Farm accidents spark safety overhaul

The agriculture industry makes up just two per cent of Victoria’s workforce, but regularly accounts for more than 10 per cent of all workplace deaths.

The Victorian Farmers Federation partnered with cherry growers, Koala Cherries, to host a farm safety event at the Cobram Civic Centre on Wednesday, April 15 as part of the Making Our Farms Safer project.

Koala Cherries began in 1944 in the Yarra Valley before moving to Yarck in 1988, and is now a fourth generation family business.

They have orchards in Cobram, Yarck and Strathbogie Ranges and employ around 65 full-time staff, expanding out to between 800 and 1000 casual workers throughout the summer.

Koala Cherries managing director Michael Rouget said they had an accident in their packing shed about four years ago.

“A lady got her hand caught in between a powered conveyor belt and a set of unpowered rollers, it caught in the gap, and it pulled the skin off her hand,” he said.

“It didn't actually break any bones, but it jammed her in there, and we had to wait until the paramedics arrived before we could release it.

“It was a pretty traumatic event.

“Fortunately, she was eventually okay, but she had to have two operations to fix the nerve damage in her hand.”

The business had worked with the machine for years, and so the risk wasn’t obvious to them.

“We put a new set of rollers in there, and we’d inadvertently widened the gap, which meant that we’d breached the Australian standard, so we were responsible for it,” Mr Rouget said.

Koala Cherries was charged and went through an enforceable undertaking, and as an outcome of that, they adapted their safe operating procedures and WorkSafe policies with the VFF.

Mr Rouget said the biggest change had been the work culture, encouraging staff to report any ‘near misses’ and ensuring they are recorded.

“Part of our learning has been you can never truly eliminate all the risks, but you can minimise them,” he said.

“It’s just trying to be proactive and broadcast some of our learnings and safety message across industry networks, and we partnered with the VFF to help us do that.

“The key message is that, from our experience going through it, you can always do more and try to make it part of your every day.”

Making Our Farms Safer project manager Bianna Kelly said the initiative was funded by WorkSafe Victoria and was about “bridging the gap between farmers and investigators.”

“We’re really trying to impart education and knowledge on to farmers to make informed decisions about their safety on the farm when they’re doing their day-to-day tasks,” she said.

“I think, unfortunately, everyone in the industry has stories that have impacted them about accidents or deaths on a farm.”

Ms Kelly said there was an incident in her community several years ago that was the catalyst for her getting involved in the project.

“It was a local family that I grew up with ... they went to take off from their home airstrip and hit a power line and crashed,” she said.

“Because they had a full tank of fuel as they were taking off, it started a fire, and the father and eldest son died in the accident.

“The impact on that family, but also the community, was just so huge, and still is, you don’t move past something like that.

“I really want to be able to make a difference to everyone coming home safe in a community and industry that I love and have been raised in.”

The Making Our Farms Safer project, including farm safety visits, is free to all Victorian farmers, not just VFF members.

For more information on the Making Our Farms Safer project, visit makingourfarmssafer.org.au