Oct 17th 2025 |
Safe Work Australia updates work-related fatalities data for 2025
Safe Work Australia updates work-related fatalities data for 2025
The latest data from Safe Work Australia indicates that 116 workers have died in workplace incidents in Australia thus far this year.
The 2025 tally at a glance:
- Transport, postal and warehousing — 51 fatalities
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing — 13 fatalities
- Construction — 11 fatal incidents
- Industries not yet classified — 17 fatal incidents
- Five-year annual average — 191 lives lost
The postal, transport, and warehousing industry has seen 51 fatalities, while Agriculture, forestry, and fishing account for 13 fatalities. The construction sector ranks third, having recorded 11 fatal incidents.
The figures reveal that 17 fatal incidents happened in industries that remain unknown.
According to SafeWork Australia statistics, an average of 191 workers died annually in work-related incidents in Australia over the past five years.
Falls from a height remain a leading fatal hazard
Height-related incidents continue to injure and kill people across construction, manufacturing, and healthcare sites. A two-metre drop can prove fatal, so every job above ground level warrants controls documented before tools come out of the ute.
Falls often trace back to gaps in planning rather than reckless behaviour — unsecured penetrations, unrated anchors, or a ladder used where an elevating platform belongs.
Proven controls for tasks at height include:
- Edge protection, guardrails, and covers fitted over floor penetrations
- Scaffold plus elevating platforms inspected by competent persons
- Full-body harnesses, lanyards, and rated anchors matched to each task
- Rescue procedures rehearsed before crews leave ground level
- Exclusion zones below elevated positions, protecting anyone underneath
Documented risk assessments convert good intentions into evidence. A Rigging Safe Work Procedure gives supervisors a checkpoint before each lift, and a Linisher Safe Work Method Statement captures guarding duties at bench level. Together, such paperwork shows inspectors how height access equipment, plant, and personnel are managed.
Occupational health and safety regulators in every state expect proof of consultation, training records, and reviewed height risk assessments after any incident or change of method.
Employers treating height as a standing agenda item — never a one-off induction topic — cut both fatal outcomes and the long-term health costs carried by families, crews, and communities.
Turning the 2025 figures into prevention
Benchmarking your sector against the published statistics helps leadership teams target hazards causing real harm, from mobile plant movements to unplanned work at elevation.
Reviewing risk controls each quarter, refreshing safe work practices with supervisors, and logging every corrective action builds the audit trail insurers and regulators look for.
For context on how these numbers have shifted, compare this year's count with our coverage of earlier work-related fatalities updates, the preliminary figures published previously, and our year-to-date industry breakdown.
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