Defence charged over Royal Australian Navy base 60-tonne crane tip

The Department of Defence has been charged with breaching federal work health and safety laws after a 16 September 2024 incident in which a crane tipped over at HMAS Stirling naval base, a Royal Australian Navy base south of Perth.

Weighing 60 tonnes, when the mobile crane tipped over, the operator was forced to jump from the cabin and workers nearby to run from the scene — no one was injured.

The crane’s set-up was allegedly inadequate during the pack-up stage, with outrigger stabilisers retracted, the boom extended, and a counterweight too heavy for that configuration, Comcare’s investigation found.

It was also found, on investigation, that at HMAS Creswell naval base south of Sydney, a similar incident occurred a year earlier, where a mobile crane tipped over.

It will be alleged that Defence failed to undertake a range of measures to minimise risks to health and safety for the HMAS Stirling incident, Comcare said. These include:

• instructing and training workers on the safe operation of mobile cranes to address tipping instability;
• undertaking formal pre-planning procedures including a site-specific safety analysis; and
• establishing an adequate exclusion zone for the job.
   

Alleging Defence failed in its duties under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011, a single charge has been filed by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in Perth Magistrates Court, with the matter listed for mention in this court on 27 November 2026.

Alleging a failure to comply with a health and safety duty that exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury, the charge is a Category 2 criminal offence under the Act.

Image credit: iStock.com/Oscar Cabrera. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.