A crane that lifts tonnes over the heads of your workers is only as safe as its last inspection. Wear that no one can see, a fatigued weld, a worn brake or a frayed rope, is what turns a routine lift into a dropped load. Regular inspection is how that wear is found before it fails. In Australia it is also a legal duty, not a matter of choice.

This guide explains why inspections matter, what the law requires in 2026, the layers of inspection a crane needs, and what happens when they are skipped.

The real reason inspections matter

Cranes do not usually fail all at once. They fail gradually, then suddenly. A hoist brake wears a little with every lift. A rope loses a few wires. A weld carries a hairline crack that grows under load. None of this is visible during normal use. The crane keeps lifting and looks fine, right up until the moment it does not.

An inspection catches the wear while it is still small. A worn brake is adjusted or replaced. A rope near its discard limit is changed. A cracked weld is found and repaired. Each of these is a cheap fix on a schedule and a catastrophe if left. That is the whole point of inspection: to move the fix from after the failure to before it.

What the law requires in Australia

Crane inspection in Australia is governed by three things working together:

• The Work Health and Safety Act, which places a duty on the person conducting the business to ensure plant is safe.

• The WHS Regulations, which require plant to be inspected, maintained and repaired so it stays safe.

• The Australian Standards, mainly the AS 2550 series for safe use and the AS 1418 series for design.

The AS 2550 series is the practical starting point that Safe Work Australia points to for meeting these duties. In December 2025, AS 2550.3:2025 was published, covering the safe use of bridge, gantry, portal, jib cranes and monorail beams. Following these standards is how a business shows it has met its legal duty. Ignoring them is how it fails to.

The layers of crane inspection

A crane does not get one inspection. It gets a layered regime, where each layer catches different things. Under AS 2550, the layers are:

Inspection	How often	Who	What it catches
Pre-start check	Every shift, before use	The operator	Obvious faults: brakes, limit switches, hooks, ropes, controls
Routine inspection and service	Every 4 to 12 weeks by duty class	A competent technician	Wear needing adjustment, lubrication, minor repair
Periodic inspection	Every 1 to 4 years by duty class	An independent competent person	Developing faults across the whole crane, with a report
Major inspection	Around 10 years mechanical, 25 years structural	An engineer or accredited inspector	Fatigue, cracking and end-of-design-life issues

The intervals tighten as the crane works harder. A lightly used crane may need routine service every 12 weeks and a periodic inspection every four years. A crane in heavy continuous duty needs routine service as often as every four weeks and a periodic inspection every two years. The busier the crane, the faster it wears, and the more often it must be checked.

The major inspection: the one owners forget

The layer that catches businesses out is the major inspection. Every crane has a design working period, the working life it was engineered for. When a crane reaches the end of that period, or where the design life is unknown, after about 10 years for mechanical components and 25 years for the structure, it needs a major inspection before it can keep working.

A major inspection is not a routine service. It is a deep assessment: non-destructive testing of welds, wear measurement of every load-bearing part, electrical testing, and a calculation of how much design life is left. It often means partly stripping the crane to inspect what routine checks cannot reach. An old crane that has passed every annual inspection can still be due, and unsafe to run without, a major inspection.

A real problem, and what inspection prevented it

A workshop runs a 20 year old overhead crane that has never missed an annual inspection and works fine. During a periodic inspection, the competent person measures the hoist brake and finds it near its wear limit, and notes hairline cracking at a weld on the end carriage that a visual check would miss.

Neither fault had shown up in daily use. The crane lifted and lowered normally. But the brake was months from slipping under load, and the weld was carrying a crack that fatigue would have grown. Both were repaired in a planned shutdown over two days. Left unfound, either could have dropped a load. The inspection cost a fraction of that outcome, and the crane went back to work certified and safe.

This is what regular inspection buys: problems found on a schedule, fixed in planned downtime, instead of a failure during a lift.

What happens if you skip inspections

Skipping crane inspections carries three costs, and they compound:

• The safety cost. Undetected wear leads to dropped loads, crushing and structural failure. People are hurt or killed.

• The legal cost. Operating an uninspected crane breaches WHS duties. Regulators can issue improvement and prohibition notices, and prosecute, whether or not an incident has occurred.

• The financial cost. An unplanned failure stops production, damages product, and costs far more to repair in a crisis than on a schedule. Insurers may also decline a claim where inspection records are missing.

A missing inspection record is often the first thing a regulator or insurer asks for after an incident. Being unable to produce one turns an accident into a liability.

What a good inspection regime looks like

• Operators run and record a pre-start check every shift.

• Routine servicing happens at the interval set by the crane duty class, not when someone remembers.

• An independent competent person carries out periodic inspections and issues a written report.

• The major inspection is planned for before the crane reaches its design working period, not after a fault appears.

• Every inspection is documented and the records are kept for the life of the crane.

The documentation is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the evidence that the duty of care was met, and the history that lets the next inspector judge how the crane is ageing.

Frequently asked questions

1. How often does a crane need to be inspected in Australia?

A crane needs a pre-start check every shift, routine servicing every 4 to 12 weeks depending on how hard it works, a periodic inspection every 1 to 4 years by an independent competent person, and a major inspection at around 10 years for mechanical components and 25 years for the structure.

2. Who can inspect a crane?

Pre-start checks are done by the operator. Routine servicing is done by a competent technician. Periodic inspections must be done by an independent competent person. Major inspections are carried out by an engineer or accredited inspector. A competent person is someone with the training, knowledge and experience to do the inspection properly.

3. What is a major crane inspection?

A major inspection is a deep structural and mechanical assessment carried out when a crane reaches the end of its design working period, generally about 10 years for mechanical components and 25 years for the structure. It includes non-destructive testing, wear measurement and a residual-life calculation, and often requires partly dismantling the crane.

4. Is crane inspection a legal requirement?

Yes. Under the Work Health and Safety Act and Regulations, the crane owner or controller has a duty to keep the crane safe, which requires inspection and maintenance. The AS 2550 series sets out how to meet that duty. Skipping inspections is a breach that regulators can act on.

5. Keep your crane compliant and safe

HES Cranes carries out crane servicing, periodic inspections and rigging gear inspections across Victoria and Queensland, in line with the AS 2550 series and current WHS requirements. Our team sets an inspection schedule to your crane duty and keeps the records that prove compliance. Call 1800437272or request a quote online.