AS 1657, the standard behind fixed platforms and ladders
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.
Last updated 2026-08-24
What it is
AS 1657:2018, "Fixed platforms, walkways, stairways and ladders — Design, construction and installation", is the fourth-generation edition of this standard and supersedes AS 1657-1992, itself a major revision of the original.
In our own words, not the standard’s: it covers the design, construction and installation of permanently attached means of access — walkways, stair flights and fixed ladders, including their handrail and fall-protection arrangements. It is the standard behind any warehouse mezzanine access stair, picking platform or fixed ladder to an elevated level, as distinct from the fall-arrest standard covering the harness clipped onto that ladder rather than the ladder itself.
The regulator citation, verbatim
This is the strongest single citation we found for this particular standard. A "Safe design and use of stairs" guidance page published by WorkSafe Queensland names AS 1657:2018 directly, in these words:
"Based on Australian Standards 1657 (2018) Fixed platforms, walkways, stairways and ladders – Design, construction and installation."
The same page repeats the citation in its handrails section, and adds a line worth noting on its own terms:
"The requirements of the National Construction Code take precedence over any conflict with AS 1657 (2018)."
That second sentence is a genuinely useful fact in its own right: AS 1657 does not sit above the National Construction Code, it sits alongside it, and the Code wins where the two disagree. This is a Queensland citation specifically, not one of the three states this site otherwise checks for racking guidance, and we are naming it as what it is rather than folding it into that pattern.
What we may not tell you
Nothing here states a handrail height, a tread depth, a rung spacing, a slip-resistance figure or any other dimension the standard sets. Those belong to the document itself, and why we draw that line at all is worth reading if this is the first page of this reference you have landed on.
What we can tell you is where the standard applies: fixed, permanent access. A temporary or mobile means of reaching height is a different equipment category with its own standards, and the beam levels a fixed platform is built to reach is a warehouse-planning question this standard does not answer on its own.
Where it shows up in a warehouse
The obvious case is a mezzanine access stair or a fixed ladder to a raised picking level. It also applies to walkways built into a mezzanine storage deck, and to any fixed platform installed for access to plant or racking above floor level.
It does not, on its own, cover the general question of working at height around racking more broadly — that is a wider hazard-management question this standard sits inside, not the whole of it, and it does not cover the edge protection fitted where a mezzanine meets a fixed stair as anything beyond the access route itself.
Common questions
- What did AS 1657:2018 replace?
- A 1992 edition of the same standard. The 2018 edition is described by resellers as the fourth generation of the document.
- Does a regulator actually cite AS 1657?
- Yes. WorkSafe Queensland’s guidance on the safe design and use of stairs names AS 1657:2018 verbatim, twice, and we have confirmed that wording directly rather than relying on a secondary summary.
- Does AS 1657 cover a fall-arrest harness?
- No. That is a different standard series, AS/NZS 1891, covering personal fall-protection equipment. AS 1657 covers the fixed structure a worker walks or climbs on, not what they wear.
- Does AS 1657 override the National Construction Code?
- No, the reverse. The National Construction Code takes precedence over any conflict with AS 1657, according to the same WorkSafe Queensland page that cites it.
Sources
- WorkSafe Queensland — Safe design and use of stairs — Cites AS 1657 (2018) verbatim, twice, and states the National Construction Code takes precedence over any conflict with it. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
Part of our guide to Australian Standards for warehouses.