Commercial Diving — Inshore SSBA SWMS
Inshore commercial diving on surface-supplied breathing apparatus per AS/NZS 2299. Decompression management, two-way comms, dive supervisor on surface, decompression chamber availability. T4 CIH-endorsed specialist scope.
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
Inshore commercial diving using surface-supplied breathing apparatus (SSBA) is one of the highest-risk activities regulated under Australian WHS law, combining hyperbaric exposure, confined access, drowning risk, and complex life-support equipment. Operations covered by this SWMS include wharf maintenance, hull cleaning, intake screen inspections, civil marine construction support, and inland dam or pondage work conducted under AS/NZS 2299.1. Because the work involves a breathing apparatus operating below atmospheric surface, decompression obligation management, and a dive supervisor controlling life support from the surface, it falls within High Risk Construction Work under WHS Regulation 2025 Schedule 3 and triggers the diving work category under Schedule 1. A documented, signed SWMS is mandatory before any diver enters the water — it must address decompression planning, gas management, two-way communications, standby diver readiness, and emergency recompression access. This SWMS provides the CIH-endorsed framework that PCBUs, dive contractors, and principal contractors need to discharge their primary duty of care and consultation obligations under sections 19 and 47 of the WHS Act.
Hazards identified
7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Type II DCS causing spinal cord injury, permanent paralysis, or death without immediate recompression therapy
Diver drowning or rapid uncontrolled ascent leading to arterial gas embolism and cardiac arrest
Diver unable to surface, gas supply exhaustion, drowning, or crush injury from differential pressure
Diver pinned against opening with crushing forces exceeding tonnes, fatal traumatic injury inevitable
Chemical burns, gastrointestinal infection, leptospirosis, hepatitis, or long-term carcinogenic exposure
Propeller strike, suction injury, blunt trauma, or umbilical severance causing immediate fatality
Cognitive impairment, gas management errors, loss of consciousness, and reduced emergency response capacity
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Elimination — Eliminate the dive entirely where ROV inspection, dewatering and dry-entry, or remote sonar survey can deliver the same engineering or inspection outcome.
- 2Elimination — Isolate and lock out all hydraulic gradients (Delta-P sources) including pumps, sluices and intakes using verified zero-energy permits before any diver entry per AS/NZS 4801.
- 3Substitution — Substitute scuba operations with SSBA on all commercial tasks per AS/NZS 2299.1 clause 4 to provide unlimited gas, hardwire comms, and surface control.
- 4Substitution — Replace open-circuit air diving with nitrox or surface-decompression-on-oxygen schedules where bottom time and depth profiles exceed no-decompression limits.
- 5Engineering — Deploy redundant gas supply with primary compressor, secondary HP cylinder bank, and emergency bail-out bottle sized for ascent plus stops per AS/NZS 2299.1 clause 5.3.
- 6Engineering — Use hardwired two-way voice communications, pneumofathometer depth monitoring, and through-water tracking with continuous supervisor logging at the dive control panel.
- 7Engineering — Provide an in-date Class 1A recompression chamber on-site or within agreed transit time per AS/NZS 2299.1 Appendix G for any dive exceeding 20 metres or requiring decompression.
- 8Administrative — Dive supervisor holding ADAS Part 3 supervisor certification controls dive duration, gas, and ascent profile from surface; standby diver dressed-in throughout all in-water operations.
- 9Administrative — Pre-dive medical fitness per AS/NZS 2299.1 clause 3.4, current commercial diver certification, contaminated water risk assessment, and signed SWMS sign-on before each dive day.
- 10PPE — Commercial-grade Kirby Morgan or equivalent band mask or helmet with oral-nasal mask, hot-water suit or vulcanised drysuit for contaminated water, harness, knife, and bail-out — inspected pre-dive.
Applicable Codes of Practice
Mandatory baseline for personnel competency, gas supply redundancy, supervisor presence, dive planning, and emergency response — directly cited in WHS Regulation Schedule 3.
Defines general and high risk diving work, mandates dive safety log, dive project plan, and competency records retained for the life of the worker plus seven years.
Sets minimum competency for SSBA divers and supervisors; PCBU must verify currency before scheduling any diver into the dive team.
Governs dive vessel operation, master competency, and diver-down signalling obligations whenever SSBA operations are conducted from a DCV platform.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
SSBA inshore operations are diving work by definition under Schedule 1; every dive day, regardless of depth or duration, triggers the HRCW obligation.
All in-water operations expose the diver, standby and tenders to drowning risk, particularly during gear handling, entry, exit and umbilical management on the surface platform.
Dive vessels, deck cranes, A-frames, and launch/recovery systems are powered mobile plant operating in the same exclusion zone as the diver and tender.
PCBU must prepare and consult the SWMS with workers before HRCW commences, review it on change, and retain it for two years after any notifiable incident; penalties under the WHS Act are substantial and indexed, with the current maximum following the prevailing WHS schedule.
Who this is for
- →ADAS-accredited inshore commercial dive contractors
- →Port authority and marine infrastructure asset owners
- →Civil marine construction principal contractors
- →Water utility intake and dam maintenance PCBUs
What you receive
- ✓Editable DOCX template — Microsoft Word compatible
- ✓State-specific WHS legislation schedule (NSW/VIC/QLD/SA/WA/TAS/NT/ACT)
- ✓Hazard register with risk ratings + hierarchy-of-control mapping
- ✓Worker sign-on register, pre-start checklist, and incident escalation flow
Worked example
A four-person dive team mobilises to a regional water utility intake tower for a 14-metre inspection and trash-rack clearance dive. The dive supervisor opens the pre-dive toolbox brief at the dive control van and walks the team through this SWMS section by section. The standby diver flags Hazard 4 — Delta-P at the intake — so the supervisor halts sign-on until the utility's mechanical isolation officer produces the signed LOTO permit confirming both upstream pumps are racked out and tagged, with zero-energy verified by attempted restart. The team then reviews Control 7, confirming the contracted recompression chamber at the regional hyperbaric unit is within the 2-hour transit window and the duty hyperbaric physician is contactable. Each diver, the standby, the tender and the supervisor sign the SWMS sign-on sheet noting current ADAS certification and medical expiry. Mid-dive, surface comms detect the working diver's breathing rate climbing and bottom water temperature reads 11°C — the supervisor invokes Hazard 7 (hypothermia and fatigue), shortens bottom time by 8 minutes, and brings the diver up on the planned in-water stop schedule rather than pushing into a decompression obligation. The amended dive profile is logged in the dive safety log against the SWMS reference, and the document is re-signed at the post-dive debrief to capture the field adjustment, satisfying WHS Regulation 2025 reg 302 review obligations.
Related legislation
- WHS Act 2011 (model)
- WHS Regulation 2025
- AS 2550 — Cranes, hoists and winches; AS 1418 series