Remote Camp & Modular Building Construction SWMS
This Safe Work Method Statement covers the establishment of a remote accommodation camp or modular building facility — transportable dongas, sleeping and ablution units, kitchen and mess modules, laboratory and office buildings, and the link structures, decks, walkways and awnings that join them. Th
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Remote camp and modular building construction covers the establishment of an accommodation camp or modular facility — transportable dongas, sleeping and ablution units, kitchen and mess modules, laboratory and office buildings, and the link structures, decks, walkways and awnings that join them. The scope runs from site preparation and footing or pier installation, through receipt and unloading of modules delivered by truck, crane or telehandler setting onto footings, levelling and structural tie-down, module-to-module joining and sealing, installation of link decks, stairs and ramps, and connection and commissioning of electrical, water and wastewater services. It applies to camps supporting mining, exploration, agriculture, research stations, disaster recovery and construction projects.
What distinguishes this work is not the trades involved but the absence of the infrastructure ordinary construction quietly assumes. There is no nearby hospital, often no mobile coverage, no mains power, no local supplier for a forgotten part, and frequently a crew who live on the site they are building. A laceration that would be a half-hour inconvenience in a city becomes a serious event when definitive care is six hours away by road and the nearest airstrip needs daylight. First aid capability, communications and evacuation planning are therefore primary controls in this document, scaled to the actual response time — not paperwork appended at the end.
Wind is the second distinguishing factor. A module is a large flat sail with a high centre of gravity, and it is being flown on a crane on an exposed site with no surrounding buildings to break the wind. Wind that would be unremarkable in a suburban street will take control of a module away from the crew. And once set, the same sail area has to be tied down against the design wind for the region — a module that is level and joined but not properly anchored is a hazard to everyone who later sleeps in it.
The third factor is that the crew live there. Fatigue from long shifts, extended rosters, travel and camp living degrades exactly the judgement that lifting and plant operation depend on, and it compounds over a swing rather than resetting overnight.
Falls over 2 metres, powered mobile plant movement, work on or near energised electrical installations, and structural work requiring temporary support all make this high risk construction work under section 291, and a Safe Work Method Statement is required under section 299.
Hazards identified
14 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Fatal crush injury; modules are heavy, have a high centre of gravity and are landed in confined positions between other modules
Load loss or crane overturn; a module presents a very large sail area with no surrounding structures to shelter it
A survivable injury becomes fatal or permanently disabling because evacuation takes hours and may be daylight-limited
Fatal or serious fall; module roofs are often unrated for foot traffic and link decks are unguarded until late in the sequence
Module displacement or overturn in a wind event, with occupants inside; failure occurs long after the crew has left
Operator fatality or a person struck; remote sites have no formed hardstand and ground conditions vary across a single pad
Cardiac arrest and arc flash burns; Part 4.7 prohibits energised work except in the limited circumstances the Regulation allows
Heat stroke, which is a medical emergency and is far more dangerous where evacuation takes hours
Errors during lifting and plant operation; fatigue accumulates across a swing rather than resetting overnight
Total loss and entrapment; the crew is the only fire response and grass fire spreads faster than people can move plant
Gastrointestinal outbreak across a camp population that cannot easily be evacuated or treated on site
Envenomation with an evacuation time measured in hours; modules and stacked materials are ideal harbourage
Acute lumbar and shoulder injury, on a site with no immediate medical support
Laceration and eye penetration; noise-induced hearing loss from sustained grinding in confined module spaces
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Prepare a documented lift study for module setting covering crane capacity at radius, ground bearing pressure, rigging and the landing sequence.
- 2Set a wind speed limit for module lifting based on the module's sail area and the crane manufacturer's chart, measure wind at the site with an anemometer, and stop lifting at the limit.
- 3Use tag lines on every module lift and keep all workers out of the fall and swing zone, with landing crews positioned clear until the module is grounded.
- 4Assess and prepare the ground before plant access, including bearing capacity under crane outriggers and matting where the pad is soft or variable.
- 5Design footings, piers and tie-downs to an engineer's specification for the site's soil classification and the AS 1170.2 design wind for the region, and inspect before handover.
- 6Complete structural tie-down before any module is occupied or left unattended over a forecast wind event.
- 7Establish edge protection to link decks, stair openings and set module edges before workers access them, and prohibit access to module roofs unless the roof is rated and protected.
- 8Isolate, test for dead, lock and tag before any electrical connection, and use a licensed electrician for all generator, mains and solar connection and commissioning.
- 9Protect all camp circuits with residual current devices and issue a certificate of compliance for electrical work before energisation.
- 10Scale first aid capability, medical supplies and first aider competency to the actual evacuation time to definitive care, not to a standard site kit.
- 11Confirm satellite or HF communications before mobilising, nominate an evacuation point and helicopter landing area, and test the emergency call path on arrival.
- 12Manage heat with scheduled work-rest cycles, shade, cool potable water within reach of the work face, acclimatisation for new arrivals and mandatory buddy monitoring.
- 13Manage fatigue through roster limits, controlled shift lengths, travel time counted as duty, and a no-blame stand-down for any worker who reports being unfit to operate plant.
- 14Maintain a cleared firebreak around the camp, control hot work and fuel storage, provide extinguishers and a water supply, and rehearse the camp evacuation with the crew.
- 15Pressure-test and disinfect potable water lines, physically separate potable and wastewater systems with backflow prevention, and test water quality before the camp is occupied.
- 16Brief the crew on local fauna, keep materials off the ground where practicable, inspect under modules and in stored materials before reaching in, and carry compression bandages at the work face.
Applicable Codes of Practice
Sets the framework for SWMS preparation and high risk construction work involving falls, powered mobile plant, energised electrical work and temporary support.
Governs edge protection to link decks, stair openings and set module edges, and access to module roofs.
Applies to cranes, telehandlers and earthmoving plant, including ground assessment, exclusion zones and pre-start inspection.
Governs isolation, testing for dead and lock-out for generator, mains and solar connection, and residual current device protection.
Applies to heat management, potable water, sanitation and the remote-site emergency and first aid provisions.
Directly relevant because it requires first aid provision to be scaled to remoteness and the time to definitive medical care.
Govern the tie-down design for the region's design wind, and the electrical installation and commissioning of the camp respectively.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
Engaged during module roof access, link deck and awning installation, and work at the edge of a set module — module floor levels are commonly above 2 m on piers.
Engaged throughout — cranes, telehandlers, trucks and earthmoving plant operate continuously on the pad during setting and services installation.
Engaged at connection and commissioning of the camp to a generator, mains or solar supply, and during fault finding on an energised installation.
Engaged during module setting where a module is supported temporarily before permanent tie-down, and during link structure installation. Where modules are set directly onto completed footings with no temporary support stage, this category may not apply — the purchaser resolves it on site.
Where any of these categories applies, the work is high risk construction work under section 291 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation and a Safe Work Method Statement must be prepared before the work commences under section 299. Separately and independently, Part 4.7 of the Regulation prohibits work on energised electrical equipment except in the limited circumstances it allows, and all electrical work must be performed by a licensed electrician who issues a certificate of compliance for electrical work. The general workplace facilities duties — including the requirement that first aid be adequate having regard to the remoteness of the workplace and the time to reach medical assistance — apply regardless of whether the work is high risk construction work. The SWMS must be reviewed under section 302 whenever the lift plan, ground conditions or camp layout changes, or an incident occurs.
Who this is for
- →Modular and transportable building contractors establishing remote camps and facilities
- →Mining, exploration and resources contractors delivering accommodation and mess facilities
- →Crane and rigging contractors setting modules on remote pads
- →Licensed electricians and plumbers connecting and commissioning camp services
- →Agricultural, research station and disaster-recovery organisations establishing temporary modular accommodation
What you receive
- ✓Editable Microsoft Word (.docx) document delivered as an instant download.
- ✓Sixteen identified hazards, each with an initial risk rating, a full control set written to the hierarchy of control, a residual rating and a nominated responsible person.
- ✓Regulatory reference bullets citing the governing sections verbatim, including the Part 4.7 prohibition on energised electrical work and the remoteness-scaled first aid duty.
- ✓A completed risk matrix using 5×5 likelihood × consequence scoring with both initial and residual ratings.
- ✓A PPE matrix mapping each task to the required protective equipment and the actual AS/NZS standard it must comply with.
- ✓Emergency response provisions written for a remote site — evacuation to definitive care, communications failure, heat stroke, envenomation, fire with no brigade and camp evacuation.
- ✓The notifiable incident duty with the regulator's notification number.
- ✓A worker sign-on register for recording that each person has read and understood the statement before starting.
- ✓Fully editable text so your PCBU details, site address, personnel, plant and site-specific controls can be inserted.
- ✓State-specific variants available for all eight Australian jurisdictions with the correct Act, Regulation and regulator for each.
Worked example
A contractor sets a 32-room accommodation camp on a cleared pad 340 km from the nearest hospital, supporting an exploration program. Twelve sleeping modules, a mess, an ablution block, and the link decks joining them. The crew lives on site in the first four modules they set. Three things on that job are decided differently because of where it is. The first is wind. Day two is forecast at 35 km/h gusting higher, which in a suburban street is a normal working day. Here the pad is cleared for 400 m in every direction and there is nothing to break it, and a sleeping module is effectively a 12 m × 3 m sail. The anemometer on the pad reads against a limit set from the module's sail area and the crane chart, and lifting stops at 09:40 with two modules still on trucks. They go on at 06:00 the next morning in still air. The alternative — flying a module the crew cannot control with tag lines — is how a module gets away and lands on the landing crew. The second is the footings. The soil report classifies the pad, but the pad is not uniform: the western end sits over a filled drainage line. The footing design is revised for that end rather than repeated across the pad, and the tie-downs are designed to the AS 1170.2 regional wind — because the failure this prevents happens six months later, in a wind event, with people asleep inside. The third is the medical plan. The standard site first aid kit is not adequate here, and the Regulation's first aid duty explicitly accounts for remoteness and the time to reach medical assistance. The crew carries a remote-scaled kit, a first aider trained beyond basic level, compression bandages at the work face rather than in a shed, and a satellite communicator tested on arrival — not assumed to work. The nominated helicopter landing area is marked before the first module lands, and everyone on the pad knows where it is. None of those three decisions is exotic. All three are the difference between a camp job that goes routinely and one that goes badly with nobody close enough to help.
Related legislation
- Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) — section 19 primary duty of care, section 47 consultation, sections 35–38 notifiable incidents
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — section 291 high risk construction work, section 299 SWMS required, section 302 review
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Part 4.4 Managing the risk of falls and Part 4.7 Electrical safety
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 3 general risk management and the workplace facilities and first aid duties, which account for remoteness
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 5 Plant, covering cranes, telehandlers and earthmoving plant
- AS 1170.2 Structural design actions — wind actions, and AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules
Frequently asked questions
What wind speed should we stop lifting at?
There is no single number, and any document that gives you one is wrong. The limit comes from the module's sail area combined with the crane manufacturer's chart for that lift — a 12 m sleeping module and a small ablution pod have very different limits on the same crane. The controls require the limit to be set in the lift study before the lift, measured at the pad with an anemometer, and treated as a stop rather than a guide. Exposed remote pads have no surrounding structures to break the wind, so site conditions are frequently worse than the regional forecast.
Why does first aid get so much weight in this document?
Because the Regulation's first aid duty explicitly requires provision to be adequate having regard to the remoteness of the workplace and the time to reach medical assistance — and because remoteness changes the consequence of every other hazard on the list. A standard site kit and a basic first aider are adequate 20 minutes from a hospital and inadequate six hours from one. The controls require capability, supplies and communications to be scaled to the actual evacuation time and tested on arrival, not assumed.
Do we need an engineer for the footings and tie-downs?
Yes. Footings, piers and tie-downs must be designed to the site's soil classification and the AS 1170.2 design wind for the region. This is the control that prevents the failure mode nobody sees coming — a module displaced or overturned in a wind event months after handover, with people asleep inside. Remote pads also vary across their own area, so a single classification applied uniformly across the pad is a common and serious shortcut.
How is fatigue actually controlled when the crew lives on site?
By treating it as a hazard with controls rather than as a personal matter. Roster limits, controlled shift lengths, travel time counted as duty, and — critically — a no-blame stand-down for any worker who reports being unfit to operate plant. Camp living means fatigue accumulates across a swing instead of resetting overnight, and the tasks it degrades most are exactly the ones with fatal consequences: crane operation, rigging, and directing a load.
Does this cover the ongoing operation of the camp?
No. This document covers construction and establishment — site preparation, module setting, tie-down, link structures and services connection and commissioning. Ongoing camp operation, catering, cleaning, water quality management in service and camp emergency management once occupied are separate duties requiring their own documentation.
Which states does this cover?
All eight Australian jurisdictions. The NSW version cites the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) with SafeWork NSW as the regulator. Each state variant carries the correct Act, Regulation and regulator — and in Queensland and Western Australia mining and resources sites may fall under separate resources safety legislation, which the purchaser should confirm for their site. AS 1170.2 and AS/NZS 3000 are national.