Qube promises investigation into employee death at SA forestry site

Logistics firm Qube has promised to investigate the death of a man at a forestry site in South Australia yesterday.

Workers at the scene near Second Valley. Picture: The Advertiser

The employer of a man who died in a workplace incident at Parawa on Monday has promised to investigate the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday, logistics company Qube said it was working with SA Police, South Australia’s workplace safety regulator SafeWork SA and other authorities to investigate the incident.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of a colleague during an incident at our South Australian forestry harvesting operations,” Qube managing director Paul Digney said in the statement.

“On behalf of everyone at Qube, I extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues. Our focus now is on supporting them at this very difficult time.”

The man died during a logging accident near Second Valley. Picture: The Advertiser

According to SA Police, the 59-year-old man from Strathalbyn, in the Adelaide Hills, was fatally injured while moving logs in a harvesting vehicle.

SA Country Fire Service, State Emergency Service, SA Ambulance and SA Police crews were sent to the ForestrySA site on Range Rd at Parawa, near Second Valley, just after 2.30pm.

The man died at the scene.

On Tuesday SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell said four inspectors attended the site at Parawa on Monday afternoon and a full investigation was under way.

“We attended yesterday and we’ll now start to gather further evidence, make inquiries, engage experts in order to do a comprehensive investigation,” he said.

Mr Farrell said forestry involved “high-risk activities”.

“When you’re chopping down large trees, de-limbing and logging in itself is a very high-risk sector within that industry,” he said.

“Fortunately we don’t have many (of this type of incident) – this is an unusual situation here in South Australia but we’ll investigate it nonetheless as comprehensively and as thoroughly as always.”

South Australia’s industrial relations minister Kyam Maher extended his thoughts to the family of the man.

“No one thinks when they go to work they’re not going to come home,” he said.

“One time that happens is too many.”

Mr Maher said new body-worn cameras that are being rolled out among SafeWork SA inspectors had been used in the early stages of the investigation.

ForestrySA chief executive Tim Ryan said: “Our thoughts are with the family, friends and workmates of the harvest contractor who died in a tragic workplace accident in Second Valley Forest Reserve yesterday.”

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

The incident follows an agreement by ASX-listed cement and masonry products manufacturer Adbri to spend more than $875,000 on safety improvements following a 2021 incident that left one of its workers with serious head injuries.

The incident occurred in May 2021 at the company’s Klein Point limestone mine on Yorke Peninsula, when the worker fell nearly 4 metres from a platform onto a concrete floor within the site’s crushing plant.

Under an enforceable undertaking recently approved by SafeWork SA, Adbri (previously known as Adelaide Brighton) has committed to spend at least $876,545 on safety improvements including a redesign of the crusher infrastructure at Klein Point and the acquisition of a new specialised rock breaker to assist the injured person’s return to work.

Height safety measures at Adbri’s Birkenhead and Angaston sites will also be reviewed as part of the enforceable undertaking, which followed a SafeWork SA investigation.

Originally published as Qube promises investigation into employee death at SA forestry site