Excavator SWMS

Suits excavation, civil, drainage and building contractors who use a tracked or wheeled excavator to dig, trench, load trucks and lift pipes or trench shields. It covers set-up, underground services and power lines, loading the machine, travel, trench edges and support, lifting, dust and noise, and pack-up.

Operating an excavator 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. Tick the other items the job involves: a trench or shaft deeper than 1.5 metres, energised electrical installations or services, gas mains or fuel lines, a road in use, and the contaminated atmosphere item when the work creates silica dust, as the approved Queensland silica code advises.

New to SWMS? Read What is a safe work method statement?

What is covered in our excavator SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Set up the work area and check ground conditions” to “Refuel, shut down, park and pack up”. The hazards and controls include:

• Workers struck or crushed by the swinging boom or tracks
• Striking underground electrical, gas and water services
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Excavation wall collapse
• Machine overturning on slopes and trench edges
• Falling into open excavations
• Dropped loads when lifting pipes and shoring
• Attachments falling off the quick hitch
• Machine rolling off ramps when loading onto a float
• Traffic hazards on or beside a road
• Fire during refuelling
• Respirable crystalline silica dust, noise and sun exposure

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
• Excavator operator trained and assessed as competent on the machine type and attachments used (no high risk work licence class applies to operating an excavator)
• Site induction
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3), 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), including a lift made with the excavator in crane mode; a worker without that licence may sling only where a licensed dogger, rigger or qualified engineer has already fixed the load’s weight, the slings and slinging method, the check of the gear and the lifting points (marked on the load or built into it, such as maker’s lugs), the load stays in the operator’s view throughout, and a signed-off standard lifting procedure and training in it are in place (WorkSafe Queensland, Dogger – DG)
• Documented familiarisation training for the operator on the machine’s quick hitch and, where the excavator lifts pipes or shoring, on lifting in crane mode
• Spotter or safety observer briefed on hand signals, the exclusion zone and the power line distances
• Trained operator for the cable and pipe locator
• Trained traffic controllers where traffic control is needed on or beside a road
• Crystalline silica training (VET accredited course or training approved by the regulator) where the dust assessment finds the work high risk

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
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (earthmoving plant used as a crane, and quick hitches)
• 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
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• 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 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages. Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 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 on a construction site; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: power line contact, trench collapse or person trapped and damaged gas, fuel 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.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed October 2026.