Water Bore / Well Drilling SWMS
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
A drill rig kills in one very specific way more than any other: the rotating drill string. A turning rod has no guard on most of its length, it has enormous torque behind it, and it takes gloves, sleeves, hi-vis, rags, hair and lanyards and wraps them around itself faster than a person can react. There is no letting go. Every control on this rig starts from one rule — **nobody touches a rotating string, and nothing loose goes near it** — which is why this SWMS prohibits gloves at the rig floor. The PPE that protects on every other site is the hazard here.
**The ground is the second killer, and unlike the rig it gives no warning.** Bore drilling routinely finds what the desktop study did not: an unmarked service in the first 2 m, methane or hydrogen sulphide liberated from coal measures or organic strata, or a confined aquifer that returns pressure up the annulus. A bore is also a **permanent conduit between aquifers** — drilled through a contaminated shallow aquifer into a clean deep one, it connects the two forever if it is not cased and sealed correctly, and that failure is invisible on the day. Bore work in NSW requires approval under the **Water Management Act 2000 (NSW)** and construction to the minimum construction requirements; those are not paperwork, they are the controls for the contamination pathway. Covers set-up, mast raising, rotary, air, mud-rotary and auger drilling, rod handling, casing, grouting, development and headworks. Regulator: SafeWork NSW.
Hazards identified
14 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Catastrophic entanglement — the string takes gloves, sleeves, hi-vis and hair faster than a person can react, and there is no letting go
Electrocution, gas explosion or fuel release from a service the plan showed as somewhere else
Electrocution of the operator and anyone touching the rig
Asphyxiation, poisoning or explosion from gas liberated out of the formation and returning up the annulus
Uncontrolled return of water, gas and cuttings that cannot be capped by hand
Crush fatality from a falling mast or an overturning rig during set-up
Impact or crush injury from a rod, casing or a component ejected from the hole
A surgical emergency from a wound that looks trivial; amputation or death if untreated
Silicosis from air-drilled cuttings in a formation nobody assessed for silica
A person falling into an open or partially completed bore
A permanent conduit connecting a contaminated shallow aquifer to a clean deep one — invisible on the day, irreversible after
Chemical and caustic burns that develop slowly, and respiratory exposure to dry powders
Hearing loss and vibration injury over a full shift at the rig
Musculoskeletal injury handling rods, casing and additive bags
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Enforce an absolute rule that no person touches, cleans, wipes, guides or measures against a rotating string — the string is stopped first, every time, with no exception for a quick job.
- 2Prohibit gloves, loose clothing, cuffed sleeves, lanyards, jewellery and unrestrained hair anywhere near the rig floor — the standard PPE that protects elsewhere is what wraps around the rod.
- 3Guard the rotating components and provide an emergency stop reachable from the driller's position AND the offsider's position, with mechanical rod handling so hands never approach the string.
- 4Obtain and interpret all service plans, then PROVE every service by non-destructive means to below the depth of the first drilling action — a plan is an indication, not a location.
- 5Hand or vacuum excavate the first 2 m at every hole, and abandon rather than relocate a hole 'a bit to the left' when clearance cannot be achieved.
- 6Assess the geology for gas-bearing strata BEFORE drilling and treat a gas-credible hole as a different job — continuous LEL, H2S and oxygen monitoring at the rig floor and annulus, ignition sources removed, returns diverted, work upwind.
- 7Recognise that H2S deadens the sense of smell at roughly 100–150 ppm — the smell going away is not reassurance, and no control may depend on workers smelling gas.
- 8Assess the hydrogeology for confined and artesian systems, fit a blowout preventer or diverter where artesian pressure is credible, and never cap a flowing bore by hand or with an improvised fitting.
- 9Assess ground bearing and levelness before set-up, extend jacks onto sized pads, and exclude all persons from the mast fall radius during raising and lowering.
- 10Assess overhead line clearance against the mast at FULL height and along the tramming path, lower the mast before any tram, and use a dedicated observer.
- 11Suppress silica dust with wet or mud-rotary methods where the formation allows, handle cuttings damp, work upwind of the collar, and never sweep the rig floor dry.
- 12Case, cap or cover every bore the moment drilling stops — no hole is left open at a break, at the end of shift, or overnight.
- 13Construct the bore to the Minimum Construction Requirements for Water Bores in Australia and the water supply work approval, with a full-depth annular seal placed by tremie from the bottom up, by a licensed driller — the casing and seal ARE the contamination control.
- 14Consult workers per Section 47 of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), record it, and review whenever the rig, method, geology, formation or approval conditions change, after any incident, or at minimum every 12 months.
Applicable Codes of Practice
The benchmark for guarding of rotating parts, isolation and lock-out, and safe use of the rig and its drill string.
The benchmark for locating and protecting underground essential services before any ground penetration, including the duty to prove services by non-destructive means.
The benchmark for drilling fluids, additives, grout and any strata gas encountered, including the workplace exposure standard.
A water supply work approval is required to construct a bore, and the work must comply with its conditions, including casing, sealing and decommissioning.
The national guideline for bore construction, casing, annular sealing, grouting and headworks — the basis on which aquifer cross-contamination is prevented.
Guidance underpinning gas detector selection, bump testing and calibration where strata gas is credible.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
The rig itself is powered mobile plant operating in the work area, with mast raising, tramming and support plant moving around the crew.
Overhead lines are within reach of the mast at full height and along the tramming path, and underground electrical assets are credible in the first metres of every hole.
Methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide are liberated from coal measures and organic strata and return up the annulus to the rig floor where the crew stands.
Ground penetration is carried out on or near pressurised gas mains, fuel and chemical lines whose plotted position is an indication and not a location.
Water bore drilling is high risk construction work under Section 291 of the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW), so a SWMS must be prepared before work commences (Section 299), kept readily accessible and reviewed as necessary (Section 302). The rig is plant under Chapter 5, with duties to guard rotating parts and to use plant within its design limits. Energised electrical work is prohibited under Part 4.7 Division 4, sections 154 and 157 unless de-energisation is not reasonably practicable. Separately, constructing a bore in NSW requires a **water supply work approval under the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW)**, and the casing, annular sealing and decommissioning requirements exist to prevent aquifer interconnection — a bore that connects a contaminated aquifer to a clean one is a regulatory breach as well as a permanent environmental harm, and it is invisible on the day it is created. An entanglement, a service strike, an electrical contact, an uncontrolled artesian flow or any injury requiring immediate hospital treatment is a notifiable incident under Sections 35–38 and is prosecuted as a Category 1 or Category 2 offence, with the most serious breaches carrying imprisonment.
Who this is for
- →Water bore and well drilling contractors constructing production, monitoring, stock, domestic and dewatering bores.
- →Licensed drillers working under a water supply work approval in New South Wales.
- →Drillers and offsiders working at the rig floor, where the rotating string is the dominant hazard.
- →Environmental and geotechnical consultants commissioning monitoring bores and requiring a compliant documented method from their driller.
- →WHS managers and HSE advisors responsible for plant guarding, service strike prevention, gas exposure and silica across a drilling operation.
What you receive
- ✓A complete, editable Safe Work Method Statement authored for New South Wales — the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW), the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW) and SafeWork NSW as regulator.
- ✓14 identified hazards with initial and residual risk ratings on a 5x5 matrix, each with controls ordered through the full hierarchy — eliminate, engineer, administrative, PPE.
- ✓The rotating string control set built on a rule that inverts normal site practice: NO gloves, no lanyards, no cuffed sleeves at the rig floor, because that is what wraps around the rod.
- ✓The strata gas control set — multi-gas monitoring at the rig floor and annulus, with the explicit warning that H2S deadens the sense of smell exactly as it becomes lethal.
- ✓The artesian and confined aquifer control set, including the prohibition on capping a flowing bore by hand.
- ✓The aquifer cross-contamination control set — full-depth annular seal placed by tremie from the bottom up, because the failure is invisible on the day and permanent thereafter.
- ✓The full high risk construction work breakdown — powered mobile plant, energised electrical, contaminated or flammable atmosphere, and pressurised gas/chemical/fuel lines — with the reason each applies.
- ✓A PPE matrix mapping each task to the required equipment and Australian Standard, emergency procedures covering entanglement, gas alarm, service strike and injection injury, and a worker sign-on table.
- ✓Microsoft Word (.docx) format, unbranded, editable fields for PCBU, ABN, site, prepared by, reviewed by, approved by and review date.
Worked example
A crew is putting in a monitoring bore on an industrial site. The offsider has been told a hundred times not to touch the string, and he does not. What he does is exactly what he has done on every other site he has ever worked: he pulls his gloves on before he handles the rod, because that is what a good worker does. The rod is turning at 60 rpm and the cuff of the right glove touches it for perhaps a tenth of a second. The glove does not tear off. It goes around, and his arm goes with it, and the machine does not notice. The offsider did nothing wrong by the standards of every other trade on every other job — he wore his PPE. This SWMS is explicit precisely because the rule is counterintuitive: at the rotating string, gloves are prohibited, sleeves are close-fitting, lanyards come off and hair is restrained. If a reviewer 'corrects' that PPE cell to add gloves, it makes the document wrong in the way that kills the person holding it.
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) and Section 299 (preparation and content of a SWMS), with review under Section 302.
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 5 (plant): guarding of rotating parts, isolation and lock-out, and the duty to use plant within its design limits.
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Part 4.7 (electrical) including the prohibition at Division 4, sections 154 and 157, and Part 7.1 (hazardous chemicals) for drilling fluids and strata gas.
- Water Management Act 2000 (NSW) — water supply work approval, bore construction, casing, sealing and decommissioning; and the Minimum Construction Requirements for Water Bores in Australia.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the SWMS prohibit gloves at the rig floor?
Because gloves are what the string catches. A rotating rod has no guard over most of its length and enormous torque behind it: a glove cuff that touches it for a fraction of a second goes around, and the arm follows, and there is no letting go. The same applies to cuffed sleeves, lanyards, hi-vis with loose tails, jewellery and unrestrained hair. This is one of the very few places on a construction site where the standard PPE rule inverts, and it is written explicitly so that a well-meaning review does not 'fix' it. Close-fitting clothing without loose ends, safety footwear and eye protection — no gloves at the string.
We have Dial Before You Dig plans. Isn't that enough?
No. A plan is an indication of where a service was recorded, not a location. Services move during construction, get recorded from the wrong reference, or were never recorded at all — and a bore concentrates all of that risk into the first two metres. The control is to obtain and interpret the plans and then PROVE every service by non-destructive means — potholing or vacuum excavation — to below the depth of the first drilling action. Where clearance cannot be achieved, the hole is abandoned rather than shifted a bit to the left, because a bit to the left is exactly where the unrecorded service is.
What is the aquifer cross-contamination risk really about?
A bore is a permanent vertical conduit. If it passes through a contaminated shallow aquifer into a clean deep one and the annular seal is inadequate, it connects them — forever. Nothing visible happens on the day. The driller leaves, the bore works, and the contamination migrates for years. That is why the casing and the full-depth annular seal placed by tremie from the bottom up are the control, why a licensed driller and a water supply work approval are required under the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW), and why a bore that cannot be sealed correctly is decommissioned rather than completed.
How do we know if we'll hit gas?
You assess the geology before you drill, and if gas-bearing strata are credible you treat it as a different job with a different method — not as an ordinary hole with a meter on the deck. Coal measures and organic strata liberate methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide, and they return up the annulus to exactly where the crew stands. Continuous LEL, H2S and oxygen monitoring at the rig floor and annulus, ignition sources removed once gas is indicated, returns diverted, work upwind. And nobody relies on smell: H2S deadens the sense of smell at roughly 100–150 ppm, so the smell going away means it is getting worse, not better.