Infrastructure, agriculture, construction and health care WorkSafe Awards winners
Safety solutions for a major road upgrade, remote and isolated worker psychology, landscaping repetitive strain and a hospital’s “recovery at work” are among the winners in Victoria’s WorkSafe Awards.
The winners of WorkSafe Victoria’s 2025 WorkSafe Awards were announced on 26 February, with inspiring stories of strength, innovation and leadership being this year’s theme. There were eight winners across seven award categories, honoured for their commitment to improve workplace health and safety or remarkable determination to return to work following an injury. Here’s a selection of some of the winning safety solutions according to industry.
Infrastructure
Civil construction company Seymour Whyte won the OHS Leadership/Achievement Award for the second consecutive year. Leading the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road upgrade — a major infrastructure project which saw 2100 machines on site and 600,000 tonnes of material moved — the company demonstrated its commitment to the health and safety of its workforce by challenging traditional approaches and implementing bespoke solutions to redefine safety in infrastructure.
“We weren’t willing to accept that what’s worked once, will work again, given the job possessed some unique challenges,” said Matthew Owen, Seymour Whyte’s Senior Project Engineer, who also said that the scale of the project required challenging the traditional approaches to high-risk work. Learn more in the video below.
Agriculture
Winner of the Farm Safety Solution Award was Warakirri Cropping, who through data review and genuine consultation, were able to establish trust to drive engagement with the on-site psychology service model — designing and delivering a tailored and proactive intervention to reduce the risk of psychological harm to its remote and isolated workers. Learn more in the video below.
Construction
Designed to reduce the risk of manual handling and repetitive strains on site installations of trees, Tree Coach by Natural Growth Partners won the Workplace Health and Safety Solution of the Year Award. The solution is designed to eliminate the need for stake ramming and heavy lifting. Once Tree Coach is installed in the ground with the tree and excavation is backfilled, the surrounding compacted earth holds Tree Coach in place, and the tree is tied to Tree Coach stakes for support. Learn more in the video below.
Health care
The Royal Melbourne Hospital won the Leading Return to Work Practice Award in recognition of the significant transformation in its approach to return-to-work practices. The hospital’s Injury Management Team cultivating a supportive and proactive environment through its “recovery at work” collaborative approach between injured workers and their managers. Learn more in the video below.
Other industries’ winners
The other winners in the 2025 WorkSafe Awards were:
- Manor Lakes Community Learning Centre in the Excellence in Preventing and Managing Psychosocial Risk category;
- Maree McLean St Mary’s Primary School Swan Hill and Dennis Gabriel — Yarrawonga Riverlands Tourist Park in the Worker Return to Work Achievement category;
- Manny Mason City of Ballarat in the Health and Safety Representative of the Year category; and
- Tracey Browne Outstanding Leadership and Contribution to Health and Safety category.
Spotlight
To spotlight one of the above, Manny Mason from the City of Ballarat’s win recognised an ability to combine empathy with assertive advocacy to ensure a vulnerable worker was protected and supported through a traumatic experience. Holding the employer accountable to their legal obligations and advocating for the worker’s safe return to work, his actions set a precedent for how such matters should be handled across the organisation. Learn more in the below video.
“The quality of this year’s entries was outstanding and I want to congratulate all of our finalists along with the worthy award winners,” WorkSafe Victoria CEO Cathy Henderson said. “It’s inspiring to hear stories of resilience from those who have returned to work after injury and see the meaningful contribution of those dedicated to protecting the health and safety of their colleagues and workers across Victoria.”
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