Q fever as a hazard in the workplace

admin • November 17, 2025

Q fever is a serious but preventable disease that affects people working with animals or animal products. Protecting yourself and your workplace requires awareness, vaccination, and safe practices.


What is Q Fever?

Q fever is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It primarily affects people who work with animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats, or handle animal products like hides, wool, and meat. The bacteria can survive in dust and soil for long periods, making it easy to spread in agricultural and processing environments.


Who is at Risk?

Certain industries and roles face higher exposure:

  • Farmers, shearers, and abattoir workers
  • Veterinarians and animal handlers
  • Meat and dairy processors
  • Laboratory staff working with animal samples
  • Workers at stockyards, animal transport, in shearing sheds etc
  • Any workers in animal facilities

Even visitors to farms or facilities can be at risk if proper precautions aren’t taken.



How do you get Q Fever?

Q fever can he transmitted through aerosols, dust or through contaminated animal products.

For example:

  • Through animal tissues, such as when birthing, slaughtering or butchering
  • Through faeces, urine and placentas
  • From contaminated wool, hides, animal bedding, or equipment
  • When breathing in dust infected by animals, including when mustering, transporting or shearing
  • When slashing contaminated grasses or handling contaminated soil or hay
  • By drinking unpasteurised milk which is infected
  • By touching infected tissues or fluids when you have a cut or broken skin


What are the signs of Q Fever?

Q fever causes an illness which can last for up to 6 weeks, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Common symptoms include:

  • High fever and chills
  • Severe headaches
  • Muscle pain and fatigue
  • Sweats and weight loss
  • Nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea
  • In some cases, pneumonia or hepatitis

However, some people don’t recover, and they can develop a chronic illness which can last for months or years. Chronic Q fever is rare, but when it does happen, it can lead to long-term complications such as heart valve infections and infections of the bones and joints, as well as vascular disease. Up to 15% of infected people will experience sever fatigue which can last for years and is extremely debilitating.


Preventing Q Fever

Prevention is the best protection. Key strategies include:

  • Vaccination: The Q fever vaccine is highly effective but requires pre-screening to avoid adverse reactions. Pre-screening will identify those who have been previously exposed or have been previously vaccinated for Q fever.
  • Safe Work Practices:

Minimise dust in animal handling areas.

Use protective clothing and masks (PPE).

Practice good hygiene, including handwashing after contact with animals.

  • Education and Awareness: Employers should train workers on risks and prevention measures.
  • Health Monitoring: Encourage workers to report symptoms early for timely medical intervention.

 

Employer Responsibilities

Employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace. If there may be a risk of exposure to Q Fever in their workplace, this includes:

  • Offering vaccination programs
  • Implementing dust control measures
  • Providing personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • Ensuring staff are informed about Q fever risks and prevention
  • Identification of high-risk areas of the workplace
  • Having a workplace Q fever policy

As with all workplace hazards, the employer has a duty to provide a safe workplace and to control risks to health as far as reasonably practicable. They also have a duty to consult with their employees and their health and safety representatives (HSRs). This includes during the hazard identification process, which making decisions on how to control risks, and when monitoring how the control measures are working.


Building a Safer Future

Q fever is preventable, but only if workplaces and individuals take proactive steps. Vaccination, hygiene, and awareness are the cornerstones of prevention. For those working with animals or animal products, staying informed and protected is not just about personal health—it’s about safeguarding the entire community.


Q fever is a workplace hazard that demands attention. With vaccination and safe practices, we can protect workers, families, and communities from this hidden threat.


More information on Q fever can be found at Q fever | Better Health Channel or at Preventing Q fever | WorkSafe Victoria

Coronial Findings on workplace deaths – an opportunity to learn

By admin • February 16, 2026
Coroners Court findings are an opportunity to learn – especially when it comes to a workplace death. The role of the Coroners Court is to: “investigate reportable deaths, reduce preventable deaths promote public health and safety and the administration of justice” About us | Coroners Court of Victoria The Coroners’ Court deals with certain reportable deaths and this includes “When someone dies from an accident or injury, even if there is a prolonged interval between the incident and death.” – including workplace deaths. These deaths must be reported to the coroner for investigation. All of these reportable deaths are allocated to a Coroner who then investigates the death and then will consider whether anything could be done differently to help prevent similar deaths in the future. Inquests are not held for every death, in fact less than 5% of deaths will be the subject of an inquest. The rest of the cases will have findings made ‘in chambers’. The Coroner may or may not make ‘recommendations’ to prevent future similar deaths. The Coroner may or may not then order for the findings to be published. Those cases which are published can be found at: Findings | Coroners Court of Victoria The findings into any death are always sobering reading. But in the case of work-related deaths there is almost always a preventative opportunity – even when no specific recommendations are made. For this reason, it is important that these findings are made publicly available for those who wish to review them and learn (– assuming that the worker’s family has approved the publication of the report). The Coroners Court says that they aim to ‘identify how similar deaths may be prevented’. If that is to truly be the case, then they need to be published and we must seek to read them and learn from these tragic deaths. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all would be if we do not learn from these horrific deaths in the workplace? We pay our respects to those who have lost their lives at work and acknowledge the pain and suffering of those left behind. Everyone has the right to come home from work alive and well at the end of the day.

The Hazelwood Mine Fire

By admin • February 2, 2026
The 9 th February 2014 was the day that The Hazelwood mine caught fire. It was during a period of extreme fire danger that a bushfire started nearby and sent embers into the open cut coal mine. The fire burnt out of control for 45 days and it took another 72 days for the fire to be put out. The impact on the community and on the workers who helped to fight the fire was horrific. The fire was a large scale environmental and health disaster, with ongoing ramifications for those in the vicinity. It would later become the subject of an inquiry, multiple prosecutions and has been the subject of two books by Tom Doig which make very interesting reading. From an OHS perspective, this event makes an interesting case study. The fire was preventable, and the safety failures resulted in workers being exposed to hazardous conditions, with long term effects. Firefighters and mine personnel faced extreme occupational hazards while responding to the event. These included toxic smoke inhalation, fatigue from prolonged shifts, extreme heat exposure and direct contact with burning coal and ash. Also impacted were volunteers and emergency personnel, as well as members of the public. Inadequate PPE, lack of training and inadequate water infrastructure all added to the hazardous conditions. The physical and psychological impacts continue to this day. It was found that there had been systemic failures in Occupational Health and Safety at the site. The mine operator (Hazelwood Power company, co-owned by Engie and Mitsui & Co) was found to have failed to: Adequately assess the risk of fire in the mine, as a result of external sources such as bushfires Adequately maintain vegetation buffers Have sufficient firefighting water infrastructure Have sufficient and adequately skilled staff on site to respond to fire Have an updated fire mitigation plan and to activate it during periods of extreme fire danger In the words of Colin Radford, WorkSafe CEO: "This was an entirely foreseeable event that has led to significant adverse health impacts” The adverse health impacts were felt by workers and by the broader community. The massive smoke plumes which blanketed Morwell and the Latrobe valley for a prolonged period resulted in many suffering acute and chronic health effects. The Hazelwood mine fire exposed issues with crisis management, safety and health governance and emergency response. The operator of the mine, Hazlewood Power Corporation Pty Ltd was eventually prosecuted by WorkSafe and found guilty and fined. The penalty was $1.56 million for breaching sections 21 and 23 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Hazelwood Pacific Pty Ltd, Australian Power Partners B.V, Hazelwood Churchill Pty Ltd and National Power Australia were found guilty of breaching the Environment Protection Act. They each were fined $95,000 for offences relating to pollution, totalling $380,000. There continues to be ongoing environmental concerns regarding the remaining mine pit. The owner of the mine, French owned company Engie, is required to rehabilitate the site of the now closed open-cut pit. The process for determining the appropriate 'rehabilitation' is still ongoing, with concerns regarding the use of the Latrobe River water for this purpose, the instability of the pit and potential toxicity of the water. The hazards associated with this mine continue to cause concern. For those interested in finding out more about the Hazelwood Mine disaster, Tom Doig’s books are highly recommended reading: Hazelwood by Tom Doig - Penguin Books Australia The Coal Face: Penguin Special by Tom Doig - Penguin Books Australia For more information relating to the ongoing Hazelwood concerns, take a look at: Hazelwood Mine Rehabilitation – Update 2025 Hazelwood Rehabilitation Project