Major Hazard Facilities

Major Hazard Facilities (MHF) are facilities that have the potential to cause major accidents, where the consequences may rival natural disasters in terms of loss of life, injury, damage to property and disruption of activities affecting people at the workplace and the surrounding community and environment.

Employer’s duties

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1991 (the Act) employers are required to provide and maintain, as far as is practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

To ensure that risks are managed in accordance with the duties under the Act employers should systematically manage the risks to health and safety which arise from major hazards.

Major Hazard Facilities (MHF) Approved Assessors

Comcare is inviting suitably qualified individuals or organisations to apply to be an Approved Assessor under the approval scheme for assessors in Part 9 of the Occupational Health and Safety (Safety Standards) Regulations 1994.

• MHF assessor information and application pack 

Major Hazard Facilities regulations

Part 9 of the Occupational Health and Safety (Safety Standards) Regulation 1994 (the MHF regulations) aims to prevent the occurrence of major accidents at a MHF and to minimise the effects of a major accident if one should occur.

The MHF regulations define what type of facilities may have the potential of causing major accidents. For the purpose of the MHF regulations, these facilities are called potential major hazard facilities (potential MHF). Employers in control of these facilities must notify Comcare within three months of the facility commencing operations or before entering the jurisdiction.

Once Comcare receives the notification, the information will be assessed to determine if the facility should be classified as a MHF. Comcare will advise the employer of its decision within six months of the notification being received.

If a facility is classified as a MHF, the employer in control of that facility will be required to implement a safety management system to prevent major accidents, develop a safety report to show evidence that the facility is operated safely and apply to Comcare for a licence to operate the facility.

Facilities that are not classified as a MHF will not require any further action under the MHF regulations unless their circumstances change, which may then require them to provide notification as a potential MHF in the future.

Notification pack

The notification pack contains the approved form to notify Comcare if employers are in control of a potential MHF and provides detailed instructions on how to complete the notification form.

The notification pack can be found at:

• Notification of a Commonwealth potential major hazard facility

Guidance material

Comcare has developed guidance material to provide employers with an overview of the regulations on MHF:

• An overview of the MHF legislation
• Safety Management Systems for MHF
• Hazard identification, risk assessment and control measures for MHF
• Safety Report for MHF 

Comcare MHF Forum presentations

Comcare conducted an MHF Forum on 14 and 15 April 2008 for employers within the Commonwealth jurisdiction who are in control of a MHF. The Forum provided practical guidance to assist employers to comply with the requirements of the MHF regulations. 

The presentations delivered at the MHF Forum can be accessed through the links below:

• Introduction to Safety Report
• Preparing and Managing a Safety Report
• Safety Management Systems
• Hazard Identification
• Major Accident Identification and Risk Assessment
• Control Measures and Adequacy

Employers who believe they may have duties under the MHF regulations should not rely solely on information provided within guidance material, rather become familiar with the specific requirements of the MHF regulations.

Further information

If you have any questions regarding the requirements of the MHF regulations please call the HAZMAT team on 1300 366 979 or email HelpDesk-HAZMAT@comcare.gov.au.