Manual Handling Training in the Australian Capital Territory

How the territory's WHS laws are set up

The ACT adopted the model work health and safety laws from 1 January 2012, the same start date as New South Wales. The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT) sets out the duties, and the territory's Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, made under section 276 of the Act, commenced on the same day.

The central duty holder is the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), which might be a builder, a café, a cleaning contractor, a hospital or a childcare service. Under regulation 60 of the model regulations, a PCBU must manage the risk of a musculoskeletal disorder associated with a hazardous manual task, and WorkSafe ACT enforces that duty in the territory. No Australian WHS law sets a single universal legal lifting limit in kilograms; the duty is to assess and control the risk of each task, and your part is to follow the procedures you are trained in and report problems.

Approved codes and what inspectors do with them

In the ACT, a code of practice takes effect through a formal approval instrument. The Work Health and Safety (Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice) Approval 2020 was made under section 274 of the Act and commenced on 8 September 2020. WorkSafe ACT describes the code as applying to all types of work and all workplaces where manual tasks are carried out.

A second approval matters for people who work on their own. The Work Health and Safety (Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice) Approval 2025 covers remote and isolated work among other topics, which is relevant to after-hours cleaners, tradespeople on solo jobs and support workers visiting clients.

WorkSafe ACT explains that an inspector can refer to a code when issuing an improvement notice or a prohibition notice, and that codes are admissible in court as evidence of what is reasonably practicable. In practice, the code is the yardstick a workplace's own methods are likely to be measured against.

Training, supervision and what the law asks

Because the ACT adopted the model WHS Act, its primary duty carries the model's section 19(3)(f) obligation: providing the information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect all persons from risks arising from the work. The Act does not prescribe a particular manual handling certificate. Employers set their own requirements, and some ask for the accredited unit HLTWHS005 rather than a non-accredited course.

WorkSafe ACT's guidance on the safe moving of clients shows what good training looks like. It says training in moving people should be competency based, include practical demonstrations and be reinforced through supervision and retraining. The idea holds in any job: a course builds understanding, and hands-on practice with your employer's equipment builds the skill.

Equipment comes before technique. The same guidance promotes mechanical lifting equipment wherever the person being moved is fully dependent or weighs 55 kilograms or more. That is guidance rather than a legal limit, but it follows the hierarchy of controls: change the task, the equipment or the environment first, then train people to work safely with what is in place.

Manual tasks around Canberra and the region

Canberra's newer suburbs and apartment developments keep builders and tradespeople busy carrying, lifting and working overhead, while shops, cafés and venues in the town centres rely on staff who unload deliveries and move stock. Office workplaces have their own tasks, from moving files and furniture to long stretches at a desk.

Health and community services are spread through Canberra's districts, from Gungahlin and Belconnen in the north to Tuggeranong in the south. Nurses, aged care and disability support workers move people daily, and WorkSafe ACT lists repeated positioning and turning of patients in bed, and prolonged stooping to dress or support someone, among the actions and postures that can lead to injury. Childcare educators, cleaners and facilities staff bend, reach and push loads through the whole shift.

The climate adds a hazard of its own: frosty winter mornings leave paths, driveways and loading areas slippery, which matters for deliveries, outdoor work and helping anyone in or out of a car. Across the border, a shift in Queanbeyan, Yass or Bungendore falls under SafeWork NSW, where the NSW Act's section 26A has made approved codes the minimum standard from 1 July 2026.

Things to check at work in the ACT

A short checklist for any job in the territory:

• Ask which approved codes of practice your workplace follows; the hazardous manual tasks code covers every kind of work where manual tasks happen.
• If you work alone or at night, ask how your employer applies the work environment code's guidance on remote and isolated work.
• Where people are moved, look for the equipment first: WorkSafe ACT promotes mechanical aids for anyone fully dependent or weighing 55 kilograms or more.
• Ask for practical demonstrations and supervised practice on your employer's equipment; WorkSafe ACT's client-moving guidance calls for both.

Where an online certificate sits in the ACT

Manual Handling Academy's courses teach the principles of safe manual tasks, with a separate course for each of nine industries. The training and the 20-question assessment cost nothing, the pass mark is 75% and attempts are unlimited. Only after passing do you pay A$49, for a Certificate of Completion with its own number and a QR code that employers or anyone else can check online.

This is not Nationally Recognised Training and it is not a Statement of Attainment. WorkSafe ACT has not endorsed it, and it does not stand in for the practical, equipment-specific instruction your employer must give.

Common questions

Other states and territories

• Manual handling training in New South Wales
• Manual handling training in Victoria
• Manual handling training in Queensland
• Manual handling training in Western Australia
• Manual handling training in South Australia
• Manual handling training in Tasmania
• Manual handling training in the Northern Territory
• All guides by industry