Safe Operation of Drills SWMS

For electricians, carpenters, builders, maintenance crews and handymen who drill into walls, floors, ceilings, timber and masonry with corded, battery or hammer drills. It covers checking for hidden services and asbestos, drilling, working from ladders and platforms, dust control and clean-up.

A SWMS is legally required under the WHS Regulation (s 299) only when the drilling is part of high risk construction work, such as a fall risk over 2 metres, asbestos disturbance, work near energised services or drilling that creates silica dust (tick the contaminated atmosphere item, s 291(l)); otherwise this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment.

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

What is covered in our safe operation of drills SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job and check for hidden services” to “Clean up, charge and store”. The hazards and controls include:

• Drilling into live cables, gas or water pipes
• Asbestos in fibro, old linings and lagging
• Respirable crystalline silica dust from masonry and concrete
• Electric shock from leads and wet conditions
• Entanglement and kickback from the turning bit
• Flying chips and debris to the eyes
• Falls from ladders and platforms while drilling
• Hearing loss from hammer drilling
• Hand-arm vibration and strains
• Hot bits and accidental start-up when changing bits
• Lithium-ion battery charging and storage fires

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

• General construction induction training card (white card) when drilling on a construction site
• Site induction
• Training and instruction in the drills used, including hammer and impact drills, with competency checked by the supervisor
• Asbestos awareness (recognise it, stop work, report it) for workers who may come across asbestos (WHS Regulation s 39); asbestos training for workers the business reasonably believes may be involved in asbestos removal work or asbestos-related work (s 445)
• Crystalline silica training where the drilling is assessed as high risk silica processing (WHS Regulation s 529CD)
• Respirator fit-testing before first use and at least yearly (as the approved silica code recommends)
• Person holding an electrical work licence that authorises the work, to isolate circuits
• Competent person to inspect and test corded drills, leads and safety switches

Legislation and codes of practice referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 36 and 44 (control measures, PPE)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 56 to 58 (noise), s 60 (hazardous manual tasks)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 49 and 368 (exposure standards, health monitoring)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): Chapter 8A, ss 529A to 529J (crystalline silica)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 419, 422, 445, 446, 479 (asbestos)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 306K to 306M (ladders)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• 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 respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Work Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 17, 18 and 140 (unsafe equipment, leads, construction electrical equipment)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace
• AS/NZS 1716:2012 (Respiratory protective devices) and AS/NZS 1715:2009 (Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment), as named in WHS Regulation s 529B

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (14 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
• 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: safety glasses with side shields, with a face shield over them for overhead or masonry drilling; safety boots
• Emergency arrangements for: cable, pipe or gas line struck, electric shock and dust or fragment in the eye
• 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.