Ports & Stevedoring · Australia
Crane, straddle and lashing crews work round-the-clock rotating and call-in shifts beside heavy moving plant, where a lapse in reaction or judgement can be fatal.
Varies by jurisdiction: New South Wales – Fatigue-regulated
Reg Watch
Regulatory change that affects how you manage fatigue in ports & stevedoring: what has changed in the last 12 months, and what is on the way.
Recent changeFrom 1 July 2026
Applies across industries in Australia
From 1 July 2026 NSW requires you to follow approved codes, including the fatigue code, or manage risk to an equal or higher standard. Victoria's psychological health regulations apply from 1 December 2025.
Read the changeUpcoming changeNo date set yet
Safe Work Australia's Best Practice Review of the model WHS laws was due to go to WHS ministers in August 2026. It is not yet public and no amendments are proposed, so no change date is set.
Regulatory changes checked as at 1 October 2026.
Regulation
No Australian law sets fatigue rules for the waterfront alone. Fatigue sits inside your general WHS duty. The Managing risks in stevedoring Code of Practice is approved in the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, and published by the Northern Territory and South Australian regulators; section 5.9 names fatigue and says a fatigue management plan may be developed. Victoria has no equivalent code. In New South Wales, from 1 July 2026, you must follow an approved code or manage the hazard to an equivalent or higher standard.
SWALogos identify the regulator and don’t imply endorsement.
Your state or territory WHS regulator enforces the general duty and approved codes at your terminal: SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkSafe Queensland, WorkSafe WA, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe Tasmania, NT WorkSafe, or Comcare for Commonwealth licensees. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigates stevedore deaths on board ships, and the Fair Work Commission approves terminal enterprise agreements.
Manage fatigue so far as is reasonably practicable as part of your primary duty: identify it in the risk assessment for cargo operations and control it through shift rostering, breaks between shifts, double shifts and work in adverse weather. The stevedoring code expects adequate breaks between shifts and contemplates a fatigue management plan. Workers must cooperate with your fatigue and fitness-for-work policies, and the code says they should tell a supervisor when fatigued. Enterprise agreements add minimum breaks between shifts; they are agreements, not law.
Breaches are prosecuted under the WHS Acts in three offence categories, and every jurisdiction has an industrial or workplace manslaughter offence where negligent conduct causes a death. An approved code is admissible in a prosecution as evidence of what was known and reasonably practicable; in New South Wales, from 1 July 2026, departing from it without an equivalent alternative is itself a breach an inspector can act on. A stevedore death on board a ship can also bring a public ATSB investigation.
WHS maximums at 1 July 2025 levels, the latest Safe Work Australia table in force for 2026. Category 1, body corporate: $17,034,000 Cth, $11,150,183 NSW, $3,500,000 WA, $3,000,000 Qld, SA, Tas and NT. Individual as PCBU or officer: $3,407,000 Cth, $2,318,844 NSW, $680,000 WA, $600,000 Qld, SA, Tas and NT. Industrial manslaughter, body corporate: $20,000,000 NSW down to $10,000,000 Qld and WA.
Sources: Work Health and Safety Acts and Regulations; Managing risks in stevedoring Code of Practice (Safe Work Australia, 2016, as approved in each jurisdiction); model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (2025); ATSB report MO-2012-010, Weaver Arrow.
Fatigue-critical roles
The roles where a fatigued worker is most likely to cause serious harm, the tasks that carry the risk, and why fatigue builds up in them.
| Role | Risk | High-risk tasks | Why fatigue builds |
|---|---|---|---|
Quay crane / STS crane driverRules
| Critical risk | Lifting containers over lashers and the vessel from a cab about 40 m up on night shifts; repetitive cycle work; hatch-cover and twin lifts | Rotating day, evening and night shifts, short-notice call-ups and double shifts, isolated cab |
Straddle driver / reach-stacker operatorRules
| High risk | Driving straddle carriers or terminal tractors among people and machines at night; reach-stacker lifts in the stack; truck interchange | Rotating shifts with nights, overtime, long periods of repetitive driving |
Lasher / stevedore (wharfie)Rules
| High risk | Lashing and unlashing containers on deck and in bays at night under suspended loads; climbing lashing bridges; twistlock handling | Short-notice shift allocation, nights and weekends, double shifts, outdoor work in weather |
Dogman / hatchmanRules
| High risk | Directing crane lifts by radio or hand signal where the operator cannot see; hatch-cover lifts; breakbulk slinging | Rotating shifts with nights, long periods standing at the hatch, weather |
Linesman / mooring line handlerRules
| High risk | Handling mooring lines during berthing and unberthing at night; working in snap-back zones; line-boat work | On-call call-outs to ship movements at any hour, broken sleep between movements, night jobs |
VTS operator (harbour control)Rules
| High risk | Monitoring vessel traffic and issuing traffic information overnight; coordinating pilot boardings and berth movements; low-stimulus monitoring 02:00-06:00 | 24/7 rotating shifts, night shifts, screen monotony |
Stories
Published findings and prosecutions from regulators, courts and investigators in Australia.
How the suite fits
Grades describe how strongly a product connects to an obligation. None discharges an obligation, and none carries a compliance warranty.
No Australian rule names a sleep screen for port work; section 5.9 of the stevedoring code names fatigue but no screening. Sleepfit supports your primary duty, and the fatigue Code where approved, by measuring sleep obtained. It screens; diagnosis stays with your clinicians.
About SleepfitSection 5.9 of the stevedoring code expects workers to tell a supervisor when fatigued and to follow fitness-for-work policies; no rule names a check. Fatiguefit4Duty supports that. A fitness-for-duty check, not a fitness-for-duty decision - the duty call stays with you.
About Fatiguefit4DutyThe stevedoring code's training section does not name fatigue; the fatigue Code, approved in New South Wales and the Northern Territory, expects fatigue training. Awareness eLearning supplies fatigue and sleep content; your training programme stays yours.
About Awareness eLearningYour WHS notification duty names no cause, and no Australian rule requires a fatigue review after an incident at a terminal or on board. Was It Fatigue? supports your own investigation. A structured judgement aid, not a determination of cause.
About Was It Fatigue?No Australian rule reaches sleep in new-parent households on the waterfront. SleepWellBaby is offered to parents in your terminal workforce as a benefit that protects their own sleep, not as a compliance step.
About SleepWellBabyRecommended bundle
Every bundle is priced on prevalence: your whole cohort gets access, and you pay for the share predicted to need each product. How pricing works.
Proactive fatigue risk: assess, manage and train, with sleep screening underneath.
Assess, manage, investigate: from the Census to the point of duty to the post-incident review.
Why this pairing in Australia
Section 5.9 of the stevedoring code expects workers to report fatigue; s 19 of the WHS Act names no tool. Fatiguefit4Duty supports that report with a point-of-duty check; Sleepfit screens crews; Awareness eLearning trains with a record. Fatigue Lifecycle adds incident review.
Tell us roughly how many people you employ. Your snapshot models how many are likely sleeping poorly and what it costs, from published research for ports & stevedoring. Then choose who you’d cover, and we’ll take you to the right next step.
