A $90,000 asbestos prosecution shows why identifying ACM is only the start. From a supermarket cleaner’s room to Defence facilities covered in asbestos warning stickers, the real test is whether hazard information changes the work before somebody drills, cuts or demolishes the material.

On 27 Jan 21, marine salvage worker Max Haywood was fatally struck by the collapsing mast of a submerged steel yacht during a crane operation at Rozelle, New South Wales. The lift involved an uncertain load, an unsuitable lifting point, overloaded equipment and an operator who did not hold the required crane licence. The incident was not caused by an obscure technical defect or an unforeseeable change in conditions. It developed from a work method that replaced engineering, v

A worker entered a demolition site with two feet and left without the toes and part of the forefoot of his left foot. The risk had been identified, the controls had been documented and the business had a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS), but the controls described in that document were not operating when they were needed. Photo by Frederick Shaw on Unsplash On 02 Jul 26, the South Australian Employment Court convicted A. Haros Demolition Pty Ltd of a Category 2 offence under

The CCTV footage lasts only seconds, but it captures the entire problem. External contractors are moving a coin blanking press weighing around three tonnes with a forklift when the press becomes unstable, falls from the forklift tines and narrowly misses a worker standing beside it. The worker escapes, so the event becomes a near miss rather than a fatality. That distinction matters enormously to the worker, but it does not make the underlying failure less serious. The footag

On 11 Nov 22, a formworker fell nearly 3.85 metres from a bridge abutment at a construction site in Huntley, New South Wales, while stripping formwork. The worker was positioned on the top of the southern abutment, using an extension ladder to attach wire chains between a 26-tonne excavator and form soldiers, and was not wearing a harness because the steel available for anchoring was on the opposite side of the abutment. Image generate for visual effect. The incident resulted