Notifiable Incidents in Residential Construction in Western Australia

What it is

Western Australia has been a WHS jurisdiction since 31 March 2022. The old Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 is gone. Incident notification now sits in Part 3 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), sections 35 to 39. WorkSafe WA is the regulator.

The duty falls on the person conducting a business or undertaking. On a residential site that is the builder, and it is also every subcontractor running their own business on that site. Two PCBUs can owe the duty for the same event.

The three categories

Section 35 defines a notifiable incident as one of three things: the death of a person, a serious injury or illness of a person, or a dangerous incident. It is not limited to workers: a visitor, a client, a delivery driver or a passer-by all count.

What counts as a serious injury or illness

Section 36 lists it. An injury or illness requiring immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital. Immediate treatment for an amputation, a serious head injury, a serious eye injury, a serious burn, the separation of skin from underlying tissue such as degloving or scalping, a spinal injury, the loss of a bodily function, or serious lacerations. Medical treatment by a doctor within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.

Then WA adds two limbs the eastern states do not have. An injury or illness that occurs in a remote location and requires urgent transfer to a medical facility. And an injury or illness that, in the opinion of a medical practitioner, is likely to prevent the person doing their normal work for at least 10 days after the day it happened.

That 10 day limb is the one WA builders miss. A carpenter with a badly rolled ankle who gets a two week medical certificate is a notifiable incident in Perth and is not one in Adelaide or Brisbane. WorkSafe WA is explicit that the notice is still required even if you move the worker to light duties for the recovery.

What counts as a dangerous incident

Section 37 covers an incident exposing any person to a serious risk 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 height of any plant, substance or thing, the collapse or malfunction of plant that must be authorised for use, the collapse or partial collapse of a structure, or the collapse or failure of an excavation or of any shoring supporting it.

Two of those own residential construction. Trench and shoring collapse in service runs and footing excavations. Structural collapse, which takes in formwork, scaffold, a wall being braced and roof trusses going over. Note the wording: nobody has to be hurt. The exposure to serious risk is the trigger.

How and when to notify

Section 38 requires the PCBU to ensure WorkSafe WA is notified immediately after becoming aware that a notifiable incident has occurred, by the fastest possible means, by telephone or in writing. The WorkSafe line is 1800 678 198 and it runs 24 hours. If you notify by phone and WorkSafe requires written notice, you have 48 hours from the moment that requirement is made.

The maximum penalty for failing to notify is $12,500 for an individual and $55,000 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 of $5,500 for an individual and $30,000 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 incident site is not disturbed until an inspector arrives or an inspector directs otherwise. A site includes any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the incident. The maximum penalty is $12,500 for an individual and $55,000 for a body corporate.

Five things are allowed. Helping an injured person. Removing a deceased person. Anything essential to make the site safe or to minimise the risk of a further notifiable incident. Anything associated with a police investigation. Anything an inspector or the regulator has given permission for.

The instinct after a trench collapse is to backfill and tidy up. Do not. Make it safe, photograph from outside the exclusion zone and wait for the inspector.

What is changing

In December 2025 Safe Work Australia widened Part 3 of the model WHS Act to add extended worker absences of 15 or more consecutive days, violent incidents, and work-related suicide or attempted suicide. Those categories bind WA only once it adopts them into the WHS Act 2020.

Why it bites harder in WA

A Category 1 offence under the WHS Act 2020 carries up to $3.5 million for a body corporate. Industrial manslaughter under section 30A carries up to $10 million for a body corporate, and for an individual 20 years imprisonment together with a fine of up to $5 million. Those investigations open with the notification record and the state of the site.