Farm Safety – Kidsafe competition

The 2022 Farm Safety Creative Competition is open for early learners and primary school aged children, with prizes for winning entries, plus there is a $500 voucher for the three schools with the highest number of entries.

This year’s theme is ‘Farm Safety Heroes’, which centres around how we can all play a part in making the farm a safe experience for everyone, whether we live, work on, or are visiting a farm.

The winning entries form the basis of a farm safety education campaign targeting Victorian parents and carers with important information on farm safety, which will run in early 2023.

Farms are exciting places for children to live, grow, explore and visit. However, they can also provide unique environments and injury hazards. Farms typically combine the family home and an industrial workplace, which means children are exposed to a wide range of hazards that aren’t present in urban home environments.

Common injury hazards for children on farms include machinery, vehicles (e.g. tractors, motorbikes and quad bikes), animals, water hazards (e.g. dams, rivers, creeks and animal drinking troughs) and poisons (e.g. pesticides).

Children in inner and outer regional areas of Victoria experience higher rates of death, hospital admission and emergency department presentation due to unintentional injuries compared to children in major cities in Victoria.

Safe Play Areas

A fenced area away from water, machinery and other hazards is a great way to provide children with a safe place to play on a farm.

A safe play area should:
•  Be close to the home and clearly visible
•  Be securely fenced
•  Have adequate shade as well as a range of fun and interesting things for children to do

Entries for the Farm Safety competition close Friday 4 November 2022.