Providing suitable access for the range of vehicles used on or accessing a dairy farm, including milk tankers, feed and fuel trucks, tractors, forklifts, cars and all-terrain vehicles.

On dairy farms, it is necessary for pedestrians, animals and vehicles to regularly operate in close proximity.

People, including children, and cattle can be seriously injured or even killed by a vehicle if they wander into the wrong area. Buildings and other property can be damaged if vehicles do not have clear access to well-maintained roadways and room to manoeuvre.

Can children easily run into the path of vehicles? Do you and your workers have to walk through an area where trucks and tankers are loading and unloading just to do your job? Could a truck or tanker bring down overhanging power lines, bringing with it the risk of electrocution? Do milk tankers and feed trucks need to reverse to pick up and unload? Are there any blind spots where vehicles cannot see pedestrians in and around the dairy? Do vehicles observe speed limits on well-maintained roadways of a suitable width, with sound shoulders and no potholes?

Provide clear directions to visitors and contractors to ensure safe access before visiting the dairy.

Establish safe, designated walkways around the dairy and ensure that you and your employees use them. Provide clear directions and signs about the need to use them for visitors and contractors in the dairy. Install signs indicating the maximum speed limits to be observed in traffic/pedestrian zones - speed limits mean a vehicle has a better chance of stopping in time if someone wanders into their path.

Consider wearing high-visibility clothing, such as fluorescent safety vests, that will make tanker drivers and dairy workers easier to see in shared traffic areas.

Children are not good at remembering to look out for vehicles, so you have to do it for them. When there is traffic about, the safest place for them is under supervision in a fenced-off area.

A reversing driver cannot always see immediately behind them, so consider fitting reverse beepers on trucks and tractors, so that pedestrians in the area know when to keep clear.

Keep cattle off tanker tracks and remove overhanging and protruding obstacles in the tanker access area, such as branches and power lines.

Consider installing a suitable safety barrier out from the shed wall to create a walkway and pedestrian refuge.
Place bollards on blind corners to force traffic to move wider (bollards can also be used to protect structures such as silos, fuel tanks and power poles).
Locate car parks away from the main track or tanker pick-up area and divert that track away from any areas where children might play.

Avoid planting vegetation near traffic and pedestrian intersections or corners that are likely to restrict the view of the driver or pedestrians.
Shift overhead power lines underground if they are in the path of vehicles.

When building a new dairy or altering an existing one, design it so that it separates people from traffic zones. For instance, place the entry to the sheds on the side that faces away from the driveway and the tanker pick-up point.

Reduce the need for reversing by creating circular tracks for milk tanker pick-ups and grain and feed deliveries. Create a safe play area at the back of the house that is fenced off from the dairy and traffic areas to keep children out of the way of vehicles.

The road entry to your dairy should be designed according to VicRoads' guidelines.
Young children should be under direct supervision at all times.

VicRoads
  http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au

Guidelines for access to rural properties
  http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au

Subsidies for improving Dairy Farm Access
  http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au

Farmsafe Australia
Safe play areas
  http://farmsafe.org.au

Powercor
Overhead power lines - farmer responsibility
  http://www.powercor.com.au/safety/fs_safety.html