How long do you have to report a workplace incident to WorkSafe Victoria?
Taylor Scott, Victorian safety practitioner, Ardmor Operations — Last updated 21 July 2026·3 min read
How long do you have to report an incident to WorkSafe Victoria?
Two separate deadlines start the moment a notifiable incident happens, and they're not the same one:
- Immediately — call WorkSafe Victoria on 13 23 60 (24/7) as soon as you become aware a notifiable incident has occurred
- Within 48 hours — submit written notification using the approved form, even though you've already called
Both are required. A phone call alone is not sufficient, no matter how promptly you make it.
What actually counts as a "notifiable incident"?
There are two categories under the OHS Act 2004 (Vic), each covered in more depth in our guide to notifiable incidents in Victoria:
Death or serious injury/illness, including:
- A fatality
- Amputation of a limb or body part
- Serious head injury (skull fracture, loss of consciousness, tooth loss)
- Serious eye injury (loss of sight, penetrating wound)
- Skin separation (degloving or scalping)
- Electric shock causing injury
- Spinal injury involving nerve damage
- Loss of bodily function
- A serious laceration requiring stitches or medical intervention
- Medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance
A "dangerous incident" — something that exposed a person to a serious risk, even if nobody was hurt:
- An uncontrolled escape, spill, or leak of any substance (including dangerous goods)
- A fire, explosion, or implosion
- Failure or malfunction of plant that's required to be inspected (lifting equipment, pressure vessels, scaffolds and similar)
- Collapse or partial collapse of a building or structure
- An excavation collapse
If you're not sure whether something meets the bar, that uncertainty is itself a reason to call 13 23 60 and ask — it costs nothing and the alternative is guessing wrong on a legal deadline.
Why the 48-hour clock is the one that actually gets missed
Most workplaces get the phone call right — it happens in the adrenaline of the moment, and it's a single obvious action. The written notice is the one that quietly slips: it's due two days later, once the immediate crisis has passed, everyone's back on the floor, and it's nobody's specific job to remember it. That's not a hypothetical risk — it's the predictable failure mode of a legal deadline that isn't attached to a person's daily routine. Attaching it to something — a named owner and a workplace safety system that tracks the clock — is the whole fix.
What else the law expects at the same time
- Preserve the site. Don't disturb the location of a notifiable incident until an inspector has had the chance to attend, except to help an injured person, make the area safe, or where police direct otherwise.
- Keep records. A copy of the written notification needs to be kept for at least five years.
How Ardmor helps
When a notifiable incident is logged in Ardmor, the investigation record starts a live countdown to the 48-hour written-notice deadline automatically — so it's sitting on a dashboard, not living in someone's memory. The system also drafts the WorkSafe notification content from the details already captured, for a human to review and send, rather than starting the form from a blank page two days after the event. It's built specifically around Victorian requirements, because that's the jurisdiction we know properly.
This article is general information for Victorian manufacturers, not legal advice. Last updated: 19 July 2026.
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