Occupational diving

High risk diving work and general diving work

Occupational diving includes all diving work carried out as part of a business, as a service or for research or for profit.

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 2025 (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.

General diving work

General diving work is all work carried out in or under water while breathing compressed gas by a worker that is not performing high risk diving work.

Typically, it includes:

• scientific and resource management diving – including limited scientific diving work
• photographic and film making diving
• marine harvesting and aquaculture diving
• recreational diving undertaken by workers (e.g. dive instructors and divemasters). Note:  the Safety in Recreational Water Activities Act 2011 ensures that duties to protect the health and safety of clients engaging in recreational diving are provided for
• minor work in the sea, bay, inlet or marina for cleaning, inspecting, maintaining or searching for a vessel or mooring
• work that is incidental to the conduct of a business (e.g. an actor working on an underwater film).

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.

The code of practice contains specific advice on:

• risk assessment, including risks from vessels
• equipment required, including breathing gas quality
• decompression management
• emergency plans, rescue, first aid and oxygen provision
• log keeping.

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

High risk diving work

High risk diving work is work carried out in or under water while breathing compressed gas that involves one or more of the following:

• construction work (e.g. constructing a pipeline, renovating a ship, refurbishing a dock)
• testing, maintenance or repair work of a minor nature carried out in connection with a structure. For example conducting non-destructive testing on a bridge pylon
• inspection work carried out to determine if the above is necessary (e.g. inspecting a component of a dam to determine if maintenance is required)
• recovery or salvage of large items of plant or structures for commercial purposes (e.g. salvage of a vessel).

Note: High risk diving work does not include minor work in the sea or marinas that involves cleaning, inspecting, maintaining or searching for a vessel or mooring (e.g. cleaning vessel hulls or a pontoon underwater observatory windows in good environmental conditions using light tools or plant).

All high risk diving work must be carried out in accordance with AS/NZS 2299.1: 2015 Occupational diving operations – Standard operational practice.

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.

Other diving work that is not high risk diving work is general diving work.