Queensland Safety Awards

Core Developments North Queensland is a small business based in Townsville that has operations across the civil, construction, demolition and property maintenance industries.

When a major project exposed them to the Queensland Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999requirements, the company took the opportunity to overhaul their existing safety management system and procedures for safe work method statements and work permits.

Core Development embraced the project’s zero harm philosophy and incorporated the mine-endorsed safe procedures manual into the company’s existing construction focused system. Critically, it developed a customised task hazard assessment system and started an education program for all site personnel. Comprehensive pre-start meetings and tasks hazard identification are essential components of the new system.

This led to measurable performance and business improvements, such as:

• a 50 per cent reduction in injury and incident rates per working hour
  • a 25 per cent improvement in fitness for work performance
  • reduced workers’ compensation premiums
  • improved housekeeping, record keeping, monitoring and assessment
  • staff with more credentials and tickets and therefore knowledge of their work safety obligations
  • improved productivity through retention of a skilled and compliant labour force over the length of the project.
  Significantly for a small business, the improvements have led to invitations from existing clients to undertake larger scale works and opportunities to successfully compete against tier one builders in tender submissions.