When to notify SafeWork NSW about a site incident
Notification is a decision you make in the first hour, usually with incomplete information, while the scene still needs controlling. Get the trigger and the immediate duties right and the rest of the response follows from them.
11 min read
Blog
Safety and WHS
Site safety that works on real jobs: the hazards that hurt builders, the duties behind them, and the controls and paperwork that hold up.
When to notify SafeWork NSW about a site incident
Notification is a decision you make in the first hour, usually with incomplete information, while the scene still needs controlling. Get the trigger and the immediate duties right and the rest of the response follows from them.
11 min read
Falls from height: why they still kill builders, and the controls that actually work on houses
Most falls on residential sites happen from roofs, frames, ladders and unprotected voids, often at modest heights. What the law requires, and the controls that prevent them on real jobs.
9 min read
Engineered stone ban: what builders, cabinet makers and renovators must do now
Engineered stone can no longer be supplied, installed or processed in Australia, but the silica rules reach much further. What the ban means for kitchens, renovations and every cut into concrete, brick and tile.
9 min read
Checking subcontractor insurance and WHS before they start
The cheapest place to fix a subcontractor compliance problem is your desk, the week before they mobilise. Once they are on site, you own the gap.
12 min read
Ladders: the access method nobody plans for on a residential site
Most ladder injuries happen in the first few minutes, before the work starts, when nobody has decided whether a ladder was the right tool at all. Treat access as a planned task rather than a reflex and most of the risk disappears.
11 min read
Supervising apprentices: your WHS duties and the competency record
An apprentice is a worker under WHS law, and a young one with almost no ability to see risk. The duty sits with you, and the evidence of how you discharged it sits in your records.
13 min read
Site induction for subbies and visitors: what to record
An induction that is not recorded is an induction that did not happen. This covers what to put in front of subbies and visitors at a house site, and what to keep afterwards.
12 min read
Fatigue on residential builds: the WHS duty behind a long week
Fatigue gets treated as a character problem — the bloke who should have gone home earlier. Under the model WHS laws it is a hazard you manage like any other, and the levers sit mostly with the builder, not the worker.
14 min read
Heat illness prevention on NSW sites: rostering, water and shade as management controls
Heat illness is a management problem before it is a medical one. The controls that hold up are the ones you build into the programme, the site layout and the supervision routine before the first hot week.
13 min read
Manual handling on site: lifting sheets, frames and linings on a residential build
The lifts that hurt builders are rarely the dramatic ones. They are the same sheet, frame and lining handled fifty times a day, by a crew that has stopped noticing it is a hazard.
12 min read
Noise control and working hours on suburban house sites
Noise on a suburban knockdown-rebuild is two problems wearing one hat: protecting your own people’s hearing, and staying inside the hours and levels your council and the EPA expect. Get the second one wrong and the complaint arrives before the frame is up.
11 min read
Silica controls for cutting, grinding and mixing on site
Silica dust is not a stone issue, it is a process issue. Control it at the tool, at the mix, and in how the work is sequenced.
14 min read