the task) to inspect and maintain the cableway and the trailer (s 213)
• High risk work licence for the boom-type elevating work platform class (Schedule 3 item 21, boom length 11 m or more) if such a platform is used to reach tall bunches

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): plant (ss 203 to 219), falling objects (ss 54, 55), noise (ss 56, 57) and hazardous manual tasks (s 60)
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces 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) and Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 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: cut-resistant glove on the hand that holds the plant or bunch, and a sheath for the knife or machete; safety boots with a good tread and ankle support for wet, muddy ground
• Emergency arrangements for: deep cut or severed limb, snake bite and crush under a fallen bunch or trailer, or cableway load failure
• 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.