Workplace violence against professionals in rural and remote Australia is a growing concern. Professionals in rural and remote locations face particular challenges that their urban counterparts do not. For some, these challenges may make them more susceptible to workplace violence, or make the impact of workplace violence more serious.

To respond to growing concern about workplace violence in rural and remote Australia, the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), the Police Federation of Australia, the Queensland Teachers’ Union and CRANAplus established the Working Safe in Rural and Remote Australia Project.

This website has been developed as part of the Working Safe project. Its primary aim is to provide employers and professionals in rural and remote Australia with information on various strategies they can adopt to improve workplace safety and prevent workplace violence.

Rural and remote communities are not homogenous, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to preventing workplace violence in these communities. For this reason, this website contains a suite of strategies, some of which may be very effective in a workplace and some of which may be less effective.

A key aim of the Working Safe project is to encourage cross-sector or community responses to workplace violence against rural and remote professionals. Anecdotal evidence suggests cross-sector cooperation and community engagement exists, and is key to the safety of professionals in rural and remote locations. This website provides case studies of models of cross-sector cooperation and community responses that have been effective in different parts of Australia.