Playground Equipment Installation SWMS

Suits playground installers, landscape and civil contractors, and builders who install play equipment for councils, schools, childcare centres and developers. It covers planning and services, delivery and heavy lifts, post holes and footings, assembly, the manufacturer’s checks before handover and the softfall surface.

Installing playground equipment is construction work. It is high risk construction work, so a SWMS is required before it starts (WHS Regulation s 299), when powered mobile plant such as a crane, excavator or delivery truck moves in the work area (s 291(o)), and that item is ticked. Tick the other items the job involves: a fall of more than 2 metres from towers or decks, a trench or shaft deeper than 1.5 metres, energised electrical installations or services, gas, fuel or refrigerant lines, a road in use, and the contaminated atmosphere item (s 291(l)) when the work creates silica dust, as the approved silica code advises.

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

What Is Covered In Our Playground Equipment Installation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the installation and check the site” to “Hand over, clean up and make the site safe”. The hazards and controls include:

• Striking underground services with an auger or machine
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Heavy components dropping or swinging during crane and excavator lifts
• Crane or excavator overturning near holes
• Posts and frames falling before the concrete sets
• Open post holes and children entering the site
• Delivery trucks and loaders reversing near workers
• Falls from ladders and decks while assembling
• Entrapment, sharp edges and crush points left in the finished equipment
• Softfall laid too shallow or short of the use zone
• Wet concrete burns and manual handling strains
• Heat, UV, noise and dust

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, and the site induction, including any access and child-safety rules the site owner sets for a school, park or childcare centre
• Installers trained and assessed as competent in the manufacturer’s installation method for the equipment, with the installation instructions, layout drawing and footing details on site
• High risk work licence for the class that matches the crane (Schedule 3) for the operator of any mobile crane or vehicle loading crane that lifts components; the crane operator is usually brought in with the crane
• 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)
• Operators of excavators, augers, skid steer loaders and tip trucks trained and assessed as competent on the machine (no high risk work licence class applies to operating an excavator or skid steer loader)
• Person trained by the manufacturer or supplier, or otherwise assessed as competent, to check the finished installation against the manufacturer’s installation and inspection instructions
• Spotter briefed on hand signals, the exclusion zone and the power line distances
• At least one worker trained in first aid, and a first aid kit on site

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
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (lifting components, earthmoving plant used as a crane, and vehicle loading cranes)
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (post holes, footings and underground services)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• 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 the Work Environment and Facilities 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
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (where deliveries or the site are on or beside a road)
• 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 (17 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 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 lifts are made overhead or plant is working; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: person crushed or trapped by a post, deck or load, crane, excavator or load touches a power line and child or member of the public enters the work area
• 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 October 2026.