From the start of the new financial year, almost any roof job on a single-storey home in SA becomes high-risk construction work. For most residential builders, the day-to-day change is simple: a Safe Work Method Statement now has to be in place before the work starts.

From 1 July 2026, construction work in South Australia that carries a risk of someone falling more than two metres is classified as high-risk construction work. That is a drop from the previous three-metre threshold, and it brings SA into line with the national model work health and safety regulations that already apply in the other states and territories.

The practical effect lands squarely on residential builders. Most roof work on a single-storey home sits between two and three metres off the ground. Under the old rule, much of that work fell below the high-risk line. Under the new rule, most of it sits above it. The headline obligation that comes with the reclassification is a Safe Work Method Statement, prepared before work begins and kept available on site.

What actually changes on 1 July

The change comes through the Work Health and Safety (High Risk Construction Work) Amendment Regulations 2025. It does not introduce a new duty to keep workers safe. That duty already exists at any height. What changes is the point at which a job is formally classified as high-risk construction work, which is the trigger for a specific set of obligations under the regulations.

The central one is the Safe Work Method Statement, or SWMS. For any work where a person could fall more than two metres, the SWMS must be prepared before the work starts, written for the specific site and task, developed in consultation with the workers doing the job, and available on site while the work is underway. It needs to identify the fall hazards and set out the control measures, worked through the hierarchy of controls rather than defaulting straight to a harness.

For a lot of SA builders, none of this is new. Plenty already run SWMS as standard practice and already scaffold single-storey roof work. For those operators, 1 July is closer to a paperwork formality than a change in how they run a site. The builders who need to pay attention are the ones who have been relying on the three-metre threshold to keep single-storey roof work outside the high-risk category. From July, that work is inside it.

Most roof work on a single-storey home sits between two and three metres. That is exactly the band the new threshold now captures.

Why South Australia is making the change

The reasoning behind the change sits in the injury data, and it points directly at residential work. SafeWork SA and ReturnToWorkSA figures show that falls from height in construction have driven around 1,585 workers compensation claims since the 2016-17 financial year, at a total claims cost of more than $64 million.

The more specific number is the one that explains the two-metre line. Between 2020 and 2022, there were 149 cases in South Australia of a person falling from above two metres. More than 100 of those happened in the residential construction sector, and 68 per cent of them involved falls of between two and three metres. That is the exact height band the previous three-metre threshold left outside the high-risk category, and it is where the majority of the harm has been occurring.

SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell has framed the change as closing a gap that allowed some employers to treat the higher threshold as a reason not to provide fall protection, particularly on residential sites. The regulator has also stressed a point worth holding onto: the risk does not begin at two metres. The duty to manage fall hazards applies at any height. The threshold simply determines when the formal high-risk obligations kick in.

How this fits the national picture

South Australia has been the outlier here. The model WHS regulations set the high-risk fall threshold at two metres, and most jurisdictions have operated on that basis for years. By moving to two metres, SA removes one of the last points of difference for builders who work across state lines and have had to track which threshold applied where.

It is worth being precise about the national position, because it is not perfectly uniform. Queensland, for instance, still treats three metres as the trigger for housing construction specifically, while applying two metres to other construction work. So SA aligning to two metres for all construction, residential included, actually puts it ahead of the Queensland housing position on this particular measure. The broader direction across the country, though, is clear: heights enforcement is tightening, not easing.

That enforcement trend is visible elsewhere too. In Queensland, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has signalled a statewide work-at-heights compliance campaign with inspectors visiting construction sites from July. In New South Wales and Victoria, falls have remained a sustained enforcement priority. For a builder, the takeaway is consistent regardless of state: the regulators are focused on height work, and documentation is the first thing they look for.

The threshold determines when the formal obligations begin. The duty to keep people safe applies at any height.

What residential builders can do before 1 July

The change has a transition runway built in. It was confirmed well ahead of time specifically to give the industry room to prepare, which means the work between now and July is straightforward planning rather than a scramble. A few practical moves cover most of it.

Start by mapping the tasks currently done at two to three metres that have been sitting below the old threshold. Single-storey roof work is the obvious one, but gutter and fascia work, eaves, and some external cladding can fall in the same band. Those are the tasks that move into the high-risk category.

From there, update the SWMS triggers so the documentation is prepared for that work rather than skipped. Lift the standard fall-prevention approach for residential builds, which in practice usually means scaffold or roof edge protection as the baseline rather than relying on harness-based systems as a first resort. And brief subcontractors now, so the people actually on the roof understand the change and the paperwork expectations before the first July job rather than on the day. Tightening process and documentation is one of the few levers fully inside a builder’s control, and this change is a natural prompt to get those systems right.

There is a commercial signal in this too. Scaffold and height safety company Buildsafe has opened a South Australian base at Lewiston, citing both the threshold change and a residential pipeline it describes as one of the fastest-growing in the country, with approvals up more than 10 per cent year-on-year. When a national height safety supplier opens a local branch off the back of a regulatory shift, it is a fair indication of where demand for compliant fall protection is heading in the state.

The full SafeWork SA fact sheets for workers and for PCBUs and principal contractors are available at safework.sa.gov.au, along with the amended regulation and Safe Work Australia’s guidance on preparing a SWMS.

Your Questions Answered:

What is changing for SA builders on 1 July 2026?

A: The threshold for high-risk construction work involving a fall drops from three metres to two metres. Work where a person could fall more than two metres is now high-risk construction work and requires a Safe Work Method Statement.

Does the new SA fall rule mean I need a SWMS for single-storey roof work?

A: In most cases yes. Most single-storey roof work sits between two and three metres, which now falls inside the high-risk category, so a site-specific SWMS must be prepared before work starts.

Why is South Australia lowering the height threshold to two metres?

A: To align with the national model WHS regulations and to target the height band where most falls occur. Between 2020 and 2022, 68 per cent of falls from above two metres in SA happened between two and three metres, mostly in residential construction.

Do other Australian states already use the two-metre threshold?

A: Most do, under the model WHS regulations. SA has been an outlier at three metres. Queensland still applies three metres specifically to housing construction and two metres to other construction work.

When does the SA fall threshold change take effect?

A: 1 July 2026. The date was set as a transition period to give the industry time to prepare before the new threshold applies.

This article is general information for the construction industry and is not legal or work health and safety advice. Builders should confirm their specific obligations with SafeWork SA or a qualified WHS adviser.

Last updated: 17 June 2026

Author: TGB Editorial