What records does a site supervisor legally need to keep in Australia?
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) and equivalent state legislation, principal contractors and employers must keep records of workplace incidents, identified hazards, safety inspections, and training. Most construction contracts also impose an express obligation to maintain a daily site diary as a condition for making delay or variation claims. A daily diary covers both in a single record.
What are the WHS record-keeping requirements?
Australian WHS legislation requires employers and contractors to record and retain records of notifiable incidents, including serious injuries and dangerous incidents, for a minimum of five years. Safe Work Australia guidance recommends also maintaining records of workplace incidents and near-misses, hazard identification and risk assessments, toolbox talks and worker inductions, plant and equipment inspections, and SWMS reviews.
State regulators have additional specific requirements. SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, SafeWork SA, and WorkSafe Queensland each publish guidance on construction site record-keeping. Check the requirements for the jurisdiction where you're working. They're consistent in principle, different in specifics.
What that means on the ground: if there's a serious incident and the inspector shows up, the first thing they ask for is your records. No incident log, no near-miss register, no toolbox talk records — that's not just a gap in your paperwork. It becomes the centre of the investigation.
This is general information. For specific obligations applicable to your project and circumstances, consult your WHS advisor or legal counsel.
What do my contracts require me to record?
Most standard-form Australian construction contracts, including AS 4000, AS 2124, AS 4300, and NEC4, require the contractor to maintain site records made at the time as a condition for making claims. Extension of time applications, delay claims, and variation entitlements all require supporting evidence. That evidence is the site diary.
Some contracts are explicit: no record made at the time, no entitlement to claim. Others are silent on format but require "adequate substantiation." In practice, a daily diary is the expected standard of substantiation.
If you work as a subcontractor, your subcontract agreement may impose the same obligation. Read the records and reporting clause. Then keep the diary.
What counts as a record?
A record is any document, written, digital, photographic, or audio, that captures information about a workplace event at the time it occurred. Made at the time means you logged it when it happened, not written from memory later.
A site diary entry made during the working day is a record made at the time. A summary written from memory three days after a delay event is not, and carries less weight accordingly. This is why the timing of entries matters as much as their content.
Does a digital diary satisfy these requirements?
Yes. Electronic records are recognised under Australian evidence legislation and are accepted under WHS regulations as valid records, provided they demonstrate authenticity and have not been altered since creation. Timestamped PDF reports from diary entries made at the time meet this standard.
Check your specific contract for any requirements about record format or storage location. Most contracts don't care about the format these days, but some older or very specific documents may still require paper.