Pool safety signs for hotels and resorts

Western Australia: the duty most operators have never seen

This is the sharpest point on the page, so it goes first. Western Australia is the only jurisdiction in Australia with an enforceable resuscitation signage duty aimed squarely at commercial and public aquatic facilities, and it does not live in building law where everyone looks for it.

The Health (Aquatic Facilities) Regulations 2007, regulation 19(2), adopt the Western Australian Department of Health's Code of practice for the design, construction, operation, management and maintenance of aquatic facilities, as amended in March 2024. Clause 2.25.1.4 of that Code sits under the heading "Mandatory signage" and says:

"All aquatic facilities shall have one or more resuscitation notice installed in a prominent position that is easily seen by pool users and adjacent to the first aid area... Operators must ensure their resuscitation notices are kept up to date with the recommended procedure of the Resuscitation Council of Australia for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation."

Hotels, motels, resorts, serviced apartments and caravan parks are among the categories caught, alongside council pools and aquatic centres, schools and learn-to-swim centres, and residential developments. Penalties run from $100 to $1,000 for a first offence, with a minimum of $500 for a third, and a continuing offence can add up to $100 a day.

What the Code specifies, and what it does not

The Code sets placement and currency, and nothing else. No size, no material, no wording for the resuscitation notice. The "100mm lettering" requirement in that same clause belongs to two different signs, and this is the part worth reading twice: the Code also makes "NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY" and "NO USE OF FACILITY ALLOWED AFTER DARK" mandatory at aquatic facilities, at 100mm lettering.

We do not make either of those signs. A resuscitation notice from us does not close out clause 2.25.1.4 on its own, and you will need the other two from a supplier who makes them. We would rather say that here than have you find out from an inspector.

One thing we could not settle: whether a smaller hotel or motel falls inside the exclusion in regulation 5(2). That exclusion is written for strata schemes with fewer than 30 residential lots, and how it reads against a hotel with fewer than 30 rooms is not something we can answer from the regulation's text. If your property is small, ask the Department of Health rather than take our reading of it.

The full picture is on our Western Australia page.

New South Wales: tourist and visitor accommodation is named

The Swimming Pools Act 1992 applies to premises with a residential building, a moveable dwelling, or tourist and visitor accommodation. That last category is what brings a hotel or motel pool inside the Act, and clause 10 of the Swimming Pools Regulation 2018 then sets the sign content: a resuscitation flow chart based on ANZCOR Guideline 8 as published in January 2016, a statement that formal instruction in resuscitation is essential, the publisher's name and date of publication, and three specific lines about supervision, gates and keeping the fence clear. Spa pools are included. Clause 11 requires legibility from at least 3 metres.

New South Wales sets no minimum size and no material standard. Crown and public authority pools are excluded from the Act.

Queensland: class 3 buildings, with one case that falls outside

Under section 13 of the Building Regulation 2021, a regulated pool includes pools at class 1, 2, 3 and 4 buildings, and hotels and motels are typically class 3. Where it applies, the sign must be at least 300mm by 300mm, durable and weatherproof, attached to the barrier or displayed near the pool and easily visible, carrying a prominent emergency statement and first aid information including CPR.

The exception is worth checking before you order. Class 3 common property operating under an approved pool safety management plan sits outside the definition of a regulated pool, and therefore outside the section 13 sign duty. Public pools operated by local government are excluded as well.

South Australia: hotels and motels are in the code variation

South Australia reaches accommodation through Volume One of the National Construction Code as varied for the state, which covers apartments, hotels and motels. The South Australian Government states the requirement began on 1 May 2016, and the obligation is tied to the Building Code as it applied when the approval was sought, so the approval date of your pool decides whether it applies at all. Where it does: at least 300mm by 300mm, durable and weatherproof, showing first aid information including CPR.

Where we found no requirement

We found no resuscitation signage duty for guest accommodation in Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory.

How much weight that carries differs between them, and Western Australia is the reason. A duty for a commercial pool can sit in health law while the building regulations look completely empty, which is exactly what happens in Perth. In Victoria and Tasmania we searched the public health instruments as well as the building ones. For the ACT and the Northern Territory we searched building law and did not search health law, so we are treating those two as unsearched rather than as clear.

Tasmania does mandate some pool signage, just not this kind: bather hygiene notices under the Recreational Water Quality Guidelines 2007, and depth marking on public and club pools. We do not make either.

What we have not been able to close

• Council by-laws were not searched. State and territory instruments were read in full; more than five hundred councils were not.
• Whether a hotel with fewer than 30 rooms falls inside the Western Australian regulation 5(2) exclusion.
• ACT and Northern Territory health law was not searched.
• AS 1926.1 and AS 1926.2 are paywalled, so we could not read them to confirm they contain no signage clause.
• Whether work health and safety law creates a first aid signage duty at a commercial pool as a workplace. Your pool is a workplace as well as a guest amenity and we have not tested that question.

General information about what the instruments say, not legal advice. Compiled 4 August 2026.

The signs, and what we do not make

Two designs, seven colours each, both 350mm by 710mm on aluminium composite panel with a full colour digital print.

The CPR sign is the resuscitation notice. At 350mm by 710mm it is comfortably over the 300mm minimum Queensland and South Australia set, and Western Australia sets no size at all. This is the sign the duties above are about.

The Pool Rules sign carries six rules: supervision, securing the gate, no running or rough play, no diving, keeping the pool area clear, and no glassware. For a hotel pool the useful one is no glassware, which is the rule a bar service makes necessary and which staff find easier to enforce against a permanent sign than against a house policy. No jurisdiction we read requires a rules sign at guest accommodation, so this is an operational choice.

On colour: both ranges carry the same seven names, which matters because a sign at a guest-facing pool is seen by people who are paying for the view. Charcoal Black and Slate Grey settle against dark stone and rendered walls; Ice White and Dune Gold suit lighter and coastal schemes. Those four are the CPR versions. The Pool Rules line uses the same seven colour names, so a pair can be matched.

If your pool has a shallow end, the standalone No Diving sign puts that rule at the water's edge. If you keep chlorine or acid in a plant room, the Danger Chemical Storage sign is the back-of-house one that usually gets forgotten until someone asks about it.

What we do not make, and which these pages used to imply we did: spa and sauna signs, pool hours and guest notices, emergency exit signage, standalone first aid signs, and the two mandatory Western Australian facility signs above. If you need those, you need a general safety signage supplier alongside us.

Panels are not pre-drilled. A free installation pack ships with every sign, and the separate installation kit is a spare. See the installation instructions for mounting on rendered walls, timber and fencing.

Ordering for a group or multiple properties

Volume pricing and a wholesale application are published on the stockist and wholesale page. For a group with properties in several states, ask for a quote or call 1300 005 232 with the property list, because the answer genuinely differs between a Perth resort and a Melbourne one and the order should reflect that.

Common questions

Do we need a sign at a resort pool in Perth?

A resuscitation notice is mandatory at an aquatic facility in Western Australia under regulation 19(2) and Code clause 2.25.1.4, and resorts are among the categories the Code covers. Note the Code also mandates "NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY" and "NO USE OF FACILITY ALLOWED AFTER DARK" signage at 100mm lettering, which we do not supply.

Does a spa or plunge pool count?

In New South Wales, yes: the Swimming Pools Act 1992 expressly includes spa pools. In Western Australia the question is whether the water body is part of an aquatic facility under the Health (Aquatic Facilities) Regulations 2007 rather than whether it is a pool, which is a different test and one we cannot apply to your property from here.

Our sign is ten years old. Does it still count?

In New South Wales, a sign erected on or before 31 August 2019 that met the repealed 2008 Regulation still complies unless the pool is substantially altered or rebuilt. In Western Australia the Code asks that resuscitation notices are kept current with the Resuscitation Council of Australia's recommended procedure, so the test is whether the procedure shown is current, not how old the panel is.

Can you print our branding on it?

The wholesale page mentions co-branded and private-label signage for selected partners. That is a conversation rather than a product option, and it is worth having before you order if the sign sits somewhere guests photograph.