Agriculture is Australia's most dangerous industry. In 2024, 74 workers died on farms across the country, the highest figure in two decades. If you employ anyone on your property, the question isn't whether an incident will ever happen. It's whether you'll know what to do when it does. If you're not sure where your farm stands on safety obligations more broadly, the Headland Check runs through your gaps in under 5 minutes.
This guide walks you through every step, in the order they need to happen.
Step one: Make the scene safe
Before anything else, stop the situation from getting worse. That might mean turning off a piece of machinery, moving other workers away from a hazard, or simply keeping people calm.
Do not move the injured person unless they're in immediate danger. Moving someone with a suspected spinal or head injury can make it significantly worse. Leave that to the paramedics unless there's no other option.
Step two: Call for help
If the injury is serious, call 000 immediately. Don't wait and see.
If the injury is minor, get your trained first aider involved and access your first aid kit. Under Australian WHS (Work Health and Safety) law, you're required to have a first aid kit accessible on your farm at all times when workers are present. You also need to have at least one worker trained in first aid.
Step three: Work out if you need to notify your regulator
This is the step most farmers miss, and it's the one that can get you into serious legal trouble.
Under WHS law, there are certain incidents you must report to your state or territory WHS regulator immediately. These are called notifiable incidents. They include three categories:
- The death of any person at the workplace
- A serious injury or illness (see below)
- A dangerous incident: one that exposed a person to a serious risk, even if nobody was actually hurt
What counts as a serious injury or illness?
- Any injury requiring immediate treatment as an in-patient in hospital
- Amputations
- Serious head injuries
- Serious eye injuries
- Serious burns
- Being buried or trapped
- Any spinal injury
- Infections from handling animals or animal products (directly relevant to farming)
- Occupational disease diagnosed by a doctor
What counts as a dangerous incident?
- An uncontrolled explosion, fire, or gas escape
- A structural collapse: building, stand, or plant
- An electric shock
- An incident that could have caused death or serious injury, but didn't (often called a near miss)
How to notify: Call your state WHS regulator immediately by phone. Do not wait to send an email or fill in a form online. You then have 48 hours to follow up in writing. Each state has its own regulator: SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe WA, WorkSafe Tasmania, NT WorkSafe, or WorkSafe ACT.
Step four: Do not disturb the scene
For notifiable incidents, do not disturb the scene unless it's necessary to help the injured person, make the area safe for others, or is required by police.
Your regulator may need to investigate what happened. Take photos if you can do so safely. Keep everyone else away from the immediate area.
Step five: Complete an incident report
For every incident, serious or minor, you need to complete a written incident report as soon as possible. Don't leave it for the end of the day. Memory fades, and accurate details matter for your records, for any workers' compensation claim, and for any investigation.
A good incident report records:
- The date, time, and exact location on the property
- Who was involved and who witnessed it
- What happened, in plain factual language
- The nature of any injury or illness
- What treatment was given, and by whom
- Whether the person was able to continue working
- Your assessment of what contributed to the incident
Step six: Update your incident register
Your incident report is the detailed record for one specific event. Your incident register is the ongoing log of every incident on your farm over time. It's a separate legal requirement.
Add the incident to your register the same day. Under Australian WHS regulations, your incident register must be kept for a minimum of five years.
By the numbers: Agriculture has the highest workplace fatality rate of any industry in Australia, at 13.7 deaths per 100,000 workers. In 2024, 74 farm workers lost their lives in workplace incidents, the highest annual total in two decades. The industry also records 10 serious injury claims per million hours worked, compared to an all-industry average of 6.8. Source: Safe Work Australia, AgHealth Australia.
Step seven: Investigate what happened and why
Once the immediate situation is under control, work out what actually caused the incident. Not just the obvious thing. Look for the underlying reason. Was there a process that wasn't followed? Equipment that needed maintenance? A task that hadn't been properly planned?
You're not looking for someone to blame. You're looking for what to change so it doesn't happen again.
Document your findings and any corrective actions you've taken. This matters both for preventing future incidents and for demonstrating due diligence if the incident is investigated by a regulator.
The bottom line
Knowing what to do before something happens is what separates farms that handle incidents well from those that make a bad situation worse. The steps aren't complicated, but they do require having the right documents ready and knowing the process before you need it.