Workplace safety signage in the standard classes, colours and shapes, on Corflute, aluminium composite, metal or reflective material. Printed and cut in Ravenhall, as one-offs or full site sets, with custom wording where needed.
Safety signage in Australia follows AS 1319-1994, the standard covering signs used in the workplace environment. It sets out seven classes, each with its own colour, shape and purpose, so a worker recognises the kind of message before reading a word. A red circle with a slash means stop. A blue disc means you must. A yellow triangle means take care.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
A note on names first: OHS signs, WHS signs, workplace safety signs and site safety signs are all the same printed product. Victoria kept the OHS name when the other states moved to WHS, so both terms float around Melbourne worksites — what matters is the AS 1319 class and colour, not what the sign is called on the purchase order.
The legal position is worth being clear about. AS 1319 is a voluntary standard on its own, and becomes mandatory only where a regulation, code of practice, contract or site induction calls it up. On construction and industrial sites that happens often enough that most workplaces treat it as the default. Deciding which signs a site needs sits with the duty holder.
Our part is making them. Everything comes off the machine at Orbis Drive in Ravenhall, cut to size, corners rounded and holes drilled where you want them, with no minimum order. A single replacement sign for a switchboard is a fine order, and so is a hundred-piece set for a new site. Custom wording gets set in the correct format.
Colour and shape carry the meaning before the text does. These are the classes in AS 1319, the format each uses, and the message that belongs in it.
| Sign class | Colour and shape | What it tells you | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prohibition | Red circle and slash, black symbol on white | This behaviour is not permitted | No smoking, no entry |
| Mandatory | Solid blue disc, white symbol | This action must be taken | Hearing protection must be worn |
| Warning | Yellow triangle, black border and symbol | A hazard, not immediately life threatening | Forklifts operating |
| Danger | DANGER white on a red oval, black rectangle | A hazard that can kill or maim | Danger, high voltage |
| Emergency information | Green rectangle, white symbol or text | Where equipment or an exit is | First aid, exit |
| Fire | Red rectangle, white symbol or text | Location of firefighting equipment | Extinguisher, hose reel |
| Restriction | Red circle, no slash, black text | A numerical or physical limit applies | Speed limit 10 |
Pick the size from the distance the sign works at, not from a catalogue. Work out how far back the furthest reader stands, apply the guidance below, then round up.
Two things separate a sign that works from one that gets ignored: whether it survives where it is mounted, and whether it reads from where people stand.
The site option. Cheap, light, weatherproof and easy to cable-tie to temporary fencing. Ideal for the life of a construction project, less so as a permanent fixture, since sun eventually makes the flutes brittle. Buy it expecting to replace it.
Aluminium composite is the sensible default for a permanent outdoor sign. It stays flat, takes screws through drilled holes, will not rust and holds colour for years. Most factory, warehouse and yard signage should be on this.
Solid aluminium is heavier and takes a knock from machinery without folding, which suits post-mounted and gate signs. Retroreflective sheeting bounces headlights back at the driver, earning its cost wherever vehicles move after dark.
For labelling machinery, drums, cabinets and painted steel where a rigid panel cannot be fixed. Printed, cut to shape and laminated for wash-down areas. It needs a smooth clean surface, and will not hold on rough concrete.
AS 1319 recommends a minimum symbol height around 15 mm for each metre of viewing distance, uppercase text about 5 mm per metre and lower case about 4 mm. Increase all of those by roughly half again where lighting is poor.
One larger panel carrying several signs, typically at a site entry: mandatory PPE, prohibitions, site contact and an emergency number. One panel and one set of fixings instead of eight, reading as a single instruction.
Site sets are the volume order in this category. Mandatory PPE at the gate, prohibition signs along the hoarding, warning signs where plant operates, and an emergency information board with contacts on it. Corflute on temporary fencing suits the project length, and site managers usually order spares from the start, because signs get damaged, painted over or simply walked off.
Forklift traffic, racking, loading docks and pedestrian routes all need marking. Warning and mandatory signs go on ACM where they stay put for years, and reflective panels appear at dock entries where trucks reverse in before dawn. Wall signs get sized for the length of the aisle people read them down, not for the wall they sit on.
Machine guarding, lockout points, chemical stores and hearing protection zones drive the sign list on these sites. Signs tend to be small, mounted close to the hazard, and they have to survive oil, dust and regular wash-down. Vinyl labels cover the machine-mounted messages where there is no flat surface to take a rigid panel.
Kitchens, cool rooms, plant rooms and back-of-house corridors all carry safety signage, alongside exit and fire equipment signs out in the public areas. The list is shorter than on an industrial site but the same colour language applies, and small ACM panels or vinyl labels cover almost all of it without any custom fabrication.
Most safety signs use established symbols and formats, so there is often no artwork to supply. Tell us the message and the class, and we set it correctly.
Deciding which signs a workplace needs is a job for whoever holds the safety obligation on that site, and we do not make that call. Once the list exists, we set and proof every sign.
Site sets tend to be needed before a start date rather than at a comfortable pace, and printing here means the queue is ours to manage. Send the list and the date, and we will say plainly whether it works. Collect from Ravenhall in business hours, delivery Victoria-wide, freight interstate.
Not by itself. AS 1319-1994 is a voluntary Australian Standard, carrying no legal force until something else calls it up: a regulation, a code of practice, a head contractor requirement or a contract term.
On construction and industrial sites that happens often enough that treating it as the baseline is sensible. Check your own obligations with your safety adviser.
Size it from the distance people read it. AS 1319 gives guidance rather than fixed rules: a symbol roughly 15 mm high per metre of viewing distance, uppercase text around 5 mm per metre, lower case around 4 mm.
Treat those as recommended minimums. A sign read from ten metres wants a symbol near 150 mm. Where lighting is poor, add about half again.
Severity, and the format follows it. A warning sign is a yellow triangle with a black border, flagging a hazard that could injure but is unlikely to be fatal.
A danger sign carries DANGER in white on a red oval inside a black rectangle. It is for hazards that can kill, and using it for a minor one weakens every other sign.
Yes, and it is common. Plenty of real hazards have no catalogue sign, so the message gets written for the site while colour, shape and border stay correct for its class.
Matching format to meaning matters. A rule about not entering an area is a prohibition, in a red circle with a slash. A requirement to sign in is mandatory, on a blue disc.
Start with permanence. If the sign is up for the length of a project and then thrown away, 5 mm Corflute is the economical answer and cable-ties onto temporary fencing.
For anything meant to stay, 3 mm ACM is the workhorse: flat, weatherproof and holding colour for years. Aluminium suits spots where plant could knock it. Reflective is for signs read under headlights.
Not as a general rule. Most workplace signage is read in daylight or under building lighting, and plain print is fine. Reflective sheeting earns its cost in specific places.
Vehicle areas are the obvious case: yard entries, internal roads and docks where trucks move before dawn or after dark. Where a regulation or client specification requires reflective material, it will say so.
Still deciding? See our sign and banner sizes guide, which includes the viewing-distance chart.
Printed hoarding graphics in vinyl, ACM and corflute panels or banner mesh, installed by our own crews.
See the detail →Aluminium composite panel, the standard base for permanent outdoor safety signage. Flat, weatherproof and easy to drill for whatever fixings you use.
See the detail →The economical site option. Light fluted sheet that cable-ties to temporary fencing and lasts the length of a construction project.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send your list of messages and where they are mounting. We will quote materials and sizes back inside two business hours.