Evacuation diagrams: what they must show, where they go, and how to keep them right

01

What an evacuation diagram is, and where the duty comes from

An evacuation diagram is a simplified floor plan, displayed in the building, that shows a person where they are standing, the way to the nearest exit, the fire safety equipment around them and the assembly area outside. The Tasmania Fire Service defines it as "a visual representation displayed within the building that shows the layout, exits, assembly areas, and equipment relevant to emergency fire evacuation". It is the part of the emergency plan that every occupant and visitor can see.

Three layers of rules apply, and which ones bite depends on the state.

• Work health and safety law. Under the model WHS Regulations a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must prepare an emergency plan for the workplace. In Queensland's Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011, section 43, the plan must provide for emergency procedures, including "evacuation procedures", for testing of those procedures "including the frequency of testing", and for information, training and instruction to relevant workers. The PCBU must also maintain the plan "so that it remains effective". The Commonwealth's Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 carry the same duty at regulation 43. The regulation does not mention diagrams, but a diagram is how a plan's evacuation procedures usually reach the people who will follow them. Victoria is the exception to the model laws: its workplaces are covered by the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) and its own regulations, so a Victorian site should check its obligations against those rather than the model WHS text.
• State fire safety law. Some states name the diagram in legislation. Queensland's Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 defines an evacuation diagram (section 18), requires it to form part of the building's fire and evacuation plan (section 21) and requires the occupier to display diagrams in a set way (section 30). Those duties do not apply to budget accommodation that needs a fire safety management plan, or to a building used for a residential service (section 20). In Tasmania, the Tasmania Fire Service's Fire Evacuation Plan Guidelines (version 2.0, March 2026), made under regulation 21 of the General Fire Regulations 2021, set out what a specified building's diagrams must contain and how often they are reviewed.
• The Australian Standard. AS 3745-2010 Planning for emergencies in facilities is the standard most diagrams are drawn to. Standards Australia's store lists it with two amendments, Amendment 1 of 2014 and Amendment 2 of 2018, and shows the standard as pending revision. The Tasmanian guideline points to section 3.5 of AS 3745 for evacuation diagrams, and to AS 4083 Planning for emergencies – health care facilities where that applies. It is a paid document; work from the current edition, not a summary.

02

What an evacuation diagram must show

Queensland's regulation is the clearest public statement of the content, because it is written into law. Under section 18 of the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 an evacuation diagram for a building is a diagram "in an understandable form" showing what the regulation calls the fire safety reference points:

1. the place in the building where the diagram is displayed (the regulation's example is an arrow pointing to a red spot, with the words "You are here" in bold text near the arrow);
2. the route from that place to the nearest exit of the building;
3. each exit of the building;
4. any intercommunication devices in the common areas;
5. the manually operated fire alarms;
6. the firefighting equipment;
7. each designated assembly area; and
8. the route from each exit shown to a designated assembly area.

The regulation allows the first six points and the last two to be shown on separate diagrams, which is how many buildings with a remote assembly area handle it: a floor plan inside, and a site plan showing the walk to the assembly point. A diagram for a part of a building, such as one tenancy on a shared floor, shows the exits, alarms and equipment reasonably accessible from that part. "Understandable form" means easily understood by the person likely to be reading it during a fire or hazardous materials emergency, and the regulation gives two examples of what is relevant: whether the diagram is in a reasonable scale, and whether it has a legend clearly showing the different parts of the building.

The Tasmanian guideline says each diagram must include the elements identified in AS 3745, section 3.5.5, and where appropriate section 3.5.6, drawn to scale where practical with standardised symbols consistent with AS 3745, and carrying only the information AS 3745 identifies. It adds two things worth copying anywhere:

• A date and a name. All diagrams must display a date of validity and the name of the person or company responsible for preparing them.
• Fire compartments must be clearly identified on the evacuation diagrams included in the fire evacuation plan, showing the lowest relevant fire-resistance rating, for example 120/120/120.

03

Where diagrams go, and which way they face

A correct diagram in the wrong place, or hung the wrong way round, can send someone towards the fire. Queensland's section 30 requires the occupier to display evacuation signs and diagrams "appropriately located on each evacuation route of the building having regard to the number and location of exits", and each one must be:

• displayed in a conspicuous position;
• orientated so the direction of the route shown, from where the diagram is displayed to the nearest exit, corresponds with the actual direction of the route; and
• securely attached to a wall or the internal side of a door.

Section 30 does not apply in Queensland where the total floor area of the building is less than 300 square metres, although the emergency plan duty under WHS law still does.

Orientation is the requirement most often broken. A diagram drawn once for a floor and copied to every corridor will be right at one location and rotated at the others. The test is simple: stand in front of it, and the exit that is ahead of you on the diagram should be ahead of you in the building.

The Tasmanian guideline asks for diagrams to be placed so that every occupant has ready access to at least one from any point in the facility, near main entrances, exits, lift lobbies and corridors, clearly visible, unobstructed and illuminated where necessary, with more diagrams in large or complex buildings. Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, short-stay accommodation and similar buildings must display an emergency action guide and evacuation diagram on the inside of each accommodation entry door.

Mount them where people can read them standing, flat and clean in a frame, and not on a door that is normally held open, where the diagram disappears against the wall. In a commercial building with several tenancies, check the locations of existing diagrams against the floor plans after every fit-out, because a new wall can leave a corridor with no diagram at all.

04

How often diagrams are reviewed, and what triggers a change

A diagram goes out of date the moment the building changes. The rules set a ceiling on how long one can go without review, and name the changes that should prompt an earlier one.

• Tasmania: evacuation diagrams must be reviewed at least every five years, or sooner if building layouts or exits change, fire safety equipment is relocated, or assembly areas or contact information are updated. Outdated or damaged diagrams must be replaced immediately.
• Queensland: the occupier must review the whole fire and evacuation plan, which includes its diagrams, at intervals of not more than one year and keep a written record of the review (section 28). The occupier must also change the plan no later than one month after a change in circumstances affecting it, such as a refurbishment or a change in the use of the building (section 27). In a high occupancy building a copy of the record goes to the fire safety adviser within a month. Where there is a material change to the location of a fire safety reference point, such as an exit or an extinguisher, the occupier must give the changed general evacuation instructions to everyone working in the building within one month (section 35).
• Everywhere under WHS law: the emergency plan must be maintained so that it remains effective, which a plan whose diagrams show a demolished corridor is not.

The changes that most often leave a diagram behind are ordinary ones:

• a tenancy fit-out that moves walls or closes a corridor;
• an extinguisher or hose reel moved during works and not put back;
• a new manual call point or warden intercommunication point;
• an exit locked, or a new exit added;
• the assembly area moved, for example because a construction site took the footpath.

Make the diagram part of the change. Whoever signs off a fit-out, a fire services modification or a new assembly area should ask who is updating the diagrams, and the old ones should come down the day the new ones go up. A diagram that shows the wrong assembly area is worse than none, because people will follow it.

Responsibility sits with the occupier, the PCBU and, for common property in a strata or body corporate building, whoever manages it. Queensland's regulation places the display duty on "the occupier of a building" and allows separate diagrams for parts of a building, which suits a multi-tenant office where the building manager looks after the base building and each tenant its own space. Agree in writing who owns which diagrams.

05

Checking diagrams on the ground, and using drills to test them

A desk review checks the drawing; a walk-round checks the wall, and catches the diagram that fell behind a cabinet, faded in the sun or was taken down by a painter. A routine check, monthly or with the regular fire safety walk, might ask at each location:

1. Is the diagram there, securely fixed, and readable at a normal distance?
2. Is it the current version, with a date of validity that is within the review period?
3. Does it face the right way for where it hangs?
4. Is the "You are here" point correct for this spot?
5. Is the equipment it shows actually where it shows it: the extinguisher, the hose reel, the manual call point?
6. Is the exit it points to open and clear, and is the route to it unobstructed?
7. Is the diagram free of anything stuck over or beside it that hides it?

A problem found on that walk needs an owner and a date: a missing diagram reprinted, a rotated one replaced, a moved extinguisher returned or the diagram redrawn.

Evacuation practice is the other test. Queensland requires an evacuation practice at intervals of not more than one year: for most buildings by an appropriate number of persons and in an appropriate way (section 44), and for budget accommodation in accordance with the fire and evacuation plan (section 43). The Tasmanian guideline requires a practice evacuation once every 12 months in specified buildings with an approved plan, with at least five days' notice to the Tasmania Fire Service, and says all staff must receive appropriate training, which should include familiarisation with the plan and diagrams. At a drill, ask a few people to explain from the nearest diagram where they would go if the main stair were blocked.

Induction matters as much as the drawing. In Queensland the occupier must give general evacuation instructions to a new worker no later than two days after they start (section 35). Showing a new cleaner or relief security officer the nearest diagram, and walking the route once, turns a picture on a wall into something they will remember under stress.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

Most buildings can show when their diagrams were last drawn. Far fewer can show that anyone has looked at them since. The fire safety walk is often one initialled line in a log book, "exits and signage checked", with no note of which diagram on which floor. And when a cleaner or security officer notices a torn diagram or a moved extinguisher, it is mentioned to whoever is at the desk, and the message stops there.

SiteClara records the check where the diagram is. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits beside the diagram, never on it. The person doing the walk scans or taps with their own phone, with no app to install, sees the checks due at that location, such as diagram present, facing the right way and equipment in place, and marks each one done or explains what stopped them. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens, with a photo of the diagram when one is asked for, so the date of validity and the "You are here" point can be seen later without a second visit.

A problem found there, such as a diagram missing after works, an extinguisher gone from the spot shown, or an exit route blocked, is reported at the location with a photo and goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it. The supervisor sees which checks were due, done and missed at each location, records the reason for anything missed, and can escalate a job to the building manager. Each day the supervisor approves a report that goes to nominated management or client contacts the next morning, showing how the scheduled checks went and what is still open.

07

Questions people ask

What is the Australian standard for evacuation diagrams?

AS 3745-2010 Planning for emergencies in facilities. The Tasmania Fire Service's Fire Evacuation Plan Guidelines point to section 3.5 of AS 3745 for evacuation diagrams, say each diagram must include the elements in section 3.5.5 (and, where appropriate, 3.5.6), and point to AS 4083 Planning for emergencies – health care facilities where that applies.

What are the requirements for an emergency evacuation diagram?

Queensland's Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 writes them into law: section 18 lists what the diagram shows, from "You are here" and the route to the nearest exit to each designated assembly area and the route to it, and section 30 requires diagrams on each evacuation route, in a conspicuous position, orientated to match the real direction of the route and securely attached to a wall or the internal side of a door. Section 30 does not apply where the building's total floor area is less than 300 square metres. Other states rely on the emergency plan duty and AS 3745.

How do you create an evacuation diagram?

Start from accurate floor plans and draw to AS 3745. The Tasmania Fire Service's Fire Evacuation Plan Guidelines say a diagram should be drawn to scale where practical, must use standardised symbols consistent with AS 3745, must carry only the information AS 3745 identifies, and must display a date of validity and the name of the person or company that prepared it. Then hang each copy so that it faces the right way for where it is displayed.

What is the Australian standard for emergency evacuation procedures?

AS 3745-2010 Planning for emergencies in facilities, with AS 4083 for health care facilities. The Tasmania Fire Service's Fire Evacuation Plan Guidelines are written to be read with both, and refer to AS 3745 for the emergency planning committee, the emergency control organisation and its wardens, assembly areas and the use of lifts in an evacuation.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

Read your own state's rules first. In Queensland, the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 sets out the content, display and review of diagrams and fire and evacuation plans. The Tasmania Fire Service's building fire evacuation planning page lists Tasmania's specified buildings and links the Fire Evacuation Plan Guidelines, useful reading in any state. For the emergency plan duty, read regulation 43 of the WHS regulations in force where you are, or the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 in Victoria. For the drawing, work from AS 3745-2010 and its amendments, and AS 4083 in health care.

Before you sign off the evacuation diagrams for a building, check that:

• there is a diagram on every evacuation route, at lift lobbies, stair entries, entrances and decision points;
• each shows "You are here", the route to the nearest exit, every exit, the alarms, the firefighting equipment, the assembly area and the route to it;
• each faces the right way for where it hangs;
• each carries a date of validity and the name of whoever prepared it;
• the equipment shown is where the diagram says it is;
• someone owns each diagram, base building and tenancy alike;
• fit-outs, fire services works and assembly area changes include updating the diagrams;
• diagrams are reviewed within the period your state sets, and replaced at once when damaged or out of date;
• the walk-round check is recorded location by location, with faults followed through to a fix.