WHS Manual

The top document of a Queensland business’s safety management system, written for construction, trades, transport and industrial services businesses. It explains how the system works, who does what and the core procedures, and points by name to the separate policies, procedures, SWMS, forms and registers in our range. Fill in your business details, adopt it, and keep it current with the document control and review rules built into it. The cover page is ready for your business name and logo. Part A is the management system, in 23 numbered chapters. Part B holds the full text of 62 policies and procedures (41 that apply to every business and 21 for general business work), each on its own pages in the same editable file, so you can edit, issue and sign off each one without buying it separately.

Prefer one set for your industry? See the industry WHS manuals or the WHS management systems.

What Is Included In Our WHS Manual?

• WHS policy statement with an approval sign-off
• Legal framework, duties, roles and responsibilities for directors, managers, supervisors and workers
• Consultation, health and safety representatives and communication
• Risk management, safe work method statements and high risk construction work
• Induction, training, licences and competency, and managing contractors, labour hire workers and visitors
• Plant, equipment and electrical safety, hazardous chemicals, asbestos and silica
• Specific hazards: falls, confined spaces, manual tasks, noise, hot work, heat, remote work and vehicles
• Psychosocial health, fatigue, fitness for work and wellbeing
• Incident management and notification, emergency management and first aid, injury management and return to work
• Workplace facilities, environmental management, inspections, monitoring, audit and review
• Document control, with a table of record-keeping periods each cited to the law
• Definitions, a table of related forms and registers, and legislation and codes of practice references
• Part B: the full text of 62 policies and procedures, from risk, hazard and incident management to manual handling, hazardous substances, emergencies and return to work, plus 21 for general business work

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld): the meaning of reasonably practicable (s 18), our primary duty of care (s 19), duties of persons who manage or control a workplace (s 20), codes of practice (ss 26A, 274 and 275), duties of officers (s 27), duties of workers and others (ss 28 and 29), offences and penalties (ss 31 to 34D), notifiable incidents (ss 35 to 39), consultation (ss 46 to 49), health and safety representatives and committees (pt 5), the right to cease unsafe work (ss 84 to 86), inspectors and notices (ss 90, 163, 171, 191, 195 and 198), entry by WHS entry permit holders (ss 117 to 121), discriminatory conduct (ss 104 to 106), and no levy on workers (s 273)
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): serious electrical incidents and dangerous electrical events (ss 11 and 12), codes of practice (ss 44 and 45), and electrical work licences (s 55)
• Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld): claims and the employer’s injury report (ss 131 and 133), rehabilitation and return to work (ss 226 to 232), and the protection of injured workers (ss 232A to 232G)
• Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld), which applies the Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland): the chain of responsibility (ss 26A to 26H), mass, dimension and loading, and fatigue
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld): driving under the influence of liquor or a drug (s 79)
• Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 (Qld): gas work licences (ss 726 and 727)
• Explosives Act 1999 (Qld)
• Radiation Safety Act 1999 (Qld): licences for radiation sources (ss 12 to 15)
• Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld): the value of a penalty unit (s 5(1)(d))
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): managing risks (ss 32 to 38), information, training and instruction (s 39), facilities, first aid, emergency plans and personal protective equipment (ss 40 to 47), remote or isolated work (s 48), noise (ss 56 to 59), manual tasks (s 60), confined spaces (ss 62 to 77), falls (ss 78 to 80), high risk work licences (ss 81 to 85 and sch 3), plant (chapter 5), construction work (chapter 6), hazardous chemicals (chapter 7), asbestos (chapter 8), crystalline silica (chapter 8A), and the dictionary (sch 19)
• Work Health and Safety (Codes of Practice) Notice 2022 (Qld): the list of approved codes of practice
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead electric lines (ss 10 to 15 and sch 2), electrical equipment (pt 6), energised electrical work (ss 195 to 204), rescue and resuscitation training (s 211), notifying serious electrical incidents and dangerous electrical events (s 292), and the dictionary (sch 10)
• Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025 (Qld): the criteria for appointing a return to work coordinator (s 149)
• Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (Qld): evacuation routes (ss 5 and 7)
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 (Qld): traffic controllers (ss 51, 54 and 55)
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Dangerous Goods) Regulation 2018 (Qld)
• Petroleum and Gas (Safety) Regulation 2018 (Qld): gas cylinders carried in vehicles (ss 141 to 144)
• Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld): licences to use explosives and for blasting (ss 32 and 33)
• 28 Queensland approved codes of practice, named in full in the manual

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word manual (414 pages), A4 portrait, with a cover page ready for your business name and logo, a contents list, Part A (23 numbered chapters) and Part B (62 policies and procedures)
• Business details and document control typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• A WHS policy statement with an approval sign-off
• Roles, procedures, a risk matrix, record-keeping periods, definitions and references
• Part B: the full text of 62 policies and procedures, each starting on a new page
• Links by name to the matching SWMS, forms and registers in our range

Review it and adjust it to suit your business, your sites and the way your team works, and talk it through with your workers. If you have any trouble downloading this template, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading.