Hazards, Incidents and Near-Miss Reporting

The health and safety of all visitors, staff and contractors on Wadjemup / Rottnest Island is paramount. To support this, a clear and logical reporting procedure has been established to ensure that any hazards, accidents, injuries, or near-misses are reported quickly, and actions are put in place to rectify the situation.

Here’s what to do if you spot a hazard, or an incident or near-miss occurs, when working on the island.

Definitions

These terms define the situations in which the Hazard, Incident, and Near-miss (HIN) Reporting procedure should be used.

• Hazard. A hazard is a source or a situation that has the potential to cause harm in terms of human injury or ill-health, damage to property, damage to the environment, or a combination of these.
• Incident. An incident is when an event has occurred that did cause harm or injury to a person. This includes any instances requiring first aid, medical treatment, and lost time due to injuries.
• Near-miss. A near-miss is when an event occurred that did not cause harm or injury to a person, but came very close to happening. For example, machinery damage occurred where no injury was sustained by the operator.
• Risk. The likelihood of a hazard or incident, and consequence of injury or harm occurring.

When to notify of a hazard, incident or near-miss

There is an important differentiator between what is considered a notifiable incident for working purposes, and what is considered an accident on the island.

You must fill out a HIN report if an incident arises due to the work that you’re undertaking. These include:

• Visitor risk. If the hazard, near-miss, or incident involved visitors to Wadjemup or Rottnest Island Authority (RIA) officers.
• Environmental risk. If the hazard, near-miss or incident relates to the environment of the Rottnest Island Reserve. This includes things like damage to wildlife or habitat, or unauthorised leaks or spills of hazardous substances into the water or air.
• Work Health and Safety (WHS) issues. WHS incidents cover any hazard, near-miss or incident resulting in, or having the potential for injury, ill-health, damage or other loss involving staff, contractors or consultants.
• Notifiable incidents. Notifiable incidents are serious, and include the death of a person, a notable injury (like a fracture), illness or disease (such as Legionnaires’ disease, or other infectious diseases), or a dangerous incident occurring.
• Reportable environmental incident. An environmental incident must be reported if it breaches Commonwealth, State, or Rottnest Island Authority environmental law, regulations, or approvals, and has the potential to cause environmental harm, attract negative media attention, adversely affect future operations for remediation of a particular site.

When you don’t need to notify

Incidents may happen for reasons which don’t have anything to do with work you’re undertaking. In these circumstances, you don’t need to fill out a HIN report. For example:

• A worker or another person suffers a heart attack while at work which is unrelated to the work at hand.
• A person driving to work is injured in a car accident (where driving is not part of their work).
• Someone with epilepsy has a seizure at work.

In these cases, you don’t need to fill out a HIN report.

How to notify of a hazard, incident, or near-miss

• Start by assessing the incident.
• All notifiable incidents must be reported within 12 hours to the appropriate manager. This responsibility is outlined in the HIN Report Form.
• Corrective action must then be taken to isolate and control the incident.
• Complete the online HIN Report Form, supplying as much information as possible.
• Collect and include evidence, including photographs, diagrams, and GPS data.
• Your HIN report will be registered and logged.
• Corrective actions will be assigned, either to you, RIA or a third party.
• Once all actions to eliminate the hazard and/or mediate the impact are complete, the incident will be closed. 
• If necessary, RIA  staff will notify external regulators. 

Notify or report a hazard, incident or near-miss online