High Risk Work Licences

Training and Assessment for your Queensland High Risk Work Licences

Site Safety Services is affiliated with various Registered Training Organisations (RTO) and we can provide the required Training and Assessment for all your Queensland High Risk Work Licences.

Section 85 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 states that persons conducting a business or undertaking have an obligation to view and keep written evidence that a worker holds a relevant high risk work licence before directing or allowing a worker to carry out or supervise high risk work. (See: Work Cover Queensland Safety Licensing).

Applying for a High Risk Work Licence

High risk work (HRW) licences are renewable, photographic and recognised nationally.

To get your HRW licence you must complete:

  • Formal training – classroom training provided by a registered training organisation (RTO) with approval to deliver the particular course
  • Informal learning – eg: workplace training with a supervisor who holds the relevant HRW license.

Read information on the application process here: HRW Licence application process.

What licence do I need?

There is a lot of confusion in workplaces regarding High Risk Work Licensing.

Please review the Worksafe QLD link: What Licence do I need? for more information.

If you perform work in the following areas or use this equipment, then you will most likely need a HRW Licence:-

  • Asbestos removal (Class A or B)
  • Cranes and Hoists
  • Demolition
  • Forklift truck
  • Pressure equipment (boilers, turbines etc.)
  • Rigging and Dogging
  • Scaffolding

When don’t I need a licence?

You must have the relevant high risk work (HRW) licence, unless:

  • The work is carried out while completing training for the relevant licence class and you are being supervised by a licensed person.
  • You have applied for the licence and are waiting for a decision on your application.
  • The work is carried out at the workplace solely for the manufacture, testing, trialing, installation, commissioning, maintenance, servicing, repair, alteration, demolition or disposal of the plant or moving the plant within the workplace and the plant is operated or used without a load except when standard weight loads with predetermined fixing points are used for calibration of the plant.
  • You are setting up or dismantling a crane or hoist and you hold the appropriate rigging licence.
  • You are carrying our work with a heritage boiler.

Some old licences aren’t valid anymore…

Discontinued licences that were previously issued by Workplace Health and Safety are:

  • Building maintenance unit
  • Bulk loader or ship loader
  • Internal combustion locomotive
  • Refrigeration plant
  • Trencher
  • Crane chaser
  • Dragline
  • Straddle carrier
  • Cable way
  • Explosive power tool
  • Front-end loader/backhoe
  • Front-end loader
  • Skid steer loader
  • Excavator
  • Dozer
  • Bridge or gantry crane with 3 or less powered operations
  • Road roller
  • Scraper
  • Grader.

If you are conducting a business or undertaking, where a licence was previously required, you still have a duty to provide information, training, instruction and/or supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety of all persons.

Can I sling a load without holding a Dogging HRW licence?

There are limited circumstances where a person without a high risk work dogging (DG) licence can safely sling a load.

Operators with a bridge and gantry crane (remote) Certificate are exempt from holding a dogging licence to sling their own loads.

A competent person is able to sling a load without holding a dogging HRW licence (or rigging) when there is no judgement required for slinging techniques or the suitability and the condition of lifting gear because the following factors are predetermined:

  • The weight of the load (or within a weight range) to be lifted is predetermined by a competent person (e.g. may be marked on the load)
  • Selection of the sling and slinging techniques for the load is predetermined by a competent person
  • The condition of lifting gear is predetermined by a competent person
  • The lifting points are predetermined by a competent person and marked on the load
  • The load is lifted within the view of the operator at all times
  • Standard lifting procedures have been documented and signed-off by a competent person.

A person with a high risk work dogging (DG) licence must be used if these circumstances are not met.