The short answer on EWP spotter requirements
In Victoria you need a registered spotter whenever any part of the machine, the basket, the operator or the load will come between 3.0 and 6.4 metres of an overhead powerline. Closer than 3.0 metres you need written permission from the network operator. Outside 6.4 metres the No Go Zone rules do not apply.
This is one of the most common questions we are asked when a machine is booked near power, and the answer catches people out in both directions. Crews who assume they need a spotter for everything waste a body on jobs that do not require one. Crews who assume they never need one stop the job when the network operator turns up, or worse.
The rule is not about what the machine is. It is about how close the work gets to the line, and it is measured in three bands.
This is general information about EWP spotter requirements in Victoria, not a substitute for a site-specific risk assessment. Distances and duties come from Energy Safe Victoria’s No Go Zone framework, linked at the bottom of this page.
EWP spotter requirements: the three No Go Zone bands
Energy Safe Victoria sets a single framework for anyone working near overhead energy assets, and it applies to an insulated travel tower exactly as it applies to a crane, a tipper or a scaffold. The framework divides the space around a powerline into three bands, and your obligations change at each boundary.
| Distance from the line | What it is called | What you must have |
|---|---|---|
| Inside 3.0 m | No Go Zone | Written permission from the network operator, plus additional controls |
| 3.0 m to 6.4 m | Spotter Zone | A registered spotter, dedicated to the task |
| Outside 6.4 m | Outside the framework | Normal OHS duties under the Victorian OHS Regulations |
The number that matters most on a tree job is 6.4 metres, because that is the point at which the question even arises. If nothing on the job will ever come inside 6.4 metres of a conductor, the No Go Zone framework is not engaged and no spotter is required by it.
Measure to the machine at full reach, not to where it is parked
This is where most of the honest mistakes happen. The distance is not measured from the truck. It is measured from any part of the plant, the basket, the operator, their tools or the load, at the closest point any of them will reach during the work.
A 19-metre travel tower parked eight metres from a line is not outside the Spotter Zone. It is a machine that can put a basket, a chainsaw and a set of arms well inside it. The assessment has to be done against the working envelope, not the parking spot.
The same applies to the timber. A limb being lowered swings, and a limb under tension moves in ways the operator did not plan. If the wood can enter the zone, the job is in the zone.
What a registered spotter actually is
A spotter in the Victorian sense is not simply an offsider watching. It is a registered role with its own training and its own registration through Energy Safe Victoria, and the registration is what makes the person legally capable of holding it.
To register, a person completes the approved course, 22597VIC Course in Workplace Spotting for Service Assets, and holds current first aid competency, either HLTAID011 or HLTAID014. The first aid requirement is not administrative. A spotter is the person present when something goes wrong near a live conductor.
The spotter does nothing else
The single most common failure is a spotter who is also doing something. Dragging brush, feeding a chipper, managing traffic, answering the phone. Once a spotter has a second task, they are not a spotter, they are a groundie who is occasionally looking up.
The role is dedicated and continuous for as long as the plant is in the zone. They watch the relationship between the machine and the line, and they have the authority to stop the work.
Where a spotter is not enough
Energy Safe Victoria and WorkSafe Victoria are explicit that a spotter is not an adequate control for erecting or dismantling scaffolding in a No Go Zone. That is worth knowing even on a job where you are hiring a tower rather than scaffold, because it tells you something about how the regulator views the control.
A spotter manages the risk of an approach that a competent operator would otherwise not see. It does not make an inherently unsafe method safe. Where the method itself puts structure or people repeatedly into the zone, the answer is a different method, a de-energisation, or an insulated machine rated for the work.
Ask this before the machine is booked
What is the voltage, and how close does the work get at full reach? Those two answers decide which No Go Zone band you are in, and therefore whether you need a spotter, a permission, or neither. Working it out on the phone is free. Working it out with a crew standing around is not.
Where an insulated machine changes the conversation, and where it does not
An insulated EWP is built so that the boom and basket provide a rated barrier between the operator and earth. That is why utilities and vegetation crews use them for work near live conductors, and it is the entire reason our fleet is insulated rather than general-hire.
What insulation does not do is remove the No Go Zone obligations. The zone is defined by distance, not by machine type. A rated machine is one control among several, and the permission, the spotter and the safe work method still apply according to which band the work falls in.
The honest framing is that an insulated tower is what makes the work possible to do compliantly. It is not what makes the paperwork unnecessary.
Who provides the spotter
On a dry hire, the machine arrives and your people operate it. The spotter is yours, because the work is yours and the duty sits with the person conducting the business or undertaking.
On a wet hire, an operator comes with the machine. That operator is running the plant. Unless it is agreed in writing beforehand, they are not your spotter, and they cannot be, because the operator is in the basket and the spotter has to be on the ground watching the machine.
If you want us to supply a spotter as well as an operator, say so when you book. It is a separate person and it needs to be arranged, not assumed on the day.
What to sort out before the machine arrives
- Identify every overhead asset on the site, including the service line to the house, which is the one people forget.
- Establish the voltage with the network operator if it is not obvious. It changes what permission is needed inside 3.0 metres.
- Work out the closest approach of the machine, the basket and the timber at full reach.
- Decide which band the job falls in, and be honest about it.
- Book the spotter if the answer is 3.0 to 6.4 metres, and confirm their registration is current.
- Apply to the network operator if any part of the work goes inside 3.0 metres. This has a lead time.
- Write it into the SWMS so the control is documented, not remembered.
Voltage changes what happens inside 3 metres
The three bands are the same regardless of voltage, but what you have to do inside 3.0 metres is not. Distribution assets, sub-transmission and transmission are managed by different parts of the network, and the permission process and the controls scale with the risk.
The practical consequence for a hire booking is lead time. A job that needs written permission is not a job you book for tomorrow morning. If you do not know the voltage, the network operator will tell you, and that phone call should happen before the machine is scheduled rather than while it is sitting on site.
Service lines are the ones that catch people
Crews are careful around the obvious three-phase run along the street and then reverse a boom into the single service line running to the house. It is lower, it is thinner, it is often screened by the very tree being worked on, and it is live.
Every powerline on the property counts, including the one that crosses the driveway and the one running to the shed. Walk the site and identify all of them before the boom comes up, not after.
What the spotter is actually watching
A good spotter is not staring at the basket. They are watching the gap, and they are watching it from a position where the gap is visible, which is rarely directly underneath.
- The closest point of approach as the boom slews, not just as it lifts
- Timber under tension, and where it will go when it releases
- Rope and rigging lines, which conduct and which move unpredictably
- Wind, which moves both the basket and the conductor
- Anyone walking into the exclusion area on the ground
They also need an agreed way to stop the work that the operator will hear over a saw. A hand signal nobody can see is not a control.
Conductors move, and the clearance is not static
An overhead line is not fixed in space. It sags with heat and load, it swings in wind, and it lifts and drops as the span changes temperature through the day. A gap measured comfortably at eight in the morning is not the same gap at three in the afternoon on a hot day with a northerly.
That is part of why the bands are generous. They are not the distance at which electricity jumps. They are the distance at which a reasonable margin exists for movement, misjudgement and the fact that people are working from a moving platform with tools in their hands.
Why the zone applies to the plant, not the trade
People sometimes assume the framework is about electrical work. It is not. It applies to anyone bringing plant, materials or people near an energy asset, which is why it captures tree crews, builders, roofers, concrete pumps and delivery trucks equally.
A tree crew is in the framework because a boom is plant, and because vegetation work puts people and timber into exactly the space the framework exists to protect.
Documenting the control so it survives the day
A control that lives only in someone’s head disappears when that person goes to lunch. The spotter arrangement belongs in the safe work method statement for the job, and it should name the band, the distance, the person and the stop-work signal.
| What to record | Why it matters later |
|---|---|
| Closest approach, in metres | Shows which band was assessed and why |
| Spotter name and registration | Proves the role was filled by someone qualified |
| Network operator permission reference | The only thing that authorises work inside 3.0 m |
| Stop-work signal agreed | Makes the spotter’s authority real |
| Rescue plan for the basket | Separate duty, and the one most often missing |
Rescue is a separate obligation
A spotter prevents an approach. Neither the spotter nor the machine’s insulation answers the question of how a person is retrieved from the basket if they are injured or unconscious at height. That is its own plan, it needs its own equipment, and it needs someone on site who knows how to use the ground controls.
It comes up in the same conversation because both are things people assume the hire company has taken care of. On a dry hire, neither is ours.
What we ask you when you book near power
We ask three questions, and they are not administrative. They decide which machine we send and whether the job is one we can support at all.
- What is the voltage of the nearest asset?
- What is the closest the work will get to it, measured at full reach?
- Who is holding the spotter role, and is their registration current?
If the answer to the third question is nobody, that is a useful thing to discover on the phone rather than at seven in the morning with a crew standing around.
The honest summary
Most tree work near power in Victoria sits in one of two places. Either it is comfortably outside 6.4 metres, in which case the framework is not engaged and normal safe work duties apply. Or it is in the 3.0 to 6.4 metre Spotter Zone, in which case you need a dedicated registered spotter for as long as the plant is in the zone.
Inside 3.0 metres is a different category of job. It needs the network operator, and it needs planning measured in days rather than minutes.
Which machine suits which job
Every tower in our fleet is an insulated EWP, so the question is never which one is better. It is which one carries what your job needs. Three figures decide it — working height, outreach and basket capacity — and a fourth, the insulation rating and the conditions it holds in, decides whether the machine can be near the line at all.
Working heights below come off the compliance plates rather than brochures. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure it is shown as on request rather than estimated, because a made-up spec on a hire page is a safety problem rather than a cosmetic one.
| Machine | Working height | Outreach | Basket | Insulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMJ LL22.350 | 23.5 m | 13 m | 350 kg | 66/33/LV on the plate |
| Redmond Gary TF17M | 19 m | 13 m | 325 kg | 132 kV — dry, wet and precipitation |
| Sherrin 18 m | 18 m | 11.1 m | 350 kg | 132 kV, Glove & Barrier build |
| GMJ TT16.300 | 17.5 m | On request | 250 kg | On the plate — ask us for your job |
| Terex Hi-Ranger LT40 | 13.8 m | 9 m | 181 kg | ANSI Category C under A92.2 |
| Versalift SST-37 | 12.8 m | 8.5 m | On request | Fitted as an option — ask first |
| Altec AT30C | On request | On request | On request | On request |
The tallest tower we run, and the one that goes out when nothing shorter will reach — 13 metres of outreach still intact at full height, on a basket that takes two people and what they bring down.
Rated 132 kV dry, wet and in precipitation, which is the rating that matters when the job does not stop because the weather turned. Long outreach for its height.
A Glove & Barrier build on a 350 kg basket. The one to ask about when the work is close-quarters on live gear rather than simply near it.
A mid-height tower that gets into ground the bigger machines cannot. Ask us for the plate figures against your specific job rather than working off a brochure.
Compact and quick to set up, rated ANSI Category C under A92.2. Suits tight residential access where a full-size tower simply will not fit.
Low travel height, which is what gets it under a carpark header or a low branch line. Insulation is fitted as an option, so confirm it before the job is booked.
A compact telescopic tower. We publish figures off the compliance plate rather than the brochure, so ask us and we will send the plate for the unit going to your job.
Every tower above travels to Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Gippsland — driven to site under its own power, not floated in on a separate truck.
Insulated EWP hire across Victoria
Every tower is a truck, so it drives to you under its own power and sets up on its own legs. There is no float to book and no crane at either end, which is why distance behaves differently for us than it does for hire companies working off floated plant.
We hire right across Victoria. Beyond the towns above we run into Dandenong and the outer east, right through Gippsland where we are based, and up into the north-east — the Wangaratta and Wodonga side of the state is no trouble at all, we are over that way regularly. If your job is somewhere not listed here it is almost certainly still covered: insulated EWP hire across Victoria.
Tell us the job. We will tell you the tower.
Wet hire or dry hire, anywhere in Victoria, with a replacement machine behind it from the first day.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a spotter for an EWP in Victoria?
Only when the work brings any part of the machine, basket, operator or load between 3.0 and 6.4 metres of an overhead powerline. That band is called the Spotter Zone. Outside 6.4 metres the No Go Zone framework does not apply.
Can the EWP operator act as their own spotter?
No. The operator is in the basket controlling the machine. A spotter watches the relationship between the plant and the line from the ground and must be dedicated to that task alone.
What training does a spotter need?
The approved course is 22597VIC Course in Workplace Spotting for Service Assets, plus current first aid competency at HLTAID011 or HLTAID014. Registration is held through Energy Safe Victoria.
Does an insulated EWP remove the need for a spotter?
No. The No Go Zone bands are defined by distance, not by machine type. An insulated machine is one control that makes the work possible to do compliantly, alongside the spotter and any permission required.
Can a groundsman spot while chipping?
No. The role is dedicated and continuous for as long as the plant is in the zone. A person with a second task is not performing the spotter role.
Is a spotter enough to work inside 3 metres?
No. Inside 3.0 metres you need written permission from the relevant network operator and additional preventative measures. A spotter alone does not authorise entry to the No Go Zone.
Do I measure from the truck or from the basket?
From whichever part comes closest during the work. That includes the boom, the basket, the operator, their tools and the timber being handled, assessed at full reach rather than where the truck is parked.
Who supplies the spotter on a hire?
On a dry hire, you do, because the work is yours. On a wet hire the operator runs the machine and is not the spotter. If you want a spotter supplied as well, arrange it when you book.
Does the No Go Zone apply to underground assets too?
The framework covers energy assets generally, and underground assets carry their own requirements around excavation. For EWP work the overhead bands are what govern, but the site check should identify both.
Is a spotter required for scaffolding near a line?
Energy Safe Victoria and WorkSafe Victoria state that a spotter is not an adequate control for erecting or dismantling scaffolding in a No Go Zone. That work needs a different approach.
Does wind change the assessment?
Yes. Conductors swing and sag, and a basket moves. The bands allow a margin for that, but a day with strong wind is a day to reassess the closest approach rather than rely on the morning’s measurement.
Do I need a spotter for the service line to a house?
The bands apply to it exactly as they apply to the street run. Service lines are lower and often hidden by the tree being worked on, which is why they account for a disproportionate share of near misses.
Can one spotter cover two machines?
The role is dedicated and continuous for the plant it is watching. Two machines working in the zone at once is two sets of movements to track, and it should be treated as needing its own spotter for each.
Does a spotter need to be on the ground?
They need a position from which the gap between the plant and the conductor is genuinely visible, which is almost never directly underneath and is not from inside the basket.
How long does network operator permission take?
It varies by operator and by what is being asked for. Treat it as days rather than hours, and start the conversation before the machine is booked.
Is insulation rated for contact?
An insulated machine provides a rated barrier under defined conditions. It is a control that supports compliant work near live conductors, not a licence to contact a line. The distance bands still govern.
Sources & references
- Energy Safe Victoria, No Go Zones — working around energy assets: sets the three-band framework this article describes, establishing that work between 3.0 m and 6.4 m of an overhead powerline requires a registered spotter, that work within 3.0 m requires permission from the relevant network operator together with additional preventative measures, and that work outside 6.4 m carries no specific No Go Zone requirement beyond the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017.
- Energy Safe Victoria, Spotter’s registration: sets out what a person must hold to register as a spotter, namely completion of the approved course 22597VIC Course in Workplace Spotting for Service Assets, together with evidence of current competency to provide first aid at either HLTAID011 or HLTAID014.
- Energy Safe Victoria, General Requirements to act as a Spotter: the detailed statement of the spotter’s duties and the conditions attaching to the role, including that Energy Safe and WorkSafe Victoria do not consider a spotter an adequate measure to control No Go Zone risks during the erection and dismantling of scaffolding.
- WorkSafe Victoria, Using earthmoving equipment near overhead electrical assets: the companion WorkSafe guidance for plant operating near overhead assets, useful for the duties that sit alongside the No Go Zone bands under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
- Energy Safe Victoria, Keeping tree industry workers safe around powerlines: the regulator’s guidance written specifically for vegetation crews, covering the interaction between tree work and overhead conductors that this article addresses.
This article is general information for Victorian conditions and is not a site-specific risk assessment or legal advice. Confirm voltages and requirements with the relevant network operator before work begins.
