Most site incidents never need to go to the regulator. A few must go immediately, and the site has to stay as it is until an inspector says otherwise. Here's the plain-English version of what counts, what to do in the first hour, and the records to keep.
The Accorda Team · 18 October 2026
Something goes wrong on a job. An apprentice takes a hit from a live conductor. A trench wall slumps. A ladder kicks out and a worker goes to hospital. In the next ten minutes you're dealing with first aid, the client, the rest of the crew and probably your own nerves.
Somewhere in that ten minutes is a legal question most small trades businesses only face a few times in their working lives: does this have to go to the regulator, right now?
Most incidents don't. A few do, and for those the law is unusually strict about timing and about what you're allowed to touch afterwards. Here's the plain-English version.
The duty sits with the person conducting a business or undertaking, the PCBU. If you run the business, that's you, whether you're a sole trader with one apprentice or a contractor with forty staff. The worker who was hurt doesn't make the notification. If they witness something, their job is to make sure you know about it.
On a shared site, more than one business can be involved. Only one notification is needed, but don't assume the head contractor has done it. Check, and record that you checked.
Under the model work health and safety laws, a notifiable incident is one of three things arising from your work:
The death of a person.
A serious injury or illness. This is about the treatment the person needs, not how bad it looked. It includes being admitted to hospital as an in-patient, or needing immediate treatment for things like an amputation, a serious head or eye injury, a serious burn, a spinal injury, serious lacerations, skin separated from the tissue underneath (degloving or scalping), or loss of a bodily function. It also covers needing medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.
A dangerous incident. This is the one trades businesses most often miss, because nobody has to be hurt. It's an event that exposed someone to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent hazard.
The dangerous incident list is long. The items that come up most on trades jobs are:
An electric shock. Even if the worker shakes it off and wants to keep working.
The fall or release from height of plant, materials or anything else.
The collapse or failure of an excavation, or of the shoring holding it up.
The collapse or partial collapse of a structure.
An uncontrolled fire, explosion or implosion.
An uncontrolled escape of gas, steam, or a pressurised substance, or a spill or leak of a hazardous substance.
The collapse, overturning or failure of plant that needs to be authorised, such as certain cranes and hoists.
The definitions have more detail than we can fit here, and your regulator's guidance has worked examples. If you're unsure, the safe course is to call the regulator and ask. That call is itself a record that you acted promptly.
Once you become aware of a notifiable incident, you must notify your state or territory WHS regulator immediately. Not at the end of the shift, and not once you've finished your own investigation. Call 000 first if anyone's life is at risk.
You notify the regulator in your own state or territory (SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe QLD and so on). Safe Work Australia writes the model laws but does not take notifications.
Penalties apply for failing to notify, and regulators have been taking late notification more seriously, not less. A call made promptly, even if it turns out the incident wasn't notifiable, is far easier to explain than one that was never made.
This is the part that catches good operators out. The natural instinct after an incident is to tidy up, get the job moving again, and keep the client happy. The law says the opposite: the person with management or control of the workplace must keep the incident site undisturbed until an inspector arrives or says otherwise.
You can still disturb it to:
help an injured person or remove someone who has died
make the site safe and stop a further incident
assist a police investigation
do anything the inspector or regulator allows
The preservation duty covers the immediate area of the incident, not the whole site. Tape it off, photograph it, and tell the crew why it's off limits.
Notification is the urgent part. The records are what you'll be asked for later, by the regulator, your insurer, or a lawyer.
Keep a record of every notifiable incident for at least five years from the date you notified.
Keep the SWMS. If a notifiable incident happens during high-risk construction work, you must keep the relevant safe work method statement for at least two years after the incident.
Write down the notification itself: when you called, who you spoke to, and any reference number you were given.
Capture the scene: photos, names and contact details of witnesses, and what each person saw, written down while it's fresh.
Record what you changed afterwards. A notifiable incident should lead to a fix, whether that's a new control, retraining, or a revised SWMS. If the fix only lives in someone's head, it didn't happen as far as an inspector is concerned.
Victoria doesn't use the model WHS laws. It runs under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and you notify WorkSafe Victoria. The ideas are much the same: notify immediately, preserve the site, follow up with a written record within 48 hours, and keep records for at least five years. But the details differ, so check WorkSafe Victoria's guidance if you work there.
The model laws were amended in December 2025 to widen what has to be notified. The changes add violent incidents, extended absences from a work-related injury, and work-related suicide, and they broaden what counts as a serious injury and a dangerous incident, including serious falls and mobile plant incidents. These changes only apply in a state or territory once it has adopted them into its own law, and adoption is happening at different times. Check with your regulator before you assume the old list is still the whole list.
The businesses that handle this well aren't the ones with the thickest safety manual. They're the ones where everyone already knows the steps, so the first hour after something goes wrong is calm and predictable:
Make it safe and look after the injured person. Call 000 if needed.
Ask the question: death, serious injury or illness, or dangerous incident?
If yes, or if you're not sure, call the regulator.
Tape off and preserve the site.
Photograph it, take witness details, and write down what happened.
Record the notification: time, person spoken to, reference number.
Put those six steps on a card in every ute. Then make sure the record from step five and six ends up somewhere you can find in five years, not in a group chat.
Accorda is built for exactly the record-keeping half of this. Your crew can report an incident from their phone while they're still on site, including by voice. Accorda can flag an incident that may need to go to the regulator, with a person making the final call, and you can record when and how it was notified. Corrective actions link back to the incident that caused them, so you can show what changed. Everything sits in one place, ready when someone asks for it.
Not sure where your business stands? Our free Compliance Readiness Check has a trades version. It's 15 questions and gives you a scored report on incidents, training, credentials and the rest. Or see how Accorda works for trades and construction.
This article is general information about the model WHS laws, not legal advice. Requirements differ between states and territories. Check with your WHS regulator about your situation.
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