Feed Mill Fire & Explosion Risk Assessment
Can't get a specialist on site? Complete your own assessment this week.
Every feed mill makes combustible dust, and the NSW duty to manage the fire and explosion risk applies now — not when a consultant becomes available. This assessment gives your own team the structure to do it: 73 pre-identified hazards across the mill from truck receival to load-out, scored on a 5×5 matrix, with the controls classified against the hierarchy and each hazard routed to the permit, SWMS or plan it requires. A start-here guide shows you how to lead the assessment and walk your mill.
Or get the complete pack
The risk assessment tells you which registers, procedures and records the law expects. The pack includes them. Buy the whole pack, or just the documents you are missing.
Feed Mill Fire & Explosion Compliance Pack — NSW
A Master SOP that runs the pack, the full risk assessment with 73 pre-identified hazards, and the four documents its controls point to — dust zoning, ignition sources, housekeeping and emergency response. Six editable Word documents.
Rather have it done for you?
A Certified Industrial Hygienist can review your mill's safety system remotely from your documents, photos and videos – gap analysis, risk assessment review and the procedures to close the gaps. No site visit, quoted per project.
What the assessment covers
73 pre-identified hazards across the areas below, each with the likely consequence, inherent and residual scores, hierarchy-tagged controls, and whether a SWMS, permit or management plan is required. Delete what you don't have; add what you do.
Dust cloud at the intake pit; hot exhaust, dragged chain or tramp metal as ignition
Belt slip, misalignment or a seized bearing igniting the dust inside the casing
Tramp metal, stones, blocked screens or seized rolls sparking in the finest dust on site
Dust at the tip station plus heated fat and molasses fire load
Die and roll friction, blocked dies, smouldering meal
Smouldering pellets igniting a cloud when the bin is disturbed
Product build-up on hot surfaces; burner and fuel faults
Concentrated fines ignited by a carried spark, static or an ember
Self-heating stock; explosion or entrapment during entry
Friction at bearings and screws; static from bag filling
The secondary explosion that destroys buildings
Unrated equipment in a Zone 20/21/22 area; dust inside enclosures
Welding, cutting and grinding without shutdown, cleaning and fire watch
Pallet racking, feed store sheds and cool rooms — a large combustible fire load
Pool or jet fire escalating to the process building
Hot exhausts and sparking electrics in dusty areas
Wrong first response to a smouldering bin; untested equipment
New ingredient, throughput or layout changing the hazard unnoticed
How you complete it — no site visit from us
The assessment's start-here guide walks you through the same steps.
Mill manager, maintenance lead, an experienced operator from each shift and your health & safety representative. Consulting workers is a legal duty under s 47 of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW).
Once running — to see where dust escapes, what is hot and what leaks — and once shut down, to look inside hoods, on beams and ledges, in roof spaces and around collectors.
Delete rows for plant you do not have, add rows for plant you do, and replace the pre-filled controls with what is actually installed and working.
Score inherent and residual risk, then prepare the permits, SWMS and plans each row calls for, with an owner and a due date.
Dust explosibility testing, hazardous area classification and explosion-protection design stay specialist tasks — the sheet shows you exactly where, so you can brief one precisely.
Brief your workers, sign the assessment, and review it after any fire, near miss, plant or ingredient change, or at least every 12 months.
The NSW duties it addresses
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW). Each section below was checked against the current consolidated Regulation.
Frequently asked
Do you inspect our site?
No. This is a do-it-yourself assessment. We supply the structure, the NSW legal references and the fire and explosion hazards typical of an animal feed mill, pre-scored as a baseline. Your own team walks the mill and completes it — the assessment includes a start-here guide for leading it.
Why would we do it ourselves rather than wait for a consultant?
Because the duty applies now. Specialists with combustible-dust experience are limited, and booking one — particularly in regional NSW — can take months. Completing this assessment gives you a documented position in the meantime, and if you do engage a specialist later, they start from your completed register rather than a blank page, which shortens their time on site.
Is it written for NSW law?
Yes. It cites the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Part 3.1 (ss 34–38), ss 43, 51, 52, 53, 67, 291, 299, 355 and 359 — together with the NSW codes of practice and the relevant Australian Standards. Every section cited was checked against the current consolidated Regulation.
Our mill is small — a research or teaching mill. Does this apply?
Yes. The duties attach to combustible dust being present, not to the size of the mill. A small mill will delete more rows, but an elevator leg or a dust collector confines a dust cloud the same way at any scale.
What does it not do?
It does not test your dusts, classify your hazardous areas or design explosion venting — those are specialist tasks, and the assessment tells you where you need them. It is also a single risk assessment. The zoning register, ignition source register, housekeeping regime and emergency annex that its controls point to are in the complete pack shown above, and each can be bought on its own.
What format is it and how is it delivered?
An editable Microsoft Word document, delivered by instant download after payment. Licensed for a single site.
Editable risk assessment template. We do not inspect your site. Not legal, safety, engineering or professional advice, and no warranty of compliance. The buyer is responsible for completing it for the actual mill, plant, dusts and personnel in consultation with workers, and for obtaining specialist input where the assessment identifies it. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the vendor's liability is limited to the price paid. $450 per assessment, single-site licence.