General construction SWMS and WHS templates

Safety documents for general construction work in Queensland

Section 291 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) lists 18 kinds of high risk construction work, including a risk of falling more than 2 m, work in or near a trench deeper than 1.5 m, disturbing asbestos, confined spaces, energised electrical installations, tilt-up or precast concrete and areas where powered mobile plant moves. Before that work starts, section 299 requires a SWMS that identifies the work, states the hazards and risks, and describes the controls and how they will be implemented, monitored and reviewed.

Projects, principal contractors and licences

A construction project is one where the construction work costs $250,000 or more (section 292). It has one principal contractor (section 293), who must prepare a written WHS management plan before work starts (section 309), and each business doing high risk work gives the principal contractor a copy of its SWMS first (section 301). Businesses must make sure general construction induction training is provided to a worker who is to carry out construction work and has not completed it, or completed it more than 2 years ago and has not done construction work in the last 2 years (section 316).

Scaffolding, dogging, rigging, crane, forklift and elevating work platform work (boom length 11 m or more) are high risk work licence classes in schedule 3 (section 81), and you must see written evidence of the licence before directing a worker to do the work (section 85).

Popular general construction templates

• Working at Heights SWMS
• Site Safety Management Plan
• Scaffolding SWMS
• Excavator SWMS
• Concreting SWMS Template
• Rigging & Dogging SWMS

Each one helps you meet your duties once you fill it in for your job. See principal contractor duties and risk assessment examples for construction. Every template is an editable Word or Excel file you can brand with your logo, and you download it straight after checkout.