Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers in Victoria
Online manual handling training for aged care, personal care and home care workers across Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and regional Victoria. The duties it explains come from the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), administered by WorkSafe Victoria. The course and the assessment are free; you pay A$49 only if you pass and want the certificate.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Applies to the Manual Handling Training for Aged Care Workers course.
Another industry? Manual handling training in Victoria covers every industry.
Occupational health and safety in Victoria
Victoria is the only Australian jurisdiction that has not adopted the model work health and safety laws. It operates under its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and workplace safety is administered by WorkSafe Victoria rather than a 'SafeWork' regulator. The duties are similar in substance — identify hazards, control risks so far as is reasonably practicable, consult with workers — but the legislation and the terminology differ from the rest of the country. The specific rules sit in Part 3.1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, headed 'Hazardous manual handling'.
Because Victoria's framework is separate, aged care providers there often use different terminology in their procedures — 'OHS' rather than 'WHS', and 'hazardous manual handling' under the Victorian regulations. Workers who move to Victoria from another state are sometimes surprised by this, even though the practical expectations on the floor are much the same.
Aged care in Victoria
Victoria has an unusually large public role in residential aged care. The Victorian Department of Health describes the state government as the largest public provider of residential aged care in Australia, with most of its public sector residential aged care services run by public health services in rural and regional communities. A residential aged care job in a country town can therefore be a job with the local health service, working to its procedures, equipment and incident reporting systems.
Home and community care reaches from Melbourne's growth suburbs to Gippsland, the Mallee and the north-east, and ABS population estimates name Paynesville, in East Gippsland, among the coastal retirement areas with the oldest median age in the country. WorkSafe Victoria's Home care occupational health and safety compliance kit names showering or bathing people in the home and moving and lifting people in the home among seven of the most hazardous tasks for home care workers, alongside everyday domestic work such as vacuuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms and making beds.
Along the Murray, towns such as Wodonga, Echuca and Mildura sit opposite or close to New South Wales communities, and workers who take shifts on both sides of the river move between two frameworks. The transfer in front of them is the same, but New South Wales runs the model WHS laws under SafeWork NSW, with its own codes and terminology, while Victorian employers work to the OHS Act and WorkSafe Victoria's compliance code. Module 2, Australian Work Health and Safety Principles, covers the shared duties that sit behind both sets of terms.
What WorkSafe Victoria publishes on hazardous manual handling
WorkSafe Victoria describes hazardous manual handling as the biggest cause of injuries in Victorian workplaces. Its central document is the Compliance code: Hazardous manual handling, which came into effect on 15 March 2018, replacing the Manual handling code of practice 2000; the current version is Edition 2, December 2019. A compliance code works differently from a model code of practice: an employer who complies with it is deemed to comply with the duty it covers, although it is not mandatory and an employer may meet the duty another way. Behind it sits Part 3.1 of the OHS Regulations 2017, which requires an employer to identify hazardous manual handling, eliminate the risk of a musculoskeletal disorder so far as is reasonably practicable, reduce any remaining risk by changing the workplace layout, the environment, the systems of work or the things used, or by using mechanical aids, and only then rely on information, instruction or training.
For care work, WorkSafe Victoria publishes Transferring people safely: A handbook for workplaces, written for health, aged care, rehabilitation and disability services; step-by-step solutions for transferring people from beds and chairs and for toileting and bathing; and the Home care occupational health and safety compliance kit, which includes a guidance note on client needs assessment and care planning. Its aged care guidance on lifting and assisting residents is direct: eliminate manual lifting of patients except in life-threatening situations, provide mechanical aids such as hoists, overhead tracking, wheeled equipment and slide sheets, and write safe handling methods, including how many people should assist, into the care plan.
What it means on shift in Victoria
- Victorian procedures say 'OHS', 'employer' and 'hazardous manual handling' where the model laws say 'WHS', 'PCBU' and 'hazardous manual tasks'; the duties behind the words are similar in substance.
- The Victorian definition of hazardous manual handling expressly includes lifting, moving, holding or restraining live persons, so resident and client transfers fall squarely within Part 3.1.
- Regulation 27 lets an employer rely solely or mainly on training only when changing the layout, environment, systems of work or equipment, or using mechanical aids, is not reasonably practicable.
- Regulation 28 requires the employer to review its manual handling controls when a musculoskeletal disorder is reported, after a notifiable incident involving hazardous manual handling, and when a health and safety representative asks, so reporting early starts a review.
Who is responsible for what
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), your employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health, including the information, instruction, training and supervision you need. As an employee, you must take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others, and cooperate with your employer's safety measures.
In practice the answer to a heavy or awkward transfer is rarely "lift more carefully". It is a change to the task, the environment, the equipment or the staffing. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, the national aged care regulator, oversees providers against the Aged Care Quality Standards, but OHS law is WorkSafe Victoria's job.
How the course fits with your employer's training
Eight self-paced online modules take about 45–60 minutes. The assessment has 20 multiple-choice questions, a 75% pass mark and unlimited attempts, and a retry only re-asks the questions you answered wrongly. The A$49 Certificate of Completion carries a unique number and a QR code that anyone can check at /verify.
It does not replace your employer's practical, equipment-specific training on the hoists, slings and care plans you will actually use. This is non-accredited workplace training. It is not Nationally Recognised Training and does not issue a Statement of Attainment.
Common questions
Sources
- WorkSafe Victoria — Hazardous manual handling
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks — The national code the state and territory regulators adopt or mirror.
- Safe Work Australia — Lifting, pushing and pulling (manual tasks)
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — Provider standards that sit alongside WHS duties in aged care.
General information about Australian work health and safety duties, not legal advice. Your employer’s procedures and the regulator in your state take precedence.
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Work through the aged care course and the assessment at your own pace. You only pay A$49 if you pass and want the certificate.
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