Free hazardous chemical register template (Australia) and how to keep it current

Here’s a free hazardous chemical register template for Australian workplaces: Excel, CSV or a printable A4 PDF, no sign-up, no email. The law only asks a register to hold a list of your hazardous chemicals and the current Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for each (Safe Work Australia), and this template builds on Safe Work Australia’s own, adding the columns that show at a glance which SDS need checking.

Filling it in takes an afternoon. Keeping it true takes a habit. Here’s how to do both.

What does the law actually ask for?

Under regulation 346 of the model WHS Regulations, the register must include:

(a) a list of hazardous chemicals used, handled or stored; and (b) the current safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical listed.

It must be kept at the workplace, “maintained to ensure the information in the register is up to date”, and readily accessible to workers and anyone else likely to be affected. No column list. Our guide to what a hazardous chemicals register must contain covers the exemptions and fine print.

Every extra column is good practice, not law. Safe Work Australia’s template says so: “Of the information in the template below, only the chemical names are mandatory.”

A spreadsheet on its own isn’t a register. The template also says: “The safety data sheets of the hazardous chemicals must be included with the register.” So the list and the SDS travel together: a folder beside the printout, a link in each row, or a QR poster that opens both.

What’s in this chemical register template?

Safe Work Australia’s template has five columns: Name of Chemical, Issue date of SDS, Quantity, Location and Comments. It invites you to add arrival dates, your own codes, hazard information “such as GHS and Dangerous Goods Classes” and intended use.

Ours keeps all that and adds what makes currency visible: revision number, revision date, review due, and where each sheet is kept. Chemical register template, SDS register template (formerly an MSDS register), safety data sheet register template: same job.

The header takes your business name, site, contact person, and when and by whom the register was last reviewed. Then the columns:

1. Product name, exactly as on the label and SDS, so anyone can match the can to the sheet
2. Manufacturer or importer, from Section 1 of the SDS
3. Supplier, the business you buy it from
4. SDS revision or version number, as printed
5. SDS date last reviewed, the revision date, in DD/MM/YYYY
6. Review due, five years after column 5 (the Excel version calculates it)
7. Status, which in the Excel version shows “Ask for current SDS” once the review-due date has passed, otherwise “OK”
8. Hazard information: signal word, GHS hazard class, and Dangerous Goods class if any
9. Location where it’s stored and used
10. Typical quantity held
11. Used for
12. Date added to site
13. Where the SDS is kept: folder, link or poster
14. Comments

One made-up example row (“Sample Brand A brake cleaner”) shows the format. Delete it when you start.

Why “date last reviewed”, not “issue date”

Safe Work Australia’s template labels its date column “Issue date of SDS (SDS has an expiry date of 5 years)”. Handy shorthand, but the regulation talks about review, not expiry. Regulation 330 says the manufacturer or importer must “review the safety data sheet at least once every 5 years” and amend it whenever necessary. Schedule 7 says every SDS must “state the date it was last reviewed or, if it has not been reviewed, the date it was prepared.”

So our template counts five years from that date, not the first-issue date. A passed review-due date doesn’t make a sheet worthless. It’s a prompt to ask for the current one. More in how long an SDS is valid and which SDS date matters.

Chemical register template: Excel, CSV or PDF?

• Excel suits most workshops. Type the revision date; review due and status fill themselves in.
• CSV is plain data for Google Sheets, Numbers or any other system. No formulas, so work out review due yourself.
• PDF is printable A4 landscape, for a clipboard and pen.

Do you need Excel at all? No. Safe Work Australia’s template says: “Your register can also be an electronic document, so long as it is readily accessible to workers.” Paper is fine too. More in our electronic SDS register guide.

How do you fill in the register template?

1. Walk the site. Every bay, cupboard, shelf and van. Write each product name exactly as it appears on the label.
2. Keep the hazardous ones. Safe Work Australia says: “You should only include chemicals classified as hazardous chemicals on your register.” Check the label and Section 2 of the SDS.
3. Get the current SDS for each from the manufacturer, importer or supplier.
4. Copy the numbers off the sheet. Safe Work Australia says the date an SDS was last reviewed “is usually written in Section 16”.
5. File the sheet and say where. Column 13 is the bit that turns a list into a register.
6. Fill in the header. Date it, sign it, done.

Our chemical register audit checklist turns this into a full walk-through.

How do you keep the register current? (The hard part)

The template is the easy part. Keeping the “current SDS” promise true is where registers quietly go stale, because three things keep moving.

New products arrive. Under regulation 344, you must get the current SDS when a hazardous chemical is first supplied, or if you can’t, as soon as practicable afterwards but before it’s used. Add the line at the same time.

Manufacturers revise their sheets. Regulation 330 requires an amendment “whenever necessary”. Regulation 344 then expects you to get the amended SDS no later than the first supply after the change or, if you can’t, as soon as practicable afterwards and before it’s used. Here’s the catch: revisions are silent. Nobody rings to tell you.

Products get discontinued. When something’s gone from site, take its line off so the register matches the shelf.

So build in a recurring check, say once a quarter:

• Sort by Review due. Anything showing “Ask for current SDS” gets an email.
• Ask directly. Under regulation 330, the manufacturer or importer must give the current SDS to anyone likely to be affected who asks for it, and regulation 339 puts a similar duty on suppliers (retailers and consumer products aside).
• Walk the floor for new arrivals.
• Update “Register last reviewed” and “Reviewed by” in the header.

Safe Work Australia’s fact sheet is blunt about it: “you will need to obtain a new SDS from the chemical supplier periodically to ensure you have the most up-to-date and current SDS.”

Can you use this chemical register template in Victoria?

Safe Work Australia says the model WHS laws “have been implemented in all jurisdictions except Victoria”. Victoria’s rules sit in the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, which talk about “hazardous substances”. WorkSafe Victoria’s compliance code says:

Employers must prepare and maintain a register for all hazardous substances supplied to their workplace. A register must contain a list of the product identifiers of all hazardous substances supplied to the workplace and be accompanied by the SDS for each of these substances.

The code says to update it when new hazardous substances arrive, when one is discontinued, and when “the manufacturer or supplier provides a revised SDS”. It also says employers need to ensure all SDS in the register “have issue dates within the last five years”, which is exactly what the Review due and Status columns help you check.

WorkSafe’s sample register (Appendix B) has columns for product name, location or process, hazardous substance (yes or no), dangerous good (yes or no), current SDS, and actions or comments. Our template covers them all: record the hazardous substance and dangerous goods details under hazard information.

The short version

Fill in the template once, then put a recurring check in the calendar. The list is easy. The current SDS behind every line is what counts.

If chasing revisions by hand sounds like a lot, SupplySafe’s online register for workshops flags “A newer revision is available” when the manufacturer publishes an update and counts review due from the revision date. One QR poster per site opens a no-login view of the register and current SDS, and the link is permanent, so the poster never needs reprinting when a sheet is replaced.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official hazardous chemical register template?

Safe Work Australia publishes a free template with columns for the name of the chemical, the SDS issue date, quantity, location and comments. It says only the chemical names are mandatory and that the layout is an example you can adapt to suit your workplace. Our template builds on those columns.

Do I need my chemical register in Excel?

No. Safe Work Australia's template says your register can be an electronic document, so long as it is readily accessible to workers, and paper works too. Whatever the format, the current safety data sheet for each listed chemical has to be included with the register.

What columns does the law require?

None in particular. Regulation 346 of the model WHS Regulations says the register must include a list of hazardous chemicals used, handled or stored, and the current safety data sheet for each one. Columns such as revision date and review due are good practice, not law.

Can I use this template in Victoria?

Yes. Victoria's rules are in the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017. WorkSafe Victoria's hazardous substances compliance code says the register must list the product identifiers of all hazardous substances supplied to the workplace and be accompanied by the SDS for each. You can note whether each product is a hazardous substance or a dangerous good in the hazard information column, as WorkSafe's sample register does.

Is an SDS older than five years still valid?

The model WHS Regulations don't give an SDS an expiry date. They require the manufacturer or importer to review it at least once every five years and amend it whenever necessary. If the date a sheet was last reviewed is more than five years ago, ask the manufacturer or supplier for the current one.

Sources

• Queensland Government, Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), current in-force version: regulations 330, 339, 344, 346 and schedule 7 (uses the model WHS Regulations numbering; accessed 14 October 2026)
• Safe Work Australia, Hazardous chemicals register template (accessed 14 October 2026)
• Safe Work Australia, Hazardous chemicals register (accessed 14 October 2026)
• Safe Work Australia, Hazardous chemicals register fact sheet (accessed 14 October 2026)
• Safe Work Australia, Preparing safety data sheets (accessed 14 October 2026)
• Safe Work Australia, Model WHS laws (accessed 14 October 2026)
• WorkSafe Victoria, Compliance code: Hazardous substances (accessed 14 October 2026)