If you’re doing bush regeneration and garden maintenance—be prepared and stay safe. The WHS Policy and procedures and forms are here.

Activity leader

Your role as leader is to ensure duty of care for everyone at the activity, including yourself. Duty of care means making certain that all reasonable steps are undertaken to ensure the safety, health and well-being of participants and others likely to be affected by the activity. This includes any visitors. 

Given this duty of care:

• If you are holding an activity which involves bush regeneration or garden maintenance at a location owned by another organisation, such as a council, you need to follow all the safety and emergency procedures of that council. You need to familiarise yourself with them and operate consistently with them. 
• Even with this, you need to ensure that you brief participants on the hazards and how to manage them during the activity. 

Plan your activity

There are a wide range of risks associated with running a nursery or propagating plants. These include:

• Exposure to heat and sun
• Injuries from tools and machinery
• Injuries from sharp vegetation
• Slips, trips and falls
• Lifting heavy objects
• Dust inhalation
• Animal bites and stings
• Unaccustomed physical work
• Traffic hazards
• Injuries from falling branches
• Personal limits
• Food preparation issues
• Chemicals such as glyphosate
• Before starting an activity, review the risks (using the APS NSW Risk Register) and adjust it for your conditions
• Understand any hazards of the location - crooked stairs, boggy areas etc - check the APS NSW Risk Register and adjust for your situation
• Understand the emergency and evacuation procedures
• If it is a new location, pre-test the location prior to the event
• Check the first aid kit and consider if you require a first aider present during the activity

As the activity starts

• Introduce yourself to participants and describe any potential hazards. Outline the emergency and evacuation procedures of the location

• Ensure all participants complete sign¬on sheet.
• Ensure a first aid kit, plus any other appropriate equipment are brought to the activity.
• Ask all participants to report any incidents no matter how minor they seem at the time.

If someone is hurt, or there is an incident or near miss

• Immediately take care of the person using first aid
• Contact Emergency services if serious or local medical facility
• After the meeting, contact the District Group President and APS NSW President about the injury
• After the meeting, complete the Injury Form
• If there is an incident or near miss, complete the Incident Form and submit to the District Group President and APS NSW President as soon as possible