Notifiable Incidents in Residential Construction in South Australia

What it is

South Australia is a harmonised jurisdiction. Incident notification sits in Part 3 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA), sections 35 to 39. SafeWork SA is the regulator.

The duty sits with the person conducting a business or undertaking. On a residential build that is the builder, and separately each subcontractor running their own business on the site. Both can owe the duty for the same event, and each should notify rather than assume the other did. This is not a workers compensation claim and it is not your own incident register.

The three categories

Section 35 defines a notifiable incident as the death of a person, a serious injury or illness of a person, or a dangerous incident arising out of the conduct of the business or undertaking. The person does not have to be a worker. A client, a neighbour, a delivery driver or a passer-by all count.

What counts as a serious injury or illness

Section 36 defines it as an injury or illness requiring the person to have:

• Immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital
• Immediate treatment for an amputation, a serious head injury, a serious eye injury or a serious burn
• Immediate treatment for the separation of skin from an underlying tissue, such as degloving or scalping
• Immediate treatment for a spinal injury, the loss of a bodily function or serious lacerations
• Medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance

Admission as an in-patient is the line for the first limb. An emergency department visit that does not lead to admission is not, on its own, a notifiable serious injury. Unlike Western Australia, South Australia has no limb catching an injury that merely keeps a worker off normal duties for 10 days.

What counts as a dangerous incident

Section 37 covers an incident exposing a worker or any other person to a serious risk to health or safety from immediate or imminent exposure to:

• An uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance
• An uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire
• An uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or a pressurised substance
• Electric shock
• The fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing
• The collapse or malfunction of plant required to be authorised for use
• The collapse or partial collapse of a structure
• The collapse or failure of an excavation or of any shoring supporting an excavation

The last two own residential construction, and neither needs an injury. A trench wall that lets go while the plumber is out of the hole is notifiable, and so is a truss set going over on a windy afternoon with nobody under it.

How and when to notify

Section 38 requires the PCBU to ensure SafeWork SA is notified immediately after becoming aware that a notifiable incident has occurred, by the fastest possible means, by telephone or in writing. For a fatality or a life-threatening event SafeWork SA takes the call on 1800 777 209, a 24 hour line, and the online form follows within 48 hours. Where you notify by phone and SafeWork SA requires written notice, section 38(4) gives you 48 hours from the moment that requirement is made.

The maximum penalty for failing to notify is $10,000 for an individual and $50,000 for a body corporate. Section 38(7) requires the PCBU to keep a record of each notifiable incident for at least 5 years from the day notice was given, with a maximum penalty of $5,000 for an individual and $25,000 for a body corporate.

Preserving the site

Section 39 requires the person with management or control of the workplace to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the site is not disturbed until an inspector arrives or an inspector directs otherwise. The site includes any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the incident. The maximum penalty is $10,000 for an individual and $50,000 for a body corporate.

The exceptions are narrow: action to assist an injured person, action to remove a deceased person, action essential to make the site safe or to minimise the risk of a further notifiable incident, action associated with a police investigation, or action an inspector or the regulator has permitted.

Make it safe, then leave it. Do not backfill the trench, do not re-stand the scaffold and do not let the crew tidy up.

What is changing

In December 2025 Safe Work Australia amended the model WHS Act to widen Part 3, adding an extended worker absence of 15 or more consecutive days, violent incidents, and work-related suicide or attempted suicide. Those categories bind South Australia only once it adopts them, so confirm the current position with SafeWork SA.

Why the record matters

Failing to notify is a cheap charge to prove and an expensive one to defend. Behind it sit penalties of $3 million for a Category 1 offence against a body corporate and up to $18 million for industrial manslaughter. Every one of those files opens with when the call was made and what the site looked like when the inspector arrived.