Land Clearing and Stick Raking SWMS

Suits land clearing contractors, rural earthmoving operators, farmers and site preparation crews who clear scrub and timber with dozers and excavators and rake and pile the debris. It follows the job from approvals, site survey and power lines through machine checks, pushing and clearing, stick raking and fire control to health, remote work and shut-down. Hand clearing with brushcutters and slashers and general vegetation clearing and root grubbing are covered by the Vegetation Clearing and Grubbing SWMS; chainsaw work and forestry mulching have their own SWMS.

Clearing land for farming or similar rural use is not high risk construction work by itself, so no item is pre-ticked. A SWMS is legally required under WHS Regulation s 299 only for high risk construction work, such as clearing as site preparation connected with building or other construction (s 289(2)(g)). If that applies, tick the items that fit your job: movement of powered mobile plant in the work area (s 291(o)), work on or near energised overhead lines or services (s 291(k)), work beside a road in use (s 291(n)), disturbance of asbestos if you find dumped sheeting (s 291(d)), or an area that may have a contaminated atmosphere such as silica dust from the soil (s 291(l)). Otherwise it works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment.

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

What Is Covered In Our Land Clearing and Stick Raking SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job, check approvals and survey the site” to “Park, refuel and leave the site safe”. The hazards and controls include:

• Dozer and excavator rollover on slopes and soft ground
• Trees, limbs and root balls falling or springing back
• Dead and hung-up trees
• Sticks and timber thrown or pushed into the cab
• Overhead power lines and buried services
• Hidden stumps, rocks, tanks, bores and wire
• Grass and pile fires
• Snakes, spiders and ticks
• Quick hitch and rake attachment failure
• Heat, dust, noise and fatigue
• Working alone out of phone coverage
• Dumped waste and suspect asbestos

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

• Operators trained and assessed as competent on the dozer, excavator and attachments (blade, stick rake, root rake, grapple) they use, including the quick hitch; Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for dozers or excavators
• Spotter or safety observer trained for the role: hand signals, machine blind spots, tree fall zones and exclusion zones
• Competent person (for example an experienced feller or arborist) to assess dead, leaning and hung-up trees and trees near power lines; chainsaw work is not covered by this SWMS
• General construction induction training card (white card) and site induction where the clearing is site preparation for construction work (WHS Regulation s 289(2)(g))
• Competent person to maintain the plant and attachments to the maker’s recommendations (WHS Regulation s 213)
• Trained user of the cable and pipe locator where buried services are possible
• Driver licensed for the class of the truck or float that carries the machines, and a competent person to load and unload them
• Asbestos awareness (good practice) so workers recognise dumped sheeting and other suspect waste, stop work and report it; a competent person identifies it (WHS Regulation s 422)
• Crystalline silica training where the dust assessment finds the work high risk (WHS Regulation s 529CD)
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders or access to them as the work needs (WHS Regulation s 42), including for snake bite and heat illness

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024 (its definition of the rural industry includes clearing and preparing land for farming and similar rural uses; used for falling object protection, thrown material and transporting plant)
• Forest Harvesting Code of Practice 2007 (felling zone, dead and hung-up trees, machine windows, firefighting equipment, working alone; written for forest harvesting and used here as good practice)
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (quick hitches on earthmoving plant; written for plant used as a crane and used here as good practice)
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022 (where the clearing is construction work)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021 (whole-body vibration)
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (fuel)
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021 (outdoor work, heat, remote or isolated work)
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (dumped sheeting)
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (where the work is beside a road)
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld): chain of responsibility (s 26C), mass (s 96) and loading (s 111) for the truck or float that carries the machines on public roads
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead and underground electric lines, ss 10 to 15 and schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (chapter 6, clearing vegetation near lines)
• AS 2294 Earth-moving machinery – Protective structures, as named in the Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)
• 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 (21 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 with toe protection and ankle support; high-visibility long-sleeve shirt and long pants; hard hat for anyone outside the cab where trees or branches could fall
• Emergency arrangements for: power line contact (general guidance), machine rolls over or is struck by a falling tree or limb and fire
• 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.