Dangerous goods storage: the shape of the requirements
Storing chemicals and transporting them are two different bodies of law, and the storage requirements stack in a ladder — register, labelling, placarding, manifest. This page describes the shape of that ladder and publishes no threshold quantities at all.
Last updated 2026-08-24
Storage law and transport law are different systems
The model Code of Practice on managing risks of hazardous chemicals says plainly: "This model Code does not apply to transporting dangerous goods or explosives." That sentence resolves a confusion running through most content in this area.
"Hazardous chemicals" is a work health and safety concept: how chemicals are stored, handled, labelled and recorded in a workplace. "Dangerous goods" is a transport concept from the Australian Dangerous Goods Code, governing what happens on a road or rail line. They overlap heavily, because the same drum is both, but they come from different instruments with different regulators.
A warehouse sits on the storage side; a carrier arriving at your dock sits on the transport side. The load changing hands is also the point where the applicable system changes.
The ladder, described by its shape
The requirements escalate with how much you hold. At the base sits a hazardous chemicals register — what is on site, with the safety data sheets to match. Above it sits correct labelling of containers, including anything decanted, which is the same territory as the safety data sheet duty.
Above that sits placarding: outward signage identifying to emergency services what is held and where. Above that again sits a manifest, kept in a defined location, setting out quantities and locations for the people who would attend an incident.
Each rung serves someone further away from the chemical. The register serves you, the labels serve your workers, the placard serves whoever arrives at the gate, the manifest serves whoever plans a response before entering. That is more useful than memorising any single rung.
- Register — what is held on site, with the matching safety data sheets
- Labelling — containers identified, including decanted product
- Placarding — outward signage for emergency services at the site
- Manifest — quantities and locations, held where responders can reach it
Why there are no numbers on this page
The quantities that move you from one rung to the next sit in a schedule of the model WHS Regulations, class by class. We are not restating any of them: we could not re-verify them against the source table during our research, and a threshold is exactly the sentence that causes harm when wrong — too high, and someone concludes they are below a rung they are on. Safe Work Australia publishes the table, and that is the version worth reading.
One structural feature is worth knowing even without numbers. Combined quantities can reach a threshold even where no individual item exceeds it alone, so "none of our products is over the limit" is not the same statement as "we are below the threshold".
Where the answer differs by state
Safe Work Australia's own storing-chemicals page states that "States and territories can have different regulations on storing chemicals. Contact your WHS regulator for more information" — the regulator saying its national material is not the last word.
The specific variation we confirmed: "South Australia has a separate dangerous substances licencing scheme. If you are located in South Australia please contact SafeWork SA." That is a different regime, not a difference in wording, and it is the kind of thing a national summary silently erases.
We checked Safe Work Australia's national pages and did not audit every jurisdiction's dangerous goods regulations. Where you are matters more here than in most areas: the general duty framework is national in shape, and this layer is not.
The standards, and an honest note about them
Two designations come up constantly here: the flammable and combustible liquids standard and the mixed-class dangerous goods storage standard. Both are paid Standards Australia documents whose content we do not reproduce — the standards reference covers what each is for, by designation only.
The honest note: Safe Work Australia's storing-hazardous-chemicals page, as we retrieved it, names neither standard. It says only that incompatible chemicals should be stored well away from each other. The link between those standards and segregation practice is industry practice, not something we saw a regulator assert, and telling those apart is what this silo exists to do.
Detailed storage design — segregation distances, bunding, ventilation — is outside what we cover, as is the fire-authority side of a chemical store, which is a different regulator and a different body of law. Both are held rather than published, deliberately.
Where to actually go
For the ladder and the threshold table, Safe Work Australia. For what applies where you are, your WHS regulator — SafeWork SA in South Australia. For a determination about your site, someone competent who can see your stock and your building.
What this page will not do is tell you which rung you are on: that depends on what you hold, in what quantities and in what combination. Some spaces in a chemical store may also raise confined space questions, a separate definition with its own test, and the protective hardware sits under warehouse safety equipment.
Common questions
- At what quantity does a warehouse need a placard?
- The thresholds sit in a schedule of the model WHS Regulations, class by class. We do not publish them, because a wrong threshold is the most damaging error available in this area. Safe Work Australia publishes the table.
- Do the rules differ between states?
- Yes, materially in at least one case. Safe Work Australia states that jurisdictions can have different regulations on storing chemicals, and that South Australia runs a separate dangerous substances licensing scheme with SafeWork SA as the contact.
- Does holding several small quantities keep me below a threshold?
- Not necessarily. Combined quantities can reach a threshold even where no single item exceeds it alone, so reasoning item by item can mislead. Where your site sits is a question for the regulator's table and, on a mixed inventory, for someone competent to review it.
- Which Australian Standard covers chemical storage?
- AS 1940 and AS/NZS 3833 are the designations conventionally cited, and we reference them by designation only. The Safe Work Australia storing-chemicals page we retrieved names neither, so treat the connection as industry practice rather than a regulator instruction.
Sources
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace — Covers workplace storage and handling, and states that it does not apply to transporting dangerous goods or explosives. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- Safe Work Australia — Placard and manifest threshold quantities — Holds the Schedule 11 threshold table and notes that South Australia runs a separate dangerous substances licensing scheme. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- Safe Work Australia — Storing hazardous chemicals — States that storage rules differ between states and territories. Notably, it does not name AS 1940 or AS/NZS 3833. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
Part of our guide to the hazard categories a warehouse deals with.