Crawler Crane SWMS

For crane companies, civil and building contractors and principal contractors who use crawler cranes for lifting on site. It follows the job from lift planning and the pre-start check through ground and mat set-up, power line checks, travel, slinging, lifting and wind to counterweight changes and shut-down. Pick-and-carry, wheeled slewing and tower cranes have their own SWMS, and assembling or dismantling the crane, multiple crane lifts, lifting people in work boxes, tilt-up and precast panels, bridge beams and loads of 50 t or more are outside this one.

Using a crawler crane on construction work is high risk construction work when the crane or other powered mobile plant moves in the work area (WHS Regulation ss 289 and 291(o)), so powered mobile plant is ticked and a SWMS is required before the work starts (s 299); away from construction work this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. You can also tick energised electrical installations near overhead lines, a fall of more than 2 metres, a road or traffic corridor, a trench deeper than 1.5 metres nearby and tilt-up or precast concrete when the job involves them.

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 Crawler Crane SWMS?

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

• Ground failing under the tracks or mats
• Crane tip-over forwards, backwards or sideways
• Travel on slopes with and without a load
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Overloading beyond the load chart
• Limiter set for the wrong configuration
• Wind on the boom and load
• Slung loads slipping or dropping
• Loads swinging over people
• Counterweight tail swing crushing people
• Cranes working beside excavations and buried services
• Falls from the tracks, deck and boom
• Free-fall winches and two-blocking
• Unattended cranes started or left unsafe

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

• High risk work licence in the slewing mobile crane class that matches the crane’s capacity (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation: slewing mobile crane with a capacity up to 20t, item 15; up to 60t, item 16; up to 100t, item 17; over 100t, item 18); a crawler crane is a mobile crane with a boom that can be slewed (Schedule 19)
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3 items 4 to 7), for anyone who slings a load or directs a plant operator in the movement of a load when the load is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work); the approved Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 recommends that the operator does not sling their own load, even if the operator also holds a dogging licence
• Intermediate rigging licence (Schedule 3 item 6, which lists dual lifts) or advanced rigging licence (item 7) for the person who directs a dual or multiple crane lift, which also needs its own documented lifting procedure and is outside this SWMS
• Assembling and dismantling the crane are outside this SWMS: a competent person such as a rigger does them to the maker’s procedure under a separate SWMS (a rigger with the qualifying rigging licence who only sets up or dismantles the crane does not need the crane operator class, WHS Regulation s 82(4))
• Familiarisation training on the crane model before first use (controls, load charts, limit set-up, rope falls, track and counterweight attachment), recorded and signed; refresher training for operators, doggers and riggers at least every three years is recommended by the approved Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024
• Trained safety observer (spotter) where the crane works near overhead power lines; the observer does no other task, including dogging
• Geotechnical engineer to certify ground bearing capacity for heavy lifts, and an engineer to set a lower wind limit for loads with a large surface area
• Written evidence of each high risk work licence sighted and recorded before the work starts (WHS Regulation s 85)
• 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)
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (plant near excavations)
• 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
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (work on or beside a road)
• Tilt-up and Pre-cast Construction Industry Code of Practice 2003 (panel lifts, which need their own lifting procedure)
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead electric line exclusion zones, Schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• 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 (20 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.