Safety on outback stations - A snapshot of the Northern Territory's cattle industry

the cattle industry has a significant economic impact throughout the Northern Territory the industry was one of the first established industries in the territory and is made up of a mix of long-established family stations through to large corporate organizations that operate on several pastoral leases at a time unlike any other industry the cattle industry has a footprint covering around 45% of the territory's total land area it is an industry providing significant employment opportunities for regional and remote areas of the NT nationally agriculture as a broad industry group has been identified as a priority industry due to the high numbers and rates of injury and to the hazardous nature of the work NT WorkSafe has commenced a campaign to assist station owners to reduce the frequency of injuries in the industry from the stations visited so far the industry has demonstrated awareness and commitment to work Health and Safety this snapshot provides an overview of two station managers on the hazards facing the industry in the territory and their interaction with NT WorkSafe I'm Biden riddle with temporary station manager a temporary lien was move a a company and been with them for been here for six months and been with a a for five years well I started up as anyone as a station hand on a Niva property I've been through a few different areas of the industry as I said I've been into the part tanning hides and that sort of thing in that sort building machinery and up for that cultural industry and moving through onto the head Stockman role overseer and a station manager the opportunity was given to me as a station manager in central Queensland on a smaller property to move to a bit move to the bigger property and really go forward in my career and take on a bigger role hey has at least twelve properties in in the Northern Territory from brunette on the Berkeley right up to the Don Reed's in here mostly the the abattoir just out of doll we are vertically integrated from cuddle solder supply into the beef industry we obviously have a lot of station managers so we collectively between us there would be hundreds of years of experience between all the station managers the general managers that have been in the business and right up to your CEO turn off here it's a law of export or was was probably one of the main ones last year this year we're just turning off wieners to brunette so this year we'll probably turn off about eight ten thousand winners down to brunette without background on the lakes at brunette so yeah so it is it is very vital that our staff are trained and manage them cuddle in a safe manner I think going into the company sort of things you focus on safety we want to create a safety culture and that's from the ground up so our staff telling us what they think you know what what is their what is the risk what is it hazards and they have it and they have the opportunity to the voice that to their manager or their next in line manager and that comes through to this to the station manager and onto the GM's and to the board and the board obviously takes it very seriously and they are implementing things for us the station managers and when we communicate down but we also from a site perspective we want the communication to come up from the guys on the ground the station hands to tell us well right at the beginning doesn't matter what AAK property on you do a onboarding program at the moment they sign up so that will start a week before they actually arrive at the station we spend three or four days with them we'll go right through all the safe working procedures and everything that we have and we'll actually take them to the eyes and we'll work a small mobile cuddle I will spend the day on the horses I will show horses and we'll do the quad life assessments and the motorbike assessments and we'll have all that ticked off and we'll have them assessed in the first week and then we work through the training and what we need to go forward with we go through that first initial assessment we will set a review date on that that's done by myself or the operations manager I've made a very apparent point of we will talk about safety and we'll have toolbox talks weekly so that's the head Stockman to his staff and that's on a issue that I've risen or something that I've seen as the manager that I want dealt with to something that one of the station staff have actually brought to me and said I need this communicated up toolbox talks go up to a safety meeting that we will generally have once a month and then we have a bigger broader you know with 27 staff we have a full safety meeting every three months I think outside the box or money young and I look for look for things since since my management here I've identified a few areas that I need to work on this year I'm offering and safety incentive to the staff so if they come to me with near misses any incidents and anything that they want to bring forward there is there is an initiative therefore we understand the policies and procedures coming from NT WorkSafe and we we identifying the issues and seeking you know ways to limit them mainly and this is what we have identified with a ACO is a you know the cattle the horses and the motorbikes and the mustering as I main areas but we certainly don't forget about the mechanics the cook the gardener they're all involved the maintenance manager they were all involved in what we do here for safety we have the low stress stock handling that all the station staff here have been fruit and that is something that everyone is aware of and does very well when you're talking about the winners we handle the winners with low stress and we keep them heifers they come back next year as joini heifers so they've been handled properly they come back the next year as a wet cat they've been through the odds properly low stress handle the staff know how to handle them probably because we we put them through the low stress handling schools but does it actually you know does it actually stop instances when you're working with a law of animal I'm going to be very hard to say well you know just that alone and a set of standards alone would will work in every every case we have a cattle handling procedure we go through it will them how to shut the gates properly how to yard up properly and all that that is something we do and we tick off and all our staff aware of what our risks and hazards are involved around the cattle and around the color yards we did need to get the training and the horsemanship skills to it to a better level here at Tipperary we felt we had the expertise to do it instead of getting someone external and paying for that we thought we had expertise and we'd share that with our staff so we went from first round to you know young green riders from that as the bean haul the staff of going from from a level to the next level I've initiated this year that we've brought in your quad block at its speed limited to 35 kilometres an hour they do have rollover protection systems on all made a conscious decision of myself the operations manager in the head stock ones are the only ones led to my strong core box of a staffer LED defense on them I echo policies that all writers of quad bikes and two wheelers have to have a helmet on a common see assess and they reassessed every six months to get their attitude right on a quad boy is what I'm after but part of it is slowing the blocks down and the training and we haven't had a quad bike incident this year mustering up in a lot of lockpicks scrub country and in the remote area of implemented GPS units that actually they uses two ways in gps if they get lost something happens they fall off a horse I press the button on the GPS and we know their exact location definitely retention is one of our biggest things that we were identifying and we're working with at a acre you know obviously we keep some of the understands the property and he understands our policies and motorbikes our horses all that's at a level that we want them to be to keep them here we are looking at offering incentives and getting that retention rate for the cattle industry and in general the AG industry is a industry that can only keep people for one year two years by the budget life that have to report to general managers on what my budget is and what I put more money into but looking at the safety side of things there's things that you don't compromise you measure what is it going to save me and lost on staff instance all that sort of stuff but when you look outside this box at a few things will you weigh up your options and most of the time it will tell you that you're better off doing it no matter what the cost is NT WorkSafe come out month ago I found a very interactive very positive so wasn't about what we were doing wrong it was about dis identifying things looking at areas that we can we can work on the positive for me was it was just an open discussion some of the issues that were raised just morning ones that we just off-the-cuff conversation I've gone and address them and I think you know it's that outside of outsider's perspective the second set of eyes that just show you look this is something that you could work with the regulations and that you I fully understand all of them we have people that do that for me as a manager for a a car of someone who does that for me but on the ground the helping and the communication from NT WorkSafe is is what we need well we may not always be able to get out there to assist the guys on the ground and have a look and that out there at their location we are still contacted will by phone and obviously we've got email website as well a lot of information on the website that can assist stations and that but by all means they can give NT WorkSafe a call and be asked to speak to and in and we will provide whatever we can to assist business and better understanding and health and work health and safety my name is Cameron croco I am the manager at man blue station you know being with CPCC for that 13 years growing my role through the ranks starting as a first year jackaroo through the head stockman and becoming an overseer now station manager here at member loue previously that five years before I ran the stock campi as a head Stockman but two and a half years I come across here when I was 17 running away from home and wanted to get into the industry Saul I know all I want to ever do consolidate pastoral company has 17 places across Australia through the territory the Kimberley region and w-a and through Central Queensland and in North Queensland its operations at cattle go to export to Indonesia from Windham and Darwin sands and then their domestic markets through Queensland man Blues Park part and CPC historically with CPC it's it's just been a breeding facility but in the last couple of years we're starting to transition so it's a value adding place cattle coming here to grow value add kilograms and then to move them out over the wet season when as it is a shortage of cattle to go go to market unmanned blue we have 11 to 13 staff throughout the year starting with myself as a manager below me we have a head Stockman and a leading hand a couple of second years and a couple of first years to keep fresh blood coming through all the time other stuff we have as a Worman the cook he provides meals keeps everyone fed it's everyone telling a lie in the kitchen keep them onside my wife is she's the administration person and as well she also takes a wider role on an accompany as a training coordinator Oh our youngest people our new recruits each year they they seem to be the ones getting hurt the most and it's at wider across a whole industry I think you know it's a little bit to do with ego and straight out school get away from your parents and getting full of confidence and I showing off in front of your mates so you know and basically that's why we we got a train our people we got a we got to get them going and get them thinking right get a get a culture develop so they're they're thinking about what they're doing and they're not just racing into things and getting themselves hurt at the end of the day that's that's where safety really comes into its own it can be very tough to handle you know I was young like that once myself I know exactly what I was like but basically you just I think you just got a just got to work through it in your first couple of weeks are you hardest just got to work through it and really and I get them thinking you know we all the training we doing constant reminders you know toolbox talks each each month and having meetings just just just making them aware you know we might we might have been lucky and not going to had any incidents but just making where the incidents that are happening when we employees to first start with a company we run them through an induction process it takes place out of the Charles Darwin University Catholic campus and some of it on land below itself here at at the Royal College they they do their first aid certificate chemical certificates some maintenance training they have qualified mechanics so you know they're experts in their field so they may provide us with that service then horsemanship side of it this year we we had four groups have ranged from beginners to the more experienced riders throughout them and they came out here to man Baloo and we basically just stepped them through some basic horse riding or we also asked them to do a self-assessment of their riding then we had a couple of horses around that are fairly reliable horses you know they're quiet and nothing's going to go wrong with them got them catching them and you know writing them and safely handling basically getting getting them take their hips away so they're not horses not kicking and just they're working with the animal and then do about three days of that mind you they're not they're not totally right to go for the job but they've got to start and they know how to keep himself safe that's safe so yeah they can improve from there and with the low stress stock handling they go right down to basics tougher opening shutting gates moving cattle making short cut level order and moving cattle around the yard safely so everything you know can be as safe as possible we're trying to basically develop a culture here of just having an understanding and an awareness for safety but because we basically live all live here together you know it's our home as well as their workplace I think we're just trying to develop an awareness and understanding and start to take responsibility of where we are when it when it comes to safety if it's a joint effort for all of us not just just me barking downer shots to to my staff our risks of being cattle horses and motorbikes after the induction training program with horses myself and my head stop and we assess assess our own stuff here man Baloo again and just watch them ride and allocate horses to their level and then just step through the training like that I got ongoing the horsemanship training all year it's it's a constant improvement like I still got improvement we all do so with motorbikes arm we carry out we do some training with Charles down with our motorbike experts and then then basically we come out here and I was only tried allocate one or two people to ride a motorbike and then we stepped them through make sure they're all right they got you know they know how to ride safely motorbikes a big risk because you can be out in the paddock riding around on a mother cattle and there's a log laying in long grass and that's all it takes you might only be idling along and you can fall off and and injure yourself so just trying to get awareness into them and you know just understand it you know there could be an issue and we're trying to try to avoid it I believe low stress stock handling definitely takes away a lot of the risk it'll never totally take it away because we're dealing with animals at the end of the day and they can be unpredictable I think it's a huge advantage our stock only coming to the yard some twice a year somebody wants you in another small percentage only every couple of years so using low stress techniques as long as we stick to it all the time each year the template of the catalyst improve they're used to being handled in a good way they know they become easier to put through the yard become a pleasure to put through the yard like I I remember when I first started in the Northern Territory chasing cattle in the ESS see here being in stockyard and gates would fly back open cattle running back over the top year I've heard of incidents in the last five six years but I haven't actually seen a cow run back and smash a gate in the last five years we've been using quad bikes off as long as I can remember there's been clods around but at current stage because they're being identified as such a danger I think they will become phased out the side-by-side ATV we got there it'll probably that'll that'll take over and you know replace it quad bikes being alternative use and seem to be a bit safer you know seatbelt and have a roof on it the roll bar protection that's I think I definitely feel that's a way things will go all our staff are run through chemical training at CDU they do their chem sir or the other equivalents you know because chemicals are are a part of it but deer we've got a process where everyone goes through that training and when they come on to the station and they have done to take some camel handling we've got records there we have to keep you know they're recording what they're doing where they're doing it and what they're doing it for in our our chemical shed our we have their MSDS sheets on hand for all our chemicals that we use they're provided there for the staff in faith and incident happens and know how to treat it how to use it what PPE they need to use for it we also have it on hand in the office so this is our second copy available WorkSafe aunty were out earlier this year they basically just did a how to visit and yeah just rented how to look at things and what we're doing to try and mitigate our risk it was fairly daunting expecting them to come because from what you know in the industry and we've heard of other places and in past yeah they're coming to kick your bum really that's what that's what the general feel was a little bit when they turned up is really good we just step through the paces of it doing we first we just did a bit of a basic induction with them and then talked about our policies and procedures and just worked walked around and they just had a look at things and it was fairly smooth I think it was good mainly peace of mind and knowing well maybe they're not so bad you know they're they're they're probably just trying to help too and do their job rather than bully ascender into things definitely having work safe coming on board to seeing the role of being you know there's an advisor and that's being there to help us rather than cameras definitely like we got all the policies and procedures in place and you know then coming on board and supporting what we're doing you know it it gives you a lot of confidence in knowing that what you're doing is right and your people you know you know people are the key at the end of the day we do make money out of cattle but you know you can't do none of that without your people so at the end of the day they're able to come home safe and our policies and that helping that happen you know I definitely think it's it's better rather than worse you know definitely moving forward I don't believe it's it's got to be an expensive task I believe that some of the systems that can be implemented on on-site a rather simple and can be maintained with minimum of fuss it's it's and I think by doing so is you're going to reduce the number of our incident rates on your on your farm or your station and an industry-wide level if that if those incident rates ask begin to fall over a period of time that can only be good for the industry both in they are printed productivity since as well as their bottom line I've been involved in insurance in underwriting and broking for the last forty odd years and of those spent many years offering services to the Cattlemen's Association of the Northern Territory when you do a health and safety there's not immediate returns it's a long turn plan program you need to implement it and then reap the rewards as you go forward it's not instantaneously because whilst you might have had five years of bad claims and implement the och health and safety service program you to get a better WorkSafe situation the problem is that you've still got five years of really bad record so you've got to get rid of that so you've gotta have one year good one year maybe bit better or not as bad and then the insurance company can then work with you to see that yes you're on the right track then the benefits of the savings will come if anybody's looking for a quick fix it's not going to happen that way it's going to be a long term situation obviously given that the annelyn territory does have a vast landmass in that and some of these stations are quite remote it's not just restricted to us coming out there and visiting them while we intend to to try and do that as part of the campaign if they require any advice or anything in relation to work Health and Safety then obviously we have the ability to through our website and telephone and everything else that yeah the hotline - give us a call and say hi and let us know what their concerns are or whether they require any further information and we can provide them whatever we can just because they make contact with us doesn't mean that they've caught our attention or anything like that we encourage people if they want to find out more about work Health and Safety in by all means contact us it doesn't mean that you can have an inspector on your door the next day or anything like that but we will do whatever we can to try and help them with their their concern or provide them with what information they require I think there needs to be more of that I'd welcome on back and I would walk them through anything and say look you know where can you help me here instead of saying what am I doing wrong where can you help me and then you know authorised by the Northern Territory government Darwin

Channel: Safe Work Australia

Views: 70,955

Keywords: Safe Work Australia, work safety, work health and safety, occupational health and safety

Id: OeUiGkk1ccA

Length: 22min 34sec (1354 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 27 2014