If a piece of debris fell from a construction site and injured you while you were just walking past, can you claim — even though you don’t work there? In Queensland you often can, against the people responsible for the site. And if you were on the job when you were hurt, a different pathway applies. This article explains both, and the deadlines that matter.
Injured at a construction site in Queensland
Worker (WorkCover): lodge the statutory claim within six months of the entitlement arising.
Everyone (court): court proceedings generally must start within three years of the injury.
Visitor / public liability (pre-court notice): a Notice of Claim is generally due within nine months of the incident, or one month after you first instruct a lawyer — whichever is earlier.
1. Worker or visitor: which claim applies
Whether you can make a construction site injury claim — and which pathway you use — depends on why you were at the site when you were hurt. A person injured while working on site generally claims through WorkCover; a visitor, delivery driver, or member of the public passing by generally has a public liability claim against the parties responsible for the site. The two systems have different rules, different respondents, and different deadlines, so the first thing to pin down is your status at the time. If you were there as a member of the public rather than a worker, it’s worth understanding what public liability claims involve in Queensland.
2. If you were a worker: WorkCover and common-law claims
If you were working when you were injured, a construction site injury claim usually starts as a WorkCover statutory claim, which covers things like medical expenses and lost wages regardless of who was at fault. Time matters here: under the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), a worker must lodge a WorkCover application within six months of the entitlement to compensation arising — though there are limited exceptions where a late application can still be accepted.
Construction work often involves more than one business — a principal contractor, subcontractors, and labour-hire firms — so who employed you, and who else may be responsible, can be more involved than on a typical worksite. Beyond the statutory claim, a worker whose injury resulted from someone’s negligence may also be able to pursue a common-law claim for damages. You can read more about how WorkCover claims work for injured workers.
3. If you were a visitor or passer-by: public liability
If you weren’t working on the site — a passer-by, a visitor, or someone on neighbouring land — a construction site injury claim is generally a public liability claim against the people responsible for the site. To succeed, an injured person generally needs to show three things: duty, breach, and causation. Under the Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld), whether the site occupier breached its duty is judged by what a reasonable operator in its position would have done.
- Duty of care. Whoever controls the site owes a responsibility to avoid foreseeable harm — not only to workers, but to visitors and people nearby.
- Breach of duty. That responsibility wasn’t met — for example, an unfenced site, missing warning signage, unsecured loads, or debris allowed to fall outside an exclusion zone.
- Causation. The breach actually caused the injury. Medical records linking the injury to the incident are typically what’s used to establish this.
Imagine a person walking past a construction site on their usual commute when debris falls from an upper level and injures them. A public liability claim would look at whether the site was properly secured — fencing, hoarding, signage, exclusion zones — and whether falling short of that caused the injury. Each situation turns on its own facts.
4. Making a construction site injury claim: process and time limits
Making a construction site injury claim in Queensland follows a set process, and strict time limits apply from early on — with the catch that the worker and visitor pathways run on different clocks.
Gathering evidence early makes a real difference, because conditions on a construction site change quickly. Useful evidence includes:
- Any incident report (ask for a copy, or that one be made)
- Photos of the hazard and the scene before anything is moved or cleared
- Names and contact details of any witnesses
- Medical records linking your injury to the incident
- A record of expenses and of how the injury has affected your work and daily life
Not sure where to start? See a doctor and report the incident in writing — those two steps are almost always needed and easy to do first.
For the public liability pathway, there’s a pre-court process before any trial. Under the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld) (PIPA), you must give a written Notice of Claim — generally within nine months of the incident, or within one month of first instructing a lawyer, whichever is earlier. The parties then exchange information and attend a compulsory conference aimed at resolving the claim without a trial. Separately, court proceedings generally must be started within three years of the injury under the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld); once that period passes, a claim can become statute-barred.
Ascent Lawyers practises in both WorkCover and public liability matters in Queensland — the two pathways an injured person at a construction site might use — and assists clients in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. The firm operates on a No Win No Fee basis. Specific cost arrangements are explained at initial consultation.
5. Before you decide what to do next
If you were injured at a construction site, the practical first steps are the same whatever you decide: get medical advice, report the incident in writing, and note down what happened while it’s fresh. Whether a construction site injury claim runs through WorkCover or public liability comes back to your status at the time, whether someone failed to take reasonable care, and acting within the time limits — which can be shorter than people expect, especially the six-month WorkCover window. For more general questions about how personal injury claims work in Queensland, see Ascent’s FAQ.
Yes — if you were a visitor or a passer-by, a construction site injury claim is generally a public liability claim against the parties responsible for the site, not a WorkCover claim. It turns on whether the site was kept reasonably safe and whether falling short of that caused your injury.
Example: someone struck by a falling object while walking past a poorly secured site.
It depends on your work arrangement. Construction sites often involve a principal contractor, subcontractors, and labour-hire firms, and who employed you affects which insurer your WorkCover claim goes to and who else may be responsible. It’s worth confirming your status early.
It depends on the pathway. A worker generally must lodge a WorkCover claim within six months of the injury. For court proceedings the general limit is three years, but the public liability pre-court notice can fall much sooner — often nine months from the incident, or one month after first instructing a lawyer.
Example: a passer-by watches the PIPA notice deadline, while an injured worker also has the six-month WorkCover window to keep in mind.
It isn’t necessarily the end of the road. WorkCover can accept a late application in limited circumstances — for example, where a medical assessment tribunal is satisfied that special circumstances of a medical nature explain the delay. Lodging as soon as possible still matters.
Usually not. Most public liability claims resolve through the PIPA pre-court process — exchanging information and a compulsory conference — before a trial is needed, and WorkCover statutory claims are handled by the insurer rather than a court.
Example: many claims settle at the compulsory conference stage.
