All Queenslanders had until December 1 to meet the pool safety standards as set out by the Queenlsand Building and Construction Commission (QBCC).

The pool safety standards covers the height and strength of barriers, mandatory non-climable zones, ages and their latching requirements and preventing direct access from a building into a pool area.

The safety standards are applicable to all swimming pools, spas and portable pools that can be filled to a depth of 3000mm and have a volume of more than 2000 litres. All Queensland residential pools must be registered with the QBCC.

Australia’s favourite water safety advocate Laurie Lawrence has joined forces with the Palaszczuk Government to remind Queenslanders of the compliance for pool safety laws. 

The current pool safety laws commenced on 1 December 2010, with a five year moratorium and community education period, and were introduced to better protect children aged under five from drowning.

Minister Enoch said the government was proud to be partnering with respected pool safety advocate Laurie Lawrence.

“Mr Lawrence understands that when it comes to kids and pools, deaths can be prevented when there’s appropriate education, supervision and appropriate fencing,” Ms Enoch said.

Mr Lawrence said the bottom line was that pool fences saved lives.

“Remember Kids Alive - Do the Five, and make sure you make your pool compliant,” Mr Lawrence said.

Ms Enoch said while every pool owner needed to register their pool, not every owner would need to book a pool inspection.

“Owners need to make sure their pools meet the safety standard, but only need a pool safety certificate to sell or lease their property,” Ms Enoch said.

“A pool compliance checklist on the QBCC website can help pool owners self-assess whether their barrier is compliant and what they can do to fix it.”

From 1 December, local Councils will be responsible for enforcing the laws which replaced 11 different standards to make it easier for owners to be comply.

Council plays an important role with regards to pool safety.

They can:

• enter properties to inspect pools
• prosecute owners of non-compliant pools
• decide impracticality exemptions and existing disability exemptions
• cancel pool safety certificates for noncompliant pools
• declare areas as ‘remote’ to help minimise inspection costs for pools in remote areas

They are also required to:

• inspect pools if asked by a pool owner—for example, by employing a pool safety inspector in-house, by sharing a pool safety inspector between several local governments or by contracting to a private safety inspector
• provide records of existing pools to help establish the state-wide swimming pool safety register
• undertake enforcement action following an immersion notice from Queensland Health, a complaint notice or a notice from the QBCC
• Local governments may charge a cost recovery fee to perform their responsibilities under the pool safety laws, except for responding to immersion incident notices or pool safety complaint notices.

The checklist can be downloaded at:

Pool Safety Basic Checklist