Mounting the Plan:
The 2026 Statutory Standard

The Death of "Good Enough" Installation

As the Managing Director of Compliance Ready, I see it every week: high-rise commercial towers and sensitive healthcare facilities with evacuation diagrams mounted behind doors, at eye level for a child, or worse, gathering dust in a maintenance cupboard. Let me be clear: **A diagram that is not correctly mounted is a Defect.** It is not a "recommendation" or a "best practice suggestion"—it is a failure of the Emergency Planning Committee (EPC) and a liability that voids insurance indemnity and creates personal WHS risk for directors.

1. The Height Rule: 1200mm to 1600mm

AS 3745-2010 Section 3.5.2 is explicit. The evacuation diagram shall be mounted at a height between **1200mm and 1600mm** from the finished floor level to the center of the diagram.

Why this specific range? Accessibility. A diagram mounted too high (the "builder's reach") is illegible to wheelchair users and people of shorter stature. A diagram mounted too low is obscured by furniture or passing foot traffic. At Compliance Ready, we audit to the millimeter. If we find a diagram mounted at 1150mm or 1650mm, we log a **Defect**. Why? Because in a coronial inquest, "close enough" does not protect the PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking).

2. Strategic Placement: The "Dwell-Time" Protocol

Standard practitioners put diagrams next to exit doors because it's easy for the installer. At Compliance Ready, we call this the **"Exit Myth"**. If a person is already at an exit door, they don't need a map to tell them to exit—they are already there.

Effective evacuation planning places diagrams in **High Dwell-Time Areas**:

• Elevator Wait Lobbies (High visual engagement)
• Staff Break Rooms & Kitchenettes
• Major Corridor Junctions
• Entry Foyers (Immediate situational awareness)
• Inside Meeting Rooms (For transient visitors)
• Beside First Aid Stations and Hydrants

3. The Fatal "Unsure" Response

In our Roadmap Audits, when a facility manager selects "Unsure" for "Is your evacuation hardware compliant?", our logic triggers an immediate **Critical EPC Management Failure**.

Why? Because under AS 3745, the **Emergency Planning Committee (EPC)** is legally responsible for the documentation and maintenance of evacuation information. Being "Unsure" is evidence that the EPC is not meeting. If the EPC is not meeting (at least annually under AS 3745, or 6-monthly under AS 1851 Sec 14), you have no defense in a WHS prosecution.

"In twenty years of compliance, I have never seen a person 'unsure' of their requirements survive a WorkSafe audit. Ignorance is not a mitigation strategy; it is a confession of negligence."

— Managing Director, Compliance Ready

4. Specific Industry Logic: Aged Care & Childcare

If you operate in the **Aged Care** or **Childcare** sectors, the standard mounting requirements are only the baseline.

• Childcare (Reg 97 Enforcement)

  Regulation 97 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations demands evacuation drills every **3 months**. If your diagrams are outdated or incorrectly mounted, every 3-monthly drill is technically flawed. Anything over 3 months since your last drill is a **Statutory Breach**.

• Aged Care Act 2024

  As of 1 July 2026, Quality Standard 5 requires resident risk profiles in emergency plans. If your diagrams are mounted in areas inaccessible to residents, or if they lack the required resident-specific context, you are in breach of the **Statement of Rights**.

5. The Audit Protocol: AS 3745 vs AS 1851

Let's look at the "Diagram Audit Date" logic. If your last audit was more than 6 months ago, you are in **AS 1851 Sec 14 DEFECT**.

Why the discrepancy between AS 3745 (5 years) and AS 1851 (6 months)? AS 3745 is the **Design and Installation** standard. It tells you what the diagram should look like and where it should go. AS 1851 is the **Routine Service** standard. It tells you that a "Competent Person" must walk through the building every 6 months to ensure that the diagram remains relevant.

If your facility has undergone a minor fit-out (moving a single desk, adding a partition, changing a room function) and your diagram hasn't been reviewed, you have a **Relevancy Defect**. This is why the AS 1851 6-month check is critical.

Conclusion: The Managing Director's Verdict

Compliance is binary. You are either compliant, or you are at risk.

Many providers will tell you that a 5-year replacement cycle is enough. They are wrong. They are ignoring the **Section 14 Routine Service** requirements that NSW has now mandated for AFSS. At Compliance Ready, we don't just "provide diagrams"—we manage the entire statutory lifecycle of your emergency documentation.