HAZCHEM Outer Warning Placards

Once a workplace holds more than the placard quantity of any dangerous goods, it needs a HAZCHEM outer warning placard: red letters at least 100 mm high on white or silver, at each entrance emergency services may use. Source: WHS Regulations Schedule 13.

It is the sign at the gate or front door that tells a fire crew there are dangerous goods on site before anyone walks in. Every Australian state and territory asks for one; Victoria and Western Australia set its look in their own Schedule 4, and Western Australia asks for it at every entrance to the site.

When a workplace needs one

The trigger is the same idea everywhere: when the quantity of any dangerous goods or hazardous chemical held at the workplace passes its placard quantity, the outer warning placard has to go up. The placard quantities differ between states, and they are on our guide to when you need a dangerous goods placard, with Victoria and Western Australia on pages of their own.

Under the WHS regulations, a retail fuel outlet does not need an outer warning placard.

What the placard shows

• The word HAZCHEM
• Red letters at least 100 mm high (Signal Red, AS 2700S R13)
• A white or silver background

The rule is about the letters, not the panel: the word HAZCHEM in red letters at least 100 mm high, on a white or silver background. A wide panel with small letters does not meet it, so check the letter height on whatever you buy.

Where it goes

At every entrance to the workplace that an emergency services organisation may use, so a fire crew sees it before they go in. A site with a front gate and a side gate the fire brigade could use needs one on each. In Western Australia it goes at every entrance to the site.

The regulation in each state

The look of the placard (colour, letter height, background) is set out in Schedule 13 of the WHS regulations, and in Schedule 4 in Victoria and Western Australia.

The other placards a site needs are on hazchem signage requirements, and the minimum sizes on dangerous goods placard sizes.

The sign itself

Our HAZCHEM sign is 600 x 150 mm, in aluminium or self-adhesive vinyl. Aluminium suits a gate or fence; vinyl goes on a clean, flat door or wall.

Common questions

When does a workplace need an outer warning placard?

When the quantity of any dangerous goods or hazardous chemical held there passes its placard quantity. The placard quantities for each state are on our guide to when you need a placard.

Where does the HAZCHEM placard go?

At every entrance to the workplace that an emergency services organisation may use, so a fire crew sees it before they go in. In Western Australia, every entrance to the site.

What size does a HAZCHEM sign have to be?

The rule is about the letters, not the panel: the word HAZCHEM in red letters at least 100 mm high, on a white or silver background.

Figures on this page were checked against the linked sources on 2026-09-29.