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Crane and Rigging Site Awareness (Non-Operator)

A plain-English course for people who work on or near sites where cranes and rigging are in use but who never operate the crane, sling the load or direct the lift, trades working nearby, site admin and coordinators who plan around lifts, delivery drivers, supervisors-in-training and visitors. Learn why lifting operations kill, how to read crush zones, load paths and drop zones, what an exclusion zone is and why you never enter one, who is actually in charge of a lift and why it is never you, what ground conditions, outriggers, overhead powerlines and weather limits mean for the people standing nearby and how to recognise an unsafe lift, get clear and report it. This is awareness only. It is not a dogging, rigging or crane high risk work licence.
Also relevant for: Construction and Trades, Manufacturing and Industrial, Mining and FIFO, Warehouse, Transport and Logistics
What You Will Learn
- Explain why lifting operations are high-risk for the people standing near them, not only for the crane crew
- Recognise the danger areas around a lift, the drop zone under the load, the load path, the slew and counterweight zone, and the crane's set-up area, and explain what an exclusion zone is, who sets it, and why you never enter or cross one
- Identify who is in charge of a lift, the licensed crane operator, dogger and rigger working to a lift plan, and explain why you must never sling a load or direct a crane, and where warning of danger differs from directing a lift
- Recognise the warning signs of an unsafe lift, including ground, outrigger, powerline and weather problems, and know that your role is to get clear and raise it, not to fix it
- Get yourself to safety and report a hazard, near miss or incident to the right person
Course Content
- The load does not care that you were only walking past
- By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- A lift is a system, and the crane is only part of it
- Being hit by a moving object kills workers every year
- Most people who die at work are killed by something moving
- This course is awareness. It is not a licence, and it never will be
- Learn to see the shape of the danger
- The four danger areas around a lift
- Never under a suspended load, and the law is built around keeping you out
- The crane's body swings too, and it does not have brakes for you
- A lift has a crew, and every one of them is licensed or trained for their role
- Only one person talks to the crane operator
- Dogging work has a legal definition, and it explains why you are shut out
- Licensing across the states
- Around a lift and its crew
- Exclusion zones are the control. Treat them as a locked door
- Ground and outriggers: why the crane's feet are your business
- Overhead powerlines: the distances are set by your state
- Weather limits: there is no number, and that is the point
- You do not need to be an expert to notice something is wrong
- Things worth raising, even if you are wrong
- What to do when something looks wrong
- Where you stand legally, and why speaking up is not overstepping
- On the job: working around a live crane
- The five things to carry away
Who This Course Is For
Trades and subcontractors working near lifting operations; site administrators, coordinators and schedulers who plan work around lifts; delivery and transport drivers attending sites where cranes are working; supervisors-in-training; and clients, consultants and visitors. Written for people who are near lifting work, not for people who carry it out. This course is not for doggers, riggers or crane operators, whose competence comes from licensed training.
Written by Kam Askari, Managing Director of Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 Lead Auditor. MBA, Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, MAICD. Checked against the sources listed below.
Sources and Legal References
This course is aligned to 24 official sources. Legal and regulatory references checked between 26 July 2026 and 1 November 2026.
Sources and Further Reading
This course draws on the following official sources. Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
- LegislationElectrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld)As at 22/09/2026
- LegislationElectrical Safety Regulations 2024 (NT)As at 26/07/2026
- LegislationElectrical Safety Act 2022 (NT)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)As at 31/08/2026
- Regulator guidanceSafe Work Australia, Managing Risks to Health and Safety at the WorkplaceAs at 31/08/2026
- Australian StandardAS 2550As at 03/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10 (NSW)As at 03/10/2026
- Code of PracticeCode of Practice: Work near overhead and underground electric lines (NSW), SafeWork NSW, May 2026As at 03/10/2026
- Code of PracticeCode of Practice: Tower cranes (NSW), SafeWork NSW, July 2025As at 03/10/2026
- Code of PracticeCode of Practice: Managing the risks of plant in the workplace (NSW), SafeWork NSW, December 2022As at 03/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (NT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA)As at 13/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (Tas)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (ACT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)As at 01/11/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations 2011 (NT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA)As at 13/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2022 (Tas)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (Vic)As at 01/11/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA)As at 31/10/2026
Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
Seven day refund if you have not started
Or
For employers and teams
Buy Seats for Your Team
$49.00 per seat, inc GST
Total inc GST$245.00
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What You Get
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that
has successfully completed
All learning modules and the final assessment
Kam Askari
Director, Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd
This is a certificate of completion of a non-accredited professional development course. It is not a nationally recognised qualification, a VET statement of attainment, a competency card, a licence, or evidence of competency. It is issued by Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, which is not a Registered Training Organisation.
Sample layout. Certificate ID WP-SAMPLE-0001 verifies as Hazardous Manual Tasks and Manual Handling Safety.
- Certificate verified by its ID
- 100% online, self-paced
- Six months of access
Bought for yourself: six months of access from the day you pay. Team seat: six months from the day the worker activates their code.
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