Has AS 1319 been updated recently?

No new edition. It was reconfirmed as still current in 2018, meaning the underlying 1994 text stands, rather than being replaced.

Does AS 1319 cover exit signs?

Not according to how it is scoped — dedicated exit signage sits under a different standard. AS 1319 covers the broader category of occupational safety signage.

Is there a confirmed regulator citation for AS 1319?

Not one we verified ourselves. Third-party summaries describe it appearing in several Safe Work Australia model Codes of Practice, and that is plausible given the pattern in this reference, but we have not read the citing sentence directly and are not claiming to have.

Why reconfirm a standard instead of rewriting it?

Reconfirmation is Standards Australia’s way of formally stating an existing document still reflects current thinking, without the cost and time of a full rewrite. It is a real, deliberate status, not a sign the document has been neglected.

What kinds of signs does AS 1319 not cover?

Dedicated exit signage, which sits under a different standard, AS 2293.1. It also does not cover signage for a specific hazard class the way a dangerous-goods placarding scheme does — its scope is the general occupational-signage category.

Who actually specifies signage against AS 1319 in practice?

Typically the business itself, working with a signage supplier, informed by whatever risk assessment identified the need for a sign in the first place. There is no separate approval body that signs off on individual sign installations against this standard.

AS 1319, the standard for safety signs in a workplace

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.

Last updated 2026-08-24

What it is

AS 1319-1994, "Safety signs for the occupational environment", was reconfirmed on 29 August 2018. Reconfirmation validates the existing 1994 text as still current, rather than replacing it with a new edition — so the standard you would buy today is still, substantively, the 1994 document.

In our own words: it sets requirements for the design and use of workplace safety-related signage — prohibition, warning and mandatory-action signs, and emergency-information signage — excluding dedicated exit signage, which sits under a different standard.

A citation we could not confirm ourselves

Third-party summaries describe several Safe Work Australia model Codes of Practice — covering asbestos management, confined spaces and first aid — as referencing AS 1319-1994, including first-aid signage specifically. We tried, twice, to retrieve the underlying document directly and confirm that wording ourselves, and both attempts failed on our end for technical reasons.

So we are reporting this the same way we report every uncertain citation in this reference: plausible, consistent with the pattern seen elsewhere, and not something we have personally read in the regulator’s own words. Treat it as likely rather than established.

What we may not tell you

No sign colour, shape, symbol design or text-size specification from AS 1319 appears here. What a compliant sign actually looks like is inside the document, not on this page.

That includes the specific pictograms and colour-coding conventions the standard sets for prohibition, warning and mandatory-action signs. A sign manufacturer’s catalogue is a reasonable place to see examples of signage made to the standard; this page is not trying to be that catalogue.

Where signage connects to other standards in this reference

Signage is rarely a standalone decision. It follows from what is actually stored or done in a space — signage for a flammable-liquids store is one obvious case, and the wording on an emergency-evacuation sign follows from the emergency plan that decides what those signs need to say rather than from AS 1319 alone.

Deciding where a sign is needed at all is, more often than not, an output of the risk assessment that decides where a sign is needed, with the load signs fixed at the end of a racking run as one specific, familiar example most warehouse operators will already have seen.

Common questions

Has AS 1319 been updated recently?: No new edition. It was reconfirmed as still current in 2018, meaning the underlying 1994 text stands, rather than being replaced.
Does AS 1319 cover exit signs?: Not according to how it is scoped — dedicated exit signage sits under a different standard. AS 1319 covers the broader category of occupational safety signage.
Is there a confirmed regulator citation for AS 1319?: Not one we verified ourselves. Third-party summaries describe it appearing in several Safe Work Australia model Codes of Practice, and that is plausible given the pattern in this reference, but we have not read the citing sentence directly and are not claiming to have.
Why reconfirm a standard instead of rewriting it?: Reconfirmation is Standards Australia’s way of formally stating an existing document still reflects current thinking, without the cost and time of a full rewrite. It is a real, deliberate status, not a sign the document has been neglected.
What kinds of signs does AS 1319 not cover?: Dedicated exit signage, which sits under a different standard, AS 2293.1. It also does not cover signage for a specific hazard class the way a dangerous-goods placarding scheme does — its scope is the general occupational-signage category.
Who actually specifies signage against AS 1319 in practice?: Typically the business itself, working with a signage supplier, informed by whatever risk assessment identified the need for a sign in the first place. There is no separate approval body that signs off on individual sign installations against this standard.

Sources

Standards Australia — online store — The publisher’s own catalogue, confirming the designation and reconfirmed-current status. A regulator citation was not independently verified. Retrieved 2026-08-24.

Part of our guide to the standards reference.