Evacuation diagrams and evacuation signs

Keeping people safe at work means having a clear plan for when things go wrong. Most businesses use evacuation diagrams on the wall to show exits, assembly points, and fire extinguishers.

A lot of managers think these wall signs are directly required by WHS laws, but that is actually a myth. Under the model WHS Regulations, your actual legal duty is to create, maintain, and practice a proper emergency plan.

While the WHS text in most states does not explicitly say you must hang up an evacuation diagram, doing so is still the best way to prove you are actually communicating your emergency plan to staff and visitors. The only exception is Queensland, where the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 strictly mandates physical evacuation diagrams for most commercial buildings.

The biggest mistake companies make is treating emergency planning as a boring paperwork tick-box. Managers often think just leaving a generic safety PDF on a company server means they are compliant.

That assumption will get you into trouble. Safety regulators and fire authorities do not care about unread folders on a server. They judge your emergency plan on whether it actually works in real life, how well your team is trained, and if your evacuation routes are clearly visible during a real crisis.

Statutory requirements for a WHS-compliant emergency plan

Under Regulation 43 of the model WHS Regulations, every PCBU has a non-delegable duty to ensure an emergency plan is established for the workplace. This plan must be tailored to the specific nature of the work, the hazards on site, and the physical layout and size of the facility.

The table below outlines the mandatory elements of emergency plans within the new model WHS regulations:

Breaking down the spatial standards: AS 3745-2010

Where a business utilises physical wall signs to display its emergency plan’s evacuation procedures, it should align them with AS 3745-2010: Planning for emergencies in facilities.

The standard mandates two distinct dimensional tiers based on the complexity of your data:

Minimum elements only (A4 Minimum)

If the sign contains only the baseline required safety elements, the overall sheet size must be at least A4 210mm x 297mm, and the pictorial map of the floor area must measure no less than 200mm x 150mm.

Optional elements included (A3 Minimum)

If you choose to include optional features, such as first aid stations, hazardous chemical stores, or detailed paths of travel, the added detail requires an expansion. The overall sheet size must be at least A3 297mm x 420mm, and the pictorial floor map must be at least 300mm x 200mm.

Positioning and orientation

Even a great-looking diagram is completely useless if it confuses people during a real emergency. To actually do its job, every diagram has to be set up using a few basic human-factors rules:

• The Orientation Rule: Individual diagrams must feature the correct physical orientation relative to the reader’s view. When a person stands in front of the sign, the layout must be rotated so that “left” on the paper corresponds to the actual left side of the corridor. The assembly area diagram must follow this exact same directional orientation.
• The Height Zone: Diagrams must be positioned within a specific vertical envelope to remain clear and visible to all occupants. The bottom edge of the diagram must be mounted between 1200mm x 1600mm above the finished floor level.
• Secure Attachment: Signs must be located along each designated evacuation route and conspicuously fastened to a wall or the inside of an exit path door. Under Queensland regulations, signs must be securely mounted using screws or high-strength double-sided tape, the use of temporary adhesives like blue-tac, sticky tape, or velcro doesn’t cut it.

Download your free evacuation template

To assist small businesses and facility supervisors in drafting their own localised signage, a basic editable template is available below. Using standard processing tools, you can map your floor outlines and place the required safety icons to align with your venue’s layout.

Disclaimer: This template is provided on an as-is basis for general guidance. The author and publisher accept no liability or statutory responsibility for its deployment or subsequent regulatory verification.

Click here to download the free evacuation diagram template

Source material & reference context

• Regulatory Standard: Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (Qld), Part 4 (Workplace Fire Safety and Evacuation Plans), Model Work Health and Safety Regulation 43.
• National Benchmark: AS 3745-2010: Planning for emergencies in facilities, Section 3.5 (Evacuation Diagrams).
• Statutory Intersect: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth), Section 19 (Primary duty to provide and maintain safe systems of work and environment).