Plant and Equipment Management

1. Identify plant and equipment

The principal and/or their delegate must identify all plant and equipment within the workplace in consultation with the Health and Safety Representative (HSR) and employees and record this information in the Plant and equipment register (XLSX) or equivalent.

Examples of plant and equipment include:

• ladders
• table saws
• powered hand tools
• lifts.

Hazard identification should take place:

• when new plant and equipment is introduced into the workplace
• for all existing plant and equipment
• before any changes are made to the system of work for plant and equipment
• before the plant and equipment is used in a manner other than what it was designed for
• when new information regarding the safety of the plant and equipment becomes available.

The principal and/or their delegate must be aware that there are many types of plant and equipment items within their workplace.

Each item presents its own hazards which can include:

• electrical
• mechanical and moving parts
• crushing or cutting
• fire and explosion
• hot parts of plant
• noise
• manual handling
• chemical hazards.

Injuries resulting from incidents involving plant can range from:

• near misses
• small cuts and bruises
• serious injuries such as amputations, scalping, de-gloving, and fatalities.

Due to the greater risk of injury to students, use of the following restricted plant items has been restricted to senior secondary students only who have passed a Restricted Plant Safe Use Competency Test (DOCX):

• Cutting:
  • Rip saw (table saw, bench saw)
  • Band saw
  • Docking saw (cross-cut saw, radial arm saw)
  • Triton Workcentre
  • Portable circular saw
  • Circular saw table
  • Slide compound mitre saw and compound mitre saw
  • Reciprocating saw
  • Guillotine (powered or manually-operated)
  • Panel saw
• Shaping:
  • Grinder (pedestal or bench)
  • Buzzer (surface planer)
  • Thicknesser
  • Spindle moulder
  • Power wood shaper
  • Portable planer
  • Metal cut-off saw
  • Table inverted router
  • Portable plunge router (unsecured), that is, without template or guide fence