What is a Lone Worker?

Understanding Isolation: It's Not Just About Geography

The popular image of a lone worker might be a farmer on a remote property or a mine worker in the outback. But isolation is far more common than that. Under Australian WHS law, a worker is considered isolated when they're separated from assistance due to location, time, or the nature of their work.

A cleaner working in a CBD office tower at 2 AM is geographically central but operationally isolated. A community nurse entering a private home in suburban Melbourne is surrounded by people, yet once they cross that threshold, they're cut off from public view and immediate help. The critical factor isn't just where you are, but whether you can access assistance when you need it.

This three-dimensional definition creates a comprehensive safety net. Location-based isolation covers agricultural workers on vast pastoral leases and geologists in the Pilbara. Temporal isolation captures night-shift retail workers and after-hours security staff. Nature-of-work isolation includes real estate agents conducting property inspections with strangers, utility meter readers entering private property, and mobile healthcare workers visiting patients alone.

The Legal Framework: Your Obligations Under Australian Law

The Model Work Health and Safety Act 2011, adopted by most Australian jurisdictions, establishes a primary duty of care under Section 19. As a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU), you must ensure the health and safety of your workers "so far as is reasonably practicable." This isn't a passive obligation where you assume workers are safe unless told otherwise.

Regulation 48 makes this explicit for isolated workers. It requires PCBUs to provide "effective communication" systems that allow workers to maintain contact and call for help. The word "effective" is crucial. A mobile phone with patchy coverage in a remote area doesn't meet this standard. Neither does a check-in system that nobody monitors.

Victoria operates under its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, which mirrors these duties through Section 21. WorkSafe Victoria emphasises that "arrangements for contact and emergency must always be made before work starts." With Victoria's workplace manslaughter laws imposing fines up to $16.5 million for corporate failures, the stakes for getting this wrong have never been higher.

When Working Alone is Prohibited

While lone working is generally lawful with proper controls, Australian regulations effectively prohibit it for certain high-risk activities. These prohibitions are constructed through requirements for "standby persons," "observers," or "assistants."

Confined space entry is strictly regulated under Regulation 69. Whenever a worker enters a confined space—a tank, sewer, silo, or similar environment—a standby person must remain outside. This person isn't passive; they must continuously monitor conditions, maintain communication, and initiate emergency procedures if needed. A lone worker attempting confined space entry commits a serious WHS breach.

Diving operations under Part 4.8 of the WHS Regulations require supervision and typically a minimum dive team including a diver, standby diver, and surface tender. High-voltage electrical work on energised equipment requires a safety observer whose sole role is preventing contact with live parts and performing rescue if an arc flash occurs. The message is clear: for some hazards, isolation multiplies risk to an unacceptable level.

The Psychological Dimension: Isolation as a Mental Health Hazard

A seismic shift has occurred in Australian workplace safety over the past five years. The Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work, released by Safe Work Australia in 2022, explicitly lists "remote or isolated work" as a distinct psychosocial hazard. Mental health risks are now subject to the same rigorous "identify, assess, control" methodology as physical dangers.

Isolation strips away the social buffering that colleagues normally provide. In a standard workplace, co-workers offer a second opinion, emotional support after a difficult interaction, or practical help with workload. The lone worker lacks this buffer, meaning stressors hit harder. An aggressive customer interaction that would be laughed off in a team environment can leave a lone worker shaken and hypervigilant.

For workers in roles exposed to potential violence—security guards, night-shift retail, in-home care—the fear of an incident can be as damaging as an actual incident. Being alone induces a state of constant threat scanning that's physically and mentally exhausting. Paradoxically, isolation can also increase exposure to bullying and harassment because there are no witnesses when members of the public become aggressive.

Your legal obligations now extend to managing these psychological impacts through consultation with workers, redesigning jobs to increase connection where possible, implementing buddy systems for difficult cases, and ensuring leaders conduct regular welfare checks that focus on the person, not just task completion.

Risk Assessment: Matching Controls to Consequences

Effective lone worker safety relies on understanding that a minor injury in isolation can become catastrophic. A sprained ankle that would be inconvenient in an office can be fatal in the outback due to exposure. This is where the "reasonably practicable" test becomes crucial.

Consider a worker driving 200km through remote Northern Territory. The risk of vehicle breakdown is moderate, but the consequence—potential death from dehydration or exposure—is severe. A satellite phone or in-vehicle monitoring system costs $500-$1000. Given the severe consequence and the availability of the technology, it's reasonably practicable to provide satellite communication. Relying on a mobile phone with patchy coverage would likely fail this test in court.

Your risk assessment must consider the environment (terrain difficulty, climate extremes, mobile coverage, biological hazards), the task (high-risk machinery, cash handling, potential for confrontation), and the individual (pre-existing medical conditions that are manageable in a team but dangerous alone, competency and experience level).

Technology Standards: Choosing Reliable Systems

Australia doesn't currently have a dedicated Australian Standard for lone worker devices and monitoring services. In this gap, industry has widely adopted the British Standard BS 8484:2022 as the benchmark for best practice. This standard specifies rigorous requirements for device integrity, battery life, signal strength, and false alarm management.

One of the greatest risks to safety systems is alarm fatigue. When false alarms are constant, genuine emergencies get dismissed. BS 8484 requires verified audio links or multi-stage activation processes to filter false positives before they reach emergency services. It also mandates specific operational requirements for Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs), ensuring that when an alarm is raised, it's handled by trained operators following escalation protocols, not just an automated SMS to a manager who might be asleep.

The choice of technology must match your operational context. Smartphone apps work well in urban areas with reliable 4G/5G for low-to-medium risk roles. Dedicated fobs and pendants are better for roles with aggression risk, offering discreet silent alarms. Satellite devices (Garmin, SPOT, Iridium) provide 100% global coverage for remote workers but at higher cost. Man-down or fall detection devices automatically trigger alerts if a worker is incapacitated, critical for high-risk physical tasks or workers with health conditions.

Operational Protocols: Check-ins and Journey Management

Technology without process is just expensive equipment. The frequency of check-ins and welfare timers must match the volatility of the risk. A home office worker might only need start-of-day and end-of-day contact. A rural driver needs check-ins at significant waypoints or every 2-4 hours to limit the search radius if an accident occurs. A healthcare worker entering a volatile client's home should make a pre-alert before entry with a defined exit time—if they don't check out within 45 minutes, an alarm is raised.

For workers travelling significant distances into remote areas, a formal Journey Management Plan (JMP) is essential. This documents the exact route and waypoints, departure and arrival times, communication devices on board, scheduled check-in times, the designated "journey manager" monitoring the trip, and clear emergency triggers—for example, "If I'm 30 minutes late, call me. If I'm 60 minutes late and uncontactable, initiate emergency response."

The most critical component is your escalation protocol—what happens when silence stretches too long. This must be rigid to prevent "normalisation of deviance" where supervisors assume "they probably just forgot." A standard escalation might be: missed check-in triggers automated reminder; at 15 minutes the supervisor attempts contact via all channels; at 30 minutes GPS tracking is activated and local site managers are contacted; at 60 minutes emergency services are notified with last known coordinates and search and rescue is initiated.

Industry-Specific Considerations

Agriculture: With tractor rollovers, quad bike accidents, and animal attacks being major risks, the sector requires specific controls. Quad bikes now require mandatory helmets and crush protection devices in several states. Farmers should carry Personal Locator Beacons on their belt, not left in the tractor, so they can signal for help if thrown from the vehicle.

Healthcare and Community Services: The shift to "hospital in the home" and NDIS support has created a vast mobile health workforce. Risk screening before first visits ("Is there a dog? A history of violence?"), discreet ID-card style duress alarms, and explicit management support for workers to withdraw from unsafe homes without fear of discipline are essential controls.

Resources (Mining and Energy): Extreme geographical isolation and FIFO lifestyles create both physical and psychological risks. In-vehicle monitoring systems track speed, seatbelt use, and harsh braking in real-time. Providing high-quality internet in camps allows workers to maintain family connection, mitigating psychosocial isolation risks from family separation.