A standard is not a law. It becomes something close to one when a regulator points at it, and stays merely good practice when none does. Almost nobody writing about warehouse compliance draws that line, so we checked which of these standards an Australian regulator actually cites — and said so on every page, including where the answer was that we could not find one.
Standards Australia sells these documents. We can tell you a standard exists, give you its exact designation and title, say whether it is current or superseded, describe the subject it deals with, and quote what a regulator publicly says about it. We cannot reproduce what is inside it, and we do not.
That is a real limit and it is worth being upfront about: if you need the clause, you need the document, and it costs money. What we can save you is the step before that — working out which document you are even looking for.
This is the distinction the pages below turn on. AS 1940, on flammable and combustible liquids, is cited repeatedly inside a published model Code of Practice — that is about as close to binding as a standard gets without being law. Others we could confirm exist, and could not confirm any regulator naming them. We label each one, and we do not pretend the second group is the first.
The one everyone here starts with is the racking inspection standard and the obligation behind it. For the hazard categories these standards sit under, see warehouse hazards and WHS duties.
14 guides
A standard is not a law. It becomes something close to one when a regulator points at it, or when a piece of legislation names it directly. Absent either, it stays what it started as: good practice that a private body sells you the right to read.
AS 1657:2018 is the Australian Standard for fixed platforms, walkways, stairways and ladders — the permanent access infrastructure around plant, buildings and storage. It is current, it replaced a 1992 edition, and it is one of the few standards in this reference with a regulator citation we could confirm word for word.
AS 1940:2017 is the Australian Standard for the storage and handling of flammable and combustible liquids. Of everything in this reference, it has the best-evidenced regulator citation by a clear margin: a published model Code of Practice names it at least five separate times.
AS/NZS 3833 covers storing more than one class of dangerous goods together, in packages or intermediate bulk containers, without full segregating walls between every class. A regulator names it directly. Which edition is currently in force, we were not able to confirm, so this page does not guess.
AS 2359 is a multi-part Australian Standard series covering powered industrial trucks — forklifts and similar self-propelled equipment. We confirmed the designation and current parts through the publisher’s own catalogue. We could not independently confirm a regulator citing it, so this page says that plainly rather than assuming one exists.
AS 1319-1994 covers safety signage for the occupational environment. It has not been rewritten since 1994, only reconfirmed as still current, and no later edition exists. A regulator citation is plausible on the pattern we have seen elsewhere in this reference, but we have not confirmed one ourselves.
AS 2118 is the Australian Standard series for automatic fire sprinkler systems. We confirmed Part 1’s current designation and title directly. We have not yet completed the separate work of checking whether a regulator cites it, and this page says so rather than guessing.
AS 1851-2012 covers the routine service of fire protection systems and equipment once they are installed — not how they are designed, but how they are kept working. We confirmed its current designation directly. We have not yet checked whether a regulator cites it by name.
AS 3745-2010 sets out a framework for emergency planning in a facility — an emergency plan, response procedures and an emergency control organisation. We confirmed the current designation directly. A regulator citation search for it specifically was not completed in our research.
AS/NZS 1891 is a multi-part standard series covering personal fall-arrest equipment — harnesses, lanyards, connectors and anchor and lifeline systems. The interesting recent development is not a technical one we can discuss: Part 4 was substantially revised in November 2025 and renamed, and the new name signals a real shift in scope.
AS/NZS 3000:2018, universally known as the Wiring Rules, is the core technical standard for electrical installations in Australia and New Zealand. What makes it interesting for this reference is not its content, which we do not reproduce, but the route by which it gets legal force — a genuinely different one from every other standard in this silo.
AS 4452:2025 is a genuinely new document — published 25 July 2025, replacing a standard that had stood since 1997. We confirmed its current designation directly from the publisher’s own catalogue. A regulator naming it specifically, we have not confirmed.
Cranes, hoists and winches are covered by two separate Australian Standard series that most people outside the industry never learn to tell apart: AS 1418 for how the equipment is designed, and AS 2550 for how it is safely used once it is in service. A 2024 regulator Code of Practice names both, verbatim.
AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 is the current Australian/New Zealand standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It replaced AS/NZS 4801:2001, which is now formally superseded — kept purchasable only because some existing contracts still name it. A tender that still asks for AS/NZS 4801 is, whether it means to or not, asking for a superseded document.