Diving, snorkelling and recreational water activities laws

Codes of practice offer practical advice to PCBUs and workers about how to meet your duties under the legislation. However, you may adopt other processes and methods that are more suited to your business or work activity as long as they give the same level of protection or higher against the risk.

The Safety in Recreational Water Activities Regulation 2024 and the Recreational Diving, Recreational Technical Diving and Snorkelling Code of Practice 2024 (PDF, 0.59 MB) may not outline every risk at your workplace (e.g. electrical safety or manual tasks risks). So you must ensure you are familiar with all relevant legislation and codes of practice. General advice on risk management can be found in How to manage work health and safety risks Code of Practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB)

Recreational diving, recreational technical diving and snorkelling

If you are a dive operator conducting a recreational water activity for other persons and the activity includes diving or snorkelling, then you must be familiar with:

• The Safety in Recreational Water Activities Act 2011 (the SRWA Act) which imposes duties to ensure the health and safety of persons to whom recreational water activities are provided by a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU).
• Note: Diving work undertaken by recreational dive workers (e.g. dive masters or dive instructors) is general diving work. The requirements for general diving work (see above) apply to diving work undertaken by these workers.
• The Safety in Recreational Water Activities Regulation 2024(the SRWA Regulation) which describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which can cause injury, illness or death in recreational diving and recreational snorkelling activities.

The SRWA Regulation requires that:

• All persons aboard the boat are counted;
• Entry-level certificate divers and non-certified divers complete a medical declaration;
• Entry-level certificate divers provide a medical certificate where required;
• Snorkellers are given advice about medical conditions which may impact their ability to snorkel safely;
• Lookouts (and/or guides for snorkellers), rescuers and first aid facilities are provided;
• Non-certified divers are adequately supervised;
• A dive safety log is kept.

The Recreational Diving, Recreational Technical Diving and Snorkelling Code of Practice 2024 (PDF, 0.59 MB) (Code of Practice) provides practical guidance for dive operators on how to meet the requirements of the SRWA Act and SRWA Regulation.

For recreational diving, recreational technical diving and snorkelling, the code of practice gives specific advice on:

• counts that are made for all persons on vessels
• emergency plans, rescue, first aid and oxygen provision
• risk assessments
• medical fitness
• supervision of divers and snorkellers
• advice to snorkellers
• skills and knowledge of the divers
• instruction and advice to people who speak a language other than English
• equipment required
• decompression management
• dive logs; and
• risks and hazards related to diving and snorkelling.

For recreational technical diving, the code gives specific advice on:

• diving using enriched air nitrox (EANx) or mixed gas
• decompression diving.

A Recreational diving and snorkelling compliance checklist (DOC, 0.99 MB) and Recreational snorkelling compliance checklist (DOC, 0.11 MB) for self-assessments of recreational diving, recreational technical diving and snorkelling are available for your use.

Occupational Diving

High risk diving work and general diving work

Persons conducting a business or undertaking that provide occupational diving must comply with the duties contained within the Work Health and Safety Act and Regulation.

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act), which imposes duties on people at workplaces to ensure health and safety, incident notification and other enforcement matters.
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (the WHS Regulation), which describes what must be done to prevent or control certain hazards which cause injury, illness or death. Part 4.8 gives advice specific to diving work.
• Occupational Diving Work Code of Practice 2005 (PDF, 0.52 MB) can help a PCBU identify what control measures need to be implemented to ensure the health and safety of divers and others at the workplace. It applies to both general diving work and high risk diving work.

For general diving work, the regulation requires that:

• divers are medically fit to dive
• divers and dive supervisors are competent
• dive supervisors are appointed and undertake certain duties
• a written risk assessment is made
• a dive plan is made and followed for the dive
• a dive safety log is kept for each dive
• people on board a vessel are counted before departure.

A compliance checklist (DOC, 0.86 MB) for self-assessments of general diving work is available for your use.

For high risk diving work the regulation requires that:

• all diving is conducted in accordance with AS/NZS2299.1: 2015 (Occupational diving operations- Standard operational practice) including:
  • ensuring workers are medically fit to dive
  • ensuring all dive team members are competent
  • the carrying out of the work.

A compliance checklist (DOC, 0.85 MB) for self-assessments of high risk diving work is available for your use.