Notification requirement

A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must notify us of fatalities and certain serious injuries/illnesses, dangerous incidents or COVID-19 cases that occur at work as a result of the conduct of the business or undertaking.

Incidents may relate to anyone at a workplace such as a worker, contractor or member of the public.

It is an offence to fail to report a notifiable incident.

How to notify us

Life threatening issues or a death

  • call us on 1800 777 209 (statewide – 24 hours)

Non-life threatening injuries/issues

Safe Work Australia's incident notification information sheet provides more information about mandatory reporting requirements with examples.

Fatalities

We will investigate the cause of all reported fatalities within or related to a workplace. Workplace fatalities will fall into one of three categories:

  • notifiable, work-related fatality
  • non-notifiable, non work-related fatality
  • non-jurisdictional fatality, e.g. a road traffic death travelling between home and work.

Serious injuries or illnesses

A serious injury or illness of a person includes:

  • immediate treatment as an in-patient in hospital for any duration, even if the stay is not overnight or longer
  • immediate treatment for:
    • amputation of any body part
    • serious head, eye or burn injury
    • degloving or scalping
    • spinal injury
    • loss of bodily function
    • serious lacerations
  • medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.

The following prescribed serious illnesses are also required to be reported:

  • any infection where the work is a significant contributing factor or is reliably attributable to:
    • working with micro-organisms
    • providing treatment or care to a person
    • contact with human blood or body substances
    • handling or contact with animals, or animal hides, skins, wool, hair, carcasses or waste products
  • occupational zoonoses contracted in the course of work involving handling or contact with animals, or animal hides, skins, wool, hair, carcasses or waste products, including:
    • Q fever
    • Anthrax
    • Leptospirosis
    • Brucellosis
    • Hendra Virus
    • Avian Influenza
    • Psittacosis.

COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

Notification of a COVID-19 virus case is required if:

  • it can be reliably attributed to a workplace exposure; and either
    • the person is required to have treatment as an in-patient in hospital; or
    • death.

Dangerous incidents

A dangerous incident means an incident in relation to a workplace that exposes a worker, or any other person, to a serious risk to a person's health or safety emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to:

  • uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance
  • uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire
  • uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or a pressurised substance
  • electric shock
  • fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing
  • collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of, or damage to, any plant that requires authorisation for use in accordance with the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA)
  • collapse or partial collapse of a structure
  • collapse or failure of an excavation or any shoring supporting an excavation
  • inrush of water, mud or gas in workings, an underground excavation or tunnel
  • interruption of the main system of ventilation in an underground excavation or tunnel
  • unplanned loss of control of heavy earthmoving machinery, including brake or steering failure, at a mine
  • any other event prescribed by the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA).

Mining Incident Notification

How to notify us

  • submit the Mining incident notification form to report an incident. Legislation requires that the report be lodged in writing as soon as is reasonably practicable and within 48 hours of the incident. 
    • If you require permission to disturb the incident scene, please request to speak to one of our Mining Inspectors by calling 1800 777 209  (24hrs / 7 days) and follow the prompts to speak with the on-call Mining Inspector.
    • If a fatality or life threatening event has occurred to call 1800 777 209 immediately  AND lodge the form within 48hrs.

Life threatening issue or death

Safe Work Australia's incident notification information sheet provides more information about mandatory reporting requirements with examples.

When to report a mining incident

When an incident occurs at a mine, mine operators must report as soon as practicable after having become aware of:

Incidents may relate to anyone at the workplace such as a worker, contractor or member of the public.

It is an offence to fail to report a notifiable incident.

Defining notifiable mining incidents

Defining notifiable mining incidents poster

Fatality

See Workplace notifiable incidents for definition.

Serious injury/illness

See Workplace notifiable incidents for definition.

Dangerous incident

See Workplace notifiable incidents for definition.

Prescribed dangerous incident

The unplanned loss of control of heavy earthmoving machinery (including failure of braking or steering) at a mine is a dangerous incident.

High potential incident

An incident or event that:

  • would have been a dangerous incident if a person were in the vicinity at the time when the incident or event occurred, and
  • in usual circumstances a person could have been in that vicinity at that time.

Medical treatment

The management or care of a patient including:

  • the suturing of a wound
  • the treatment of fractures
  • the treatment of bruises by drainage of blood
  • the treatment of second and third-degree burns.

Medical treatment does not include diagnostic procedures, observation, counselling, first aid or therapeutic measures taken solely for preventative purposes.

For the purposes of section 37 of the Act the unplanned loss of control of heavy earthmoving machinery (including failure of braking or steering) at a mine is a dangerous incident.

Notifiable Incident Reporting Form requirements

Mandatory Information

At a minimal you should have this information ready before starting your notification:

General Information

  • Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australia Company Number (ACN)

You can use the ABN Lookup Website to find any ABN or ACN of any business within Australia. Refer to https;//business.gov.au/ to access this information.

  • Postal address and/or worksite address (where incident occurred)
  • Description of incident and/or injury (if applicable)
  • Description of Illness (if applicable)
  • Date of incident
  • If the area where the incident occurred is isolated and secured to prevent further injury or incidents
  • If any changes have been made to the area or any machinery or equipment involved.
  • Mine operator name
  • Mine operator mobile number
  • Mine operator email address
  • If the premises is licensed to keep dangerous substances
  • If the incident resulted in a fire and/or explosion
  • Chemical name, UN number (if known), CAS number (if known), Class/Divison and quantity (Kg or L)
  • Vehicle registration number
  • Name of Driver
  • Driver's address.
  • Their name
  • Their relationship to Person Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBU)
  • Their contact information or their emergency contact information
  • Details of injury sustained and current condition of injury
  • Treatment type of injured person (if known).

Mining Operations (if applicable)

  • Mine operator name
  • Mine operator mobile number
  • Mine operator email address

Dangerous Substances (if applicable)

  • If the premises is licensed to keep dangerous substances
  • If the incident resulted in a fire and/or explosion
  • Chemical name, UN number (if known), CAS number (if known), Class/Divison and quantity (Kg or L)

Vehicle Information (if applicable)

  • Vehicle registration number
  • Name of Driver
  • Driver's address.

Injured Person Information

  • Their name
  • Their relationship to Person Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBU)
  • Their contact information or their emergency contact information
  • Details of injury sustained and current condition of injury
  • Treatment type of injured person (if known).

Supporting Documentation

Due to system limitations, the following restrictions to uploading documentation are in place:

  • The maximum number of attachments you can upload is 4.
  • The attachment size limit is 4mb per document.

Important notice

Pursuant to Section 39 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012, you are advised that the person with management or control of the workplace must ensure that the site or any plant, substance, structure or thing where the incident occurred is not disturbed, so far as is reasonably practicable, unless it is required to assist an injured person, remove a deceased person, to make the area safe, or are directed by police.

Reporting to other Regulatory bodies

Please be aware that if you are required to notify any other regulatory body, you will need to do so yourself.

Electrical incidents

Call the Office of the Technical Regulator on 1800 558 811 to notify of electrical incidents relating to an electric shock, gas infrastructure or gas fitting.