Reference
What Australian law asks of site facilities
Twenty requirements across toilets, hand washing, drinking water and eating facilities, from Work Health and Safety Regulation 41 and the model Code of Practice, each mapped to what it asks of a crib room or an ablution block.
Where the British instrument gives no numbers at all, this one gives several. One wash basin for every thirty workers. A separate eating area once ten people eat at the same time. Drinking water at or below twenty four degrees.
Read from the model Code of Practice on 2026-09-05. It is not legal advice, and the states and territories apply the Code differently.
The duty
Regulation 41, and the four matters it makes you weigh
As a person conducting a business or undertaking you must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the provision of adequate facilities for workers, including toilets, drinking water, washing and eating facilities. Those facilities must be in good working order, clean, safe and accessible.
| The nature of the work being carried out | A crib room for a civil crew and one for a processing site are not the same brief |
|---|---|
| The nature of the hazards, physical and psychosocial | The code names psychosocial risk explicitly, including the risk of sexual or gender based harassment around facilities. That is a layout and a siting question before it is a policy one |
| The size, location and nature of the workplace | The code states that it may not always be reasonably practicable to provide the same types of facilities at a temporary, mobile or remote workplace as at a fixed one |
| The number and composition of the workers | Composition, not just headcount. It changes what has to be provided and how it has to be arranged |
What the code asks for
Four areas, twenty requirements
Toilets
| What the code says | What that means in a unit |
|---|---|
| Access to clean toilets must be provided for all workers while at work | Where reasonably practicable, provide them rather than relying on access to external public toilets |
| Where it is not reasonably practicable to provide permanent toilets, portable toilets should be provided | This is the code naming our category directly. Short term temporary workplaces and remote areas are the cases it gives |
| A portable toilet should be in a secure place with safe access, installed so it does not fall over or become unstable, and serviced regularly | Siting, levelling and a service interval, all three specified rather than assumed |
| For workplaces within buildings the National Construction Code sets the ratio of toilets to workers | Note the qualifier. For a site that is not within a building the code gives no ratio, and the test returns to enough for the number who may need to use them at the same time |
| Ratios are the minimum, and break scheduling affects the number required | The same point the British instrument makes in different words. Peak concurrency, not headcount |
| Hinged seat and lid, lighting and ventilation, clearly signposted, a hinged door lockable from inside on each cubicle, emergency access, positioned for privacy | Every one of these is a build decision |
| Supplied with toilet paper for each toilet, hand washing facilities, rubbish bins, and a hygienic means to dispose of sanitary items | Dispensers and bins fitted at build, not left to the site |
| Access to period products where it may otherwise be limited, including remote locations and long or irregular hours | The code treats this as a health and safety matter rather than an amenity |
Hand washing
| What the code says | What that means in a unit |
|---|---|
| Hand washing facilities must be provided so workers can maintain personal hygiene | Separate from any other sink, and near the toilets |
| In most cases, at least one wash basin for every 30 male workers and one for every 30 female workers | This is a real ratio. The British construction instrument gives no equivalent |
| Where there are no hand washing facilities, alternative hand hygiene must be available | A water container with soap and paper towels, wipes or sanitiser. Relevant when a unit is between service visits |
Drinking water
| What the code says | What that means in a unit |
|---|---|
| Drinking water at or below 24 degrees Celsius | An actual number, and in this climate it is a plant question rather than a plumbing one. Refrigeration, non contaminated ice, or shading the pipework and storage from the sun |
| Supplied hygienically, so workers do not drink from a shared container | An upward jet drinking fountain, or disposable or washable containers |
| Water not suitable for drinking must be signed as unfit | Where a unit carries both potable and non potable circuits, the signage is part of the build |
| Where direct connection is not possible, provide alternatives | Tanked supply sized against the crew and the service interval |
Eating facilities
| What the code says | What that means in a unit |
|---|---|
| Access to hygienic facilities for eating and for preparing and storing food must be provided | This is the crib room duty |
| A separate eating area should be provided if 10 or more workers usually eat at the workplace at the same time, or if there is a contamination risk | Ten is the number that decides whether a separate space is needed. It is a clear sizing trigger in the code |
| The eating area should be protected from the weather and separated from work processes, toilet facilities and hazards including noise, heat and atmospheric contaminants | Separation from the WC compartment is explicit, which rules out some compact layouts |
| Tables and seats to accommodate each worker likely to use the area at one time | Peak concurrency again, not headcount |
| A sink with hot and cold water, washing utensils and detergent, and an appliance for boiling water | Heated water supply and a specified appliance on a calculated circuit |
Standing
What a code of practice is, and what it is not
This is a model code of practice. It is guidance on how to achieve the standards in the Work Health and Safety Regulations, and under the model laws an approved code is admissible in proceedings as evidence of what is known about a hazard and of what is reasonably practicable.
It is model law. The Commonwealth, the states and the territories each enact and enforce their own work health and safety laws, and adoption of the model regulations and codes varies between them. Western Australia and Victoria in particular have their own histories here. Before relying on a figure for a specific site, check what the regulator in that jurisdiction has adopted.
We publish that caveat rather than burying it, because a page that reads as though one national rule applies would be wrong in at least two jurisdictions and useless in the two where it matters most.
Using this
It is free, and attribution is the only ask
Quote it, reproduce a row, or set it as reading. If a row is wrong, tell us. Corrections are dated on the corrections page.
Citing this
MODUWRIGHT. "What Australian law asks of site facilities." Read 2026-09-05. http://127.0.0.1:8812/site-facilities-australia
Free to quote, reproduce or set as reading, in whole or in part, on one condition: name the source and link to it. If a row is wrong, tell us and it is corrected.
The British counterpart, where the instrument gives no numbers at all, is what the law requires a welfare unit to contain.