South Australia just closed the gap that made it the odd one out on fall risk. From 1 July 2026, the WHS (High Risk Construction Work) Amendment Regulations 2025 (SA) changed the definition of high risk construction work in the WHS Regulations 2012 (SA): the fall-risk trigger dropped from "risk of a person falling more than 3 metres" to "more than 2 metres". That brings SA into line with the national model laws, which every other harmonised jurisdiction already applied.
The practical version: work at height between 2 and 3 metres in SA now needs a SWMS, prepared before the work starts and followed on site.
What actually changed
Until 30 June 2026, SA construction work only became high risk construction work on the fall trigger at more than 3 metres. Everywhere else in the harmonised states, the line has long been 2 metres. The amendment rewrites the SA definition to match the model reg 291 wording, so the fall category now reads the same in Adelaide as it does in Sydney or Brisbane.
Nothing else about the SWMS duties moved. What changed is how much work now falls inside them: prepare the SWMS before the high risk construction work starts (reg 299), carry out the work in accordance with it (reg 300), and review it when the work or the conditions change.
Who the extra metre catches
That band between 2 and 3 metres is where a lot of everyday SA trade work lives:
- • Single-storey roof edges and eaves work
- • Trestle and platform work for painters, renderers, and bricklayers
- • Mezzanines, landings, and stair voids during fit-out
- • Tray-top and scissor lift tasks that never used to clear the old threshold
- • First-floor formwork and frame work
If your crew has been treating those jobs as "under the limit" in SA, that read is now wrong. The same task on the same house needs a SWMS today.
SafeWork SA is out educating on exactly this
SafeWork SA is running construction-focused education campaigns across 2025 and 2026 alongside the change. An education-first posture is good news if you get your paperwork sorted now; it is much less comfortable if an inspector's site visit finds work at 2.5 metres, no SWMS, and a crew that has not heard about the amendment.
What to do before the next job
Three steps, none of them hard:
- • Re-check your current jobs against the 2 metre line, not the 3 metre one. The SWMS checker takes 30 seconds per task.
- • Update any standing SWMS that quotes the old SA threshold. A document citing "3 metres" now misstates the law it claims to follow, which is exactly the kind of thing a principal contractor's reviewer catches.
- • If a job between 2 and 3 metres is coming up, get the SWMS done before the crew is on the tools. Start from the SWMS template structure, or generate a site-specific one for your trade and site in about ten minutes.
Working at height in SA from here
The falls category is the one that catches trades who do not think of themselves as height workers, and the SA change widens it. If that is you, the working at heights SWMS guide covers what the document has to contain, and the SA trade pages (roofing, carpentry, painting) cover the trade-specific requirements. One metre of definition just moved a lot of SA work into scope; the paperwork is the easy part to fix.