Manual Handling Training in the Northern Territory

National Uniform Legislation: the Territory's WHS laws

The Northern Territory adopted the model work health and safety laws on 1 January 2012, the same day as the Commonwealth, the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland. Its versions are the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 and the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations 2011.

Those long titles are the Territory's quirk. 'National Uniform Legislation' signals that the Act and Regulations are the Territory's versions of the model WHS laws, so guidance and training written to the model laws carries across. In the model Regulations, the duty to manage the risk of a musculoskeletal disorder associated with a hazardous manual task is regulation 60. That duty sits with the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) in every industry, from a Darwin freight yard to a Palmerston childcare centre or a roadhouse on the Stuart Highway.

Codes of practice NT WorkSafe has approved

NT WorkSafe lists the Hazardous manual tasks code of practice as an approved code under section 274 of the Act. It is the Territory's adoption of the model code published by Safe Work Australia, and it sets out how to identify hazardous manual tasks, assess the risk and control it in any workplace.

An approved code gives practical guidance on meeting the standards in the Act and the Regulations. For a Territory business, it is the working reference for setting up lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling tasks.

The Territory has also approved the Healthcare and Social Assistance Industry code. Safe Work Australia, which published the model version in July 2025, describes it as focusing on hospitals, aged care and disability support, including home-based settings, so it adds detail for health and community workers on top of the general code.

When help is a long way off: remote and isolated work

Territory work often happens far from anyone who could lend a hand: a tradesperson on a cattle station, a driver heading to a remote community, a cleaner locking up a clinic after dark, a home care worker on a homelands round. Safe Work Australia explains that regulation 48 of the model WHS Regulations requires a business to manage the risks to workers who are isolated from the assistance of other people because of the location, time or nature of their work. That includes providing a system of work with effective communication with the worker.

For manual handling, this means a reliable way to call for help and a clear plan for a task that needs two people, or equipment that is not on hand, when only one worker is there. The plan should be to stop and report, not to improvise.

Manual handling in Territory workplaces

In Darwin and Palmerston, manual handling happens on building sites, in supermarkets and shops, on hospital wards and in the freight yards and warehouses that send goods down the Stuart Highway. Darwin has the youngest median age of Australia's capital cities, according to the ABS, and childcare educators across the Top End spend their days lifting, carrying and bending to child height.

Tourism brings hotel, kitchen and housekeeping work to Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs and to lodges near the national parks, where cleaning and facilities crews move linen, furniture and supplies. In remote communities, work often means unloading supplies after long drives on unsealed roads, in buildings rarely designed with trolleys or hoists in mind.

The climate changes every one of these jobs. The Top End's wet season brings heavy rain, slippery ramps and loading in downpours, while Central Australia's extreme heat adds fatigue and dehydration over long shifts.

Training in the Territory: the duty and its limits

Nothing in the Territory's WHS laws requires every worker to hold a particular manual handling certificate. The Territory's Act follows the model Act, where section 19(3)(f) makes the PCBU's primary duty include the information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect all persons from risks arising from the work. Regulation 39 of the model Regulations covers information, training and instruction.

Each employer sets the requirement for its own roles; some specify HLTWHS005 instead of a general course. Training also works best in support of other controls: changing the task, adding trolleys, pallet jacks or hoists, and fixing the environment come first. No Australian WHS law sets a single legal lifting limit in kilograms, so each task has to be assessed on its own.

An online course can cover the knowledge side: how hazardous manual tasks are assessed and controlled. The self-paced courses here come in nine industry versions. None of them is Nationally Recognised Training or leads to a Statement of Attainment, NT WorkSafe has not endorsed them, and hands-on instruction from your employer on the actual equipment and site is still needed. Training and assessment are free; a Certificate of Completion costs A$49 after you pass and carries a unique number and QR code that anyone can check online.

On the job in the Territory: practical points

Before the next lift, carry or long drive:

• Know how you will call for help before you leave for a remote job, and what the plan is if a task cannot be done safely by one person.
• A two-person task stays a two-person task: if you are alone, stop and report rather than improvising.
• In the wet season, check footing, ramps and vehicle steps before each carry. In Central Australian heat, plan heavy work for cooler hours and take breaks.
• Find out how your workplace uses the Hazardous manual tasks code of practice, approved under section 274 of the Territory's Act.
• Guidance written for the model WHS laws applies here, because the Territory's Act and Regulations are its National Uniform Legislation versions of those laws.

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 Australian Capital Territory
• All guides by industry