By Gaby Grammeno Contributor

The incident occurred at a site on the New South Wales south coast, where demolition and construction works were underway for new commercial development. 

On 5 August 2021 a worker engaged by a demolition contractor was using a 35-tonne excavator to clear rubble from the back half of the site while others carried out labouring duties and cleared material.  

The roof of an existing building had been removed, leaving a freestanding masonry wall bordering the footpath along the side of the street. The excavator driver noticed a sign shaking and the wall moving in the windy conditions.  

He believed the sign was leaning toward nearby power lines and discussed his concerns and next steps with the demolition supervisor, who instructed him to bring the wall down using the excavator bucket, and told other workers to put out temporary signage saying ‘use other footpath’.  

The excavator driver used a digging attachment to pull down the sign and part of the wall, knocking some bricks onto the footpaths of both adjacent streets. When he pulled down the next section of the wall more bricks fell onto the footpath, while cars were driving past. 

Two workers were near the wall while it was being demolished, stopping to pick up bricks that had fallen. At one point, they walked close to the wall as the excavator bucket was grabbing it. 

With the excavator’s third pull at the remaining part of the wall it collapsed uncontrollably onto the footpath of a lane off the street and a second lane close to a passing vehicle. The driver of that vehicle pulled over and put on the vehicle’s hazard lights. 

No-one was injured, but it was clear that the incident could have had serious or even fatal consequences. 

SafeWork NSW charged the demolition contractor with breach of ss 32 and 33 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 – the business had exposed workers and others to the risk of death or serious injury. The maximum penalty for these offences is in excess of $1.7 million and $590K respectively. 

The case was heard in the District Court of New South Wales. 

 

In court 

The evidence made it clear that before the incident, the employer did have safety systems in place, including a Demolition Management Plan and a Demolition Work Plan. 

However, the plans were not sufficiently detailed regarding the risks, the method and sequence of the demolition work, the structural integrity of the support systems, overhead protection, exclusion zones or traffic management. Nor did they mention the demolition of façade or masonry walls by hand with the aid of scaffolding and a scissor lift. 

However, the demolition supervisor and the excavator driver told SafeWork inspectors they’d planned to use scaffolding and a scissor lift so the façade wall could be demolished using hand tools.  

The scissor lift was in a nearby car park and they’d been waiting for scaffolding to be installed, but on the day of the incident, the risk posed by the windy weather had persuaded them to bring forward the demolition of the wall by way of emergency response. 

In doing so, they did not use spotters or comply with the relevant code of practice or Australian Standards as required by the Demolition Work Plan. 

A Safe Work Method Statement did not refer to the risk of falling debris, and other relevant documentation including a Construction Traffic Management Plan was not sufficiently detailed in relation to the risk to traffic on the street outside the site. Nor did the workers picking up the fallen bricks have appropriate qualifications to perform traffic management work.  

After the incident, the demolition contractor revised its demolition methodology, but the company’s risk assessment had been ‘clearly inadequate’, and the uncontrolled collapse could have resulted in very serious injuries to anyone standing in the vicinity. 

Judge Wendy Strathdee accepted that the employer had planned the work to be done and had safety systems in place, but the system ‘failed to take into account that adverse weather conditions could arise’. 

Their inadequate risk assessment had ‘created a circumstance where the workers were ultimately faced with an emergency situation that led to a decision to depart from the planned method for demolition of which would have been adequate had the adverse wind conditions not arisen,’ she said. 

‘If the wind had not destabilised the sign and wall, no risk would have arisen. The underlying problem was the failure to build into the system … added layers of safety which would have limited the risk so far as reasonably practicable in the event of adverse issues.’ 

In sentencing the demolition contractor and deciding on the appropriate fine, Judge Strathdee took account of the mitigating factors – the company had no previous WHS convictions, was unlikely to reoffend, had demonstrated remorse and a commitment to improved their WHS systems, accepted responsibility for the accident, cooperated with SafeWork NSW and entered a plea of guilty.  

She also noted that s 6 of the Fines Act 1996 (NSW) provided that the court can exercise its discretion in fixing the amount of the penalty in the light of the defendant’s capacity to pay.  

The employer was convicted and fined $90,000 after a reduction of 25% to reflect the guilty plea and a further reduction of 50% in view of the employer’s limited capacity to pay a more substantial penalty. 

 

What it means for employers 

When planning safe systems of work, employers should always consider what could go wrong – factors that could disrupt compliance with the planned safety measures. With outdoor work, this should include consideration of potential adverse weather conditions. 

 

Read the judgment 

SafeWork NSW v Demolition 1 Pty Limited [2025] NSWDC 76