Australian adventure activity standards

Australian Adventure Activity Standards (AAAS) are voluntary guidelines for organisations conducting outdoor recreation activities for dependant groups (where participants have a level of dependence upon the leader(s)).

 

AAAS promote:

• Safety for both participants and providers,

• Protection for providers against legal liability claims and criminal penalties,

• Assistance in obtaining insurance cover.

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The introduction of the Australian Adventure Activity Standards project was announced in September 2015. Where each state and territory has previously maintained its own set of standards, the industry and government bodies responsible for AAAS development decided to develop a single set of Australian Adventure Activity Standards. This was due to the unnecessary duplication, lack of coordination among jurisdictions, and less sharing of expertise and experiences about how to best manage safety and risk outdoors. The Outdoor Council of Australia is a member of the AAAS Steering Committee.

Like the current AAAS in each jurisdiction, the AAAS will NOT be legally binding. The AAAS is there to provide a best practice framework, to help guide safe and responsible decision-making for outdoor adventure activities with dependent participants.

Even though the AAAS is not legally binding by law, compliance is often required by public and private land managers, regulatory agencies, insurers and others as a contractual or management condition. However, compliance with the AAAS may assist in demonstrating that an operator has fulfilled their duty of care to activity participants.

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The current AAAS are NOT statutory standards by law. Legal liability for injuries or property damage is primarily governed by the law of Contract and Negligence which are described within each AAAS introduction.

The AAAS have been established as minimum standards. The concept required appropriate consultation with commercial, education, not-for-profit and community based organisations so a single and consistent set of guidelines could be established and agreed by the contributors, provide clarity to the sector and to the external stakeholder of safe and sustainable practices in the outdoors.

AAAS enable those who lead and those who participate in group based activities to have an opportunity to be appropriately informed of the responsibilities, duty of care and legal expectations they can expect. That in conducting such activities, organisations and leaders know what is expected of them and as such, help to ensure that the appropriate duty of care for self, others and the environment is provided.

The current activity standards were designed to be adaptable, so that they can be developed further as requirements change. Due to the differing regulations, compliance, health & safety expectations and operating environments throughout Australia each state created their own set of AAAS, and while they are very similar in many ways they can vary significantly in specific areas.

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