Woodward Food Australia has been fined over the incident. Photo: Woodward Foods Australia/Facebook.
A company has been hit with a $375,000 fine after a casual worker working inside a southern Riverina mill suffered “catastrophic injuries”, leading to an amputation.
Woodward Foods Australia Pty Ltd operates a meat wholesale enterprise across multiple states, including NSW.
At the time, the company operated a cattle feedlot facility in southern NSW, at Murray Downs. The mill has since been decommissioned.
In a recently published decision from the NSW Industrial Court, the company was fined over an incident that left a casual labour hire worker with serious injuries.
On 21 January 2023, the worker began his shift at about 4 am.
Justice Jane Paingakulam said the worker turned the mill’s power off using a nearby control panel, after crushing grain to use as cattle feed.
About 10 minutes later, he opened an inspection hatch on the mill and saw debris inside the machinery, which he tried to remove.
“[The man’s] right hand was immediately pulled into the mill rollers,” she said.
“When [he] pulled his hand out, it was crushed and the top half of his fingers had been severed.”
His hand was later amputated.
In his victim impact statement, the worker outlined how he had to “learn to live again”.
The incident has left him unable to play badminton (which he had done since childhood), needing ongoing psychological support and it has affected him financially.
Justice Paingakulam said that he could no longer continue in the job. He had started there in early 2018.
“While a prosthesis provides some assistance, it cannot provide the functionality of a real arm and there are many things that [the man] can no longer do independently,” she said.
“A flow-on effect has been damage to his left arm from overuse.”
She ultimately found the incident fell in the upper mid-range of objective seriousness.
She said stronger policies around making sure the mill rolls had stopped moving should have been in effect.
“[The worker] was clearly aware of the risk because he turned off the power and waited several minutes before accessing the mill rollers. It can be inferred that that was due to [his] training and experience in the role.
“However, there was no other protective mechanism in place in the event that, as occurred here, [the worker’s] judgment call proved incorrect.”
Justice Paingakulam said that while the risk of body parts being caught in moving machinery was mentioned in the mill’s safety documents, these policies were “not effectively implemented or enforced”.
An interlock device, which would prevent access while the rollers were moving, had also been removed months before the incident.
“Further, the glass panels on the inspection hatch were covered in grain dust such that it was not possible for a worker to observe the mill rollers without opening it,” she said.
She also noted that, at the time of the offending, Woodward Foods Australia didn’t have a suitable HR manager and workplace health and safety officer.
Justice Paingakulam said that Woodward Foods Australia had no prior convictions, had shown remorse, was otherwise of good character and was unlikely to reoffend.
She said a range of safety improvements were implemented after the incident, including a new induction process, extra safety training for employees and the hiring of an HR manager.
Woodward Foods Australia pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its workplace health and safety duty, thereby exposing a person to a risk of death or serious injury.
The plea was entered in September 2025.
The company was fined $375,000, which had been reduced from $500,000 due to its plea.
Half of the fine must be paid to the prosecutor, while the company will also have to pay SafeWork’s costs.
The court also ordered the company to pay for a full-page public notice detailing the case in a local newspaper.
Justice Paingakulam said that this would remind other agricultural companies of the importance of safety.
“While many such incidents occur in a manufacturing context, the publication … will serve as a salutary reminder to other operators in the agricultural industry of the importance of guarding against this risk to employee health and safety, the manifestation of which can be utterly devastating.”
Original Article published by Claire Sams on Region Riverina.
