Product Overview

This Commercial and Professional Diving SWMS is a comprehensive Safe Work Method Statement designed to identify, control, and minimise risks associated with professional and commercial diving operations in Australian workplaces. It provides end-to-end coverage of planning, set-up, diving operations, decompression, emergency response, and post-dive activities to support WHS compliance and safer commercial diving practices.

Activities & Specific Tasks Covered

This document includes specific risk controls for:

• Adherence to standardised underwater hand and line signals to maintain clear diver-to-diver and diver-to-surface communications
• Planning and conducting aquaculture diving tasks, including work around nets, pens, marine growth, and farm infrastructure
• Management of biohazard diving operations where exposure to contaminated water, waste, or biological agents may occur
• Safe bowline tying and other knot-tying techniques under water to secure loads, lines, and equipment
• Control measures for breath-holding (freediving) work, including limits on duration, depth, and recovery intervals
• Buddy-assisted gear donning and pre-dive checks to ensure correct fitting and functioning of all diving equipment
• Hazard controls for cave diving, including navigation, guideline use, redundancy of life-support systems, and emergency procedures
• Safe operation of recompression and decompression chambers, including entry/exit procedures and communication protocols
• Cold water diving controls, including thermal protection, monitoring for hypothermia, and managing reduced dexterity
• General commercial diving operations, including surface-supplied and SCUBA work, umbilical management, and surface supervision
• De-kitting and post-dive gear handling, including safe removal, cleaning, inspection, and storage of diving equipment
• Preparation, inspection, and safe handling of decompression cylinders and gas mixtures prior to diving
• Identification, first aid response, and escalation procedures for suspected decompression sickness
• Planning and execution of decompression stop diving, including use of dive tables/computers and emergency deviation procedures
• Risk management for deep sea treasure hunting and similar commercial exploration dives, including search patterns and lifting operations
• Pre-dive risk assessments, dive planning, and toolbox talks tailored to site conditions, water environment, and task complexity
• Emergency response planning for lost diver, entrapment, out-of-air, and rapid ascent scenarios
• Technical diving operations using mixed gases (e.g., Nitrox, Trimix), including gas blending verification, oxygen toxicity limits, and staged decompression
• Wreck diving in overhead environments, including entanglement hazard assessment, penetration limits, and guideline protocols
• Offshore and saturation diving systems, including living chamber integrity, bell transfer procedures, and life-support redundancy
• Public safety and police diving for underwater search, recovery, and criminal evidence operations in low-visibility or contaminated environments
• Military and special forces diving, including covert insertion, rebreather use, and mission-specific emergency protocols
• Use and maintenance of closed-circuit rebreathers (CCRs), including pre-dive checks, scrubber duration, and fault recognition
• Underwater cutting, welding, and demolition tasks, including electrical safety, gas management, and fire/explosion prevention
• Underwater construction and pile driving support, including tool handling, sediment management, and worksite communication
• Harbor clearance and salvage diving, including unexploded ordnance (UXO) awareness, sonar navigation, and lifting bag deployment
• Low-visibility and night diving controls, including enhanced lighting protocols, tether management, and non-visual communication
• High-current and drift diving procedures, including deployment buoys, surface marker use, and retrieval coordination
• Diving in overhead or confined spaces beyond caves (e.g., tanks, pipes, ship voids), including isolation procedures and emergency extraction
• Use of lift bags and buoyancy devices for object recovery, including inflation control, ascent rate, and load stability
• Emergency surface ascents and controlled buoyant lifts, including safety stop deviations and diver rescue techniques
• Diving at altitude (e.g., lakes above 300m), including adjusted decompression schedules and equipment calibration
• Ice diving operations, including hole maintenance, tether protocols, and thermal protection for extreme cold
• Underwater photography and survey operations, including equipment securing and task loading mitigation
• Nuclear and radiological diving, including contamination monitoring, time-distance-shielding principles, and decontamination procedures
• Research and scientific diving, including data collection protocols, delicate sample handling, and species interaction guidelines
• Use of bailout systems in surface-supplied diving, including cylinder accessibility, valve drills, and gas switching
• Pre-dive physiological readiness, including hydration, fatigue assessment, and contraindication screening
• In-water recompression procedures as a contingency measure when chamber access is delayed
• Deployment and recovery of surface marker buoys (SMBs) and delayed surface markers (DSMBs) during ascent
• Safe handling of marine life hazards (e.g., sea urchins, jellyfish) during biological or aquaculture dives
• Boat-based diving operations, including ladder entry/exit, current drift management, and vessel exclusion zones

Who is this for?

This SWMS is designed for commercial dive contractors, aquaculture and marine farm operators, scientific and research divers, salvage and exploration teams, and site supervisors responsible for overseeing professional diving operations.

Specific Job Steps & Hazards Covered

Legislation & References

This document was researched and developed to align with:

• AS/NZS 2299.1: Occupational diving operations – Standard operational practice: Requirements for planning, conducting, and managing occupational diving work
• AS/NZS 2815 (series): Training and certification of occupational divers: Competency and certification requirements for commercial divers
• AS/NZS 1715: Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment: Guidance on respiratory protection relevant to diving and surface-supplied systems
• AS/NZS 1716: Respiratory protective devices: Performance requirements for respiratory protective devices
• Code of Practice: Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace: Controls for compressors, winches, lifting gear, and other plant used in diving operations
• Code of Practice: First Aid in the Workplace: Requirements for first aid, oxygen administration, and emergency response for diving incidents
• Code of Practice: Managing the Work Environment and Facilities: Guidance on safe work environments for dive preparation, entry/exit, and chamber operations
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2017