The Wattle Bend Works cast line-up: six workers in their hat colours and a kookaburra in a tiny hard hat

Ten minutes, one page, one picture your crew will argue over. One site, one apprentice, 85 talks.

A series of 85 one-page toolbox talks grouped into twelve chapters, A to L, from starting on site to culture and leadership, set at Wattle Bend Works, a fictional regional packaging site. Each page is a ten-minute pre-shift talk in plain language. Written for supervisors and leading hands running crew talks, and for the crew who listen and join in.

Get the full series  ·  Download a free talk  ·  Browse every pack

How a talk runs

  1. Read the hook aloud, then give the crew a minute with the picture.
  2. Ask them to spot the hazards and find Kev before you go on.
  3. Share Did you know, then walk the Key points one at a time.
  4. Ask one Talk about it question; let the crew answer, not you.
  5. Agree the Do today actions, then record the talk your usual way.

Three things that make it land: stand where the crew sees the picture, not your clipboard; tie the picture to your site, which door, which forklift, which bay; and ask the newest person first, because nobody else will ask their question.

The story

Talk 001 opens at the boom gate on Jarrah's first morning. By 085, Stop Work Authority, he is calling stop while the crew circles him and Kev lands on his hat. Between them the chapters walk every zone of the site. Every page ends with a Next line, and whatever leaves one scene, a truck, a snake, opens the next.

Meet the crew

Same faces recur across all 85 pages, so your crew learns them by hat colour.

  • Nala Okafor, site supervisor and HSE lead. White hard hat, yellow clipboard. “Good catch. Let's get it on the clipboard.”
  • Davo Petrakis, maintenance fitter and electrician. Blue hard hat, red padlock. “Stopped isn't isolated, mate. Lock it, test it, then touch it.”
  • Mei Tran, forklift and warehouse lead. Yellow hard hat. “Eyes first, thumb up, then we move. Not before.”
  • Jarrah Williams, first-year apprentice and the through-line of the series. Green hard hat. “Hang on, can I just check something first?”
  • Priya Raman, first-aid officer and chief warden. Red hard hat. “Keep them still, I've got the kit. Who's calling 000?”
  • Bruce McAllister, contract truck driver on the regular dock run. Lime-green vest. “Strap it like you're driving behind it.”
  • Kev the Kookaburra, hidden in every single picture. Tiny yellow hard hat. “Found me? Good. Now go find the hazard.”

The twelve chapters

What is in a pack

  • Each talk as a print-ready PDF, one A4 page, ready to print or put on a screen
  • The series guide, How to run a talk, with the story and the cast
  • A document transmittal listing every file, its revision and its checksum
  • Choose Talks + Narrated Audio on any pack to add an MP3 of every talk in it

Packs are supplied as PDF for printing and display. Editable source files are not supplied.

Verified to Australian law

Verified against the model WHS Act and Regulations (compilation 5 December 2025), current Safe Work Australia Codes of Practice and current Australian Standards, as at 06/10/2026. Written Workplace Exposure Limits are used first, for use after 1 December 2026. Victoria has its own OHS Act; check your own jurisdiction.

Every citation sits in the Legislative and Reference Register with its edition, status, check date and the pages using it, reviewed every twelve months. When an Act, Regulation, Code or Standard changes, those pages are reissued at a new revision, and every download carries the transmittal that tells you which revision you hold.

Questions

Can I edit the talks? No. Packs are supplied as print-ready PDF so the document control holds. Tie the page to your site verbally when you run it: which door, which forklift, which bay.

Do I get updates? Pages are reissued at a new revision when the law behind them changes. Contact us with your order number for the current revision.

What about state differences? The talks are written to the model WHS laws. Victoria has its own OHS Act, and some duties differ in Western Australia. Check your own jurisdiction before you rely on a page.

Who are these for? Supervisors and leading hands running a pre-shift talk, and the crew who listen and join in. No safety qualification needed to run one.

How is the audio made? Narrated with an AI voice. Every script was written and checked by a WHS consultant.

What is the licence? Internal use within one organisation, including all of its sites. No resale, redistribution outside your organisation, or uploading to template sites.

Start with one

Talk 001, New Starters and Apprentices, is free. Take it to your next pre-shift and see whether the crew argues over the picture. That argument is the point.

Download the free talk  ·  Get all 85

Illustrations created with AI (Google Nano Banana Pro) to our art direction. Every talk was written and checked by a WHS consultant.