A cellar door is two businesses in one location. It is a hospitality venue welcoming visitors for tastings and events, and it is a working winery with forklifts, production equipment, and heavy vehicle movement. The challenge is keeping visitors safe in an environment that is also an active industrial site, without compromising the relaxed, welcoming experience that draws people to the cellar door in the first place.
Verge Safety Barriers works with wineries and cellar door operators across Australia to put the right physical controls in place. Protecting visitors in car parks and tasting areas, separating the public from winery production operations, and meeting WHS obligations in a way that suits the character of a premium wine venue.
The cellar door experience brings members of the public directly onto a working winery site. Visitors arrive by car, often after travelling some distance, park in areas that may also serve winery operations, and move on foot between the car park, the tasting room, and outdoor areas. Meanwhile, the winery itself continues to operate, with forklifts moving barrels and stock, delivery vehicles arriving, and production work continuing during vintage and throughout the year.
This overlap creates genuine risk. Visitors are relaxed, often after wine tasting, and not thinking about industrial hazards. They may wander toward production areas out of curiosity. Children may be present. And the forklift moving a pallet of stock has no expectation of a member of the public appearing in its path.
A winery is a workplace under Australian WHS legislation, and the duty of care extends to every visitor on site. Physical barriers provide the separation between the public and production areas that this duty requires, working passively without relying on visitors to recognise or respect operational boundaries.
The cellar door car park is where visitors first arrive and move on foot toward the venue, often unfamiliar with the site layout. Bollards and barriers define pedestrian paths through the car park, protect the building entry from vehicle contact, and separate visitor parking from any winery vehicle movement in the area.
The entry to the tasting room and venue is a high-traffic pedestrian point that needs protection from vehicle strike while maintaining a welcoming appearance. Bollards at the venue entry protect the building facade and the visitors near it, and can be specified in finishes that suit the aesthetic of a premium hospitality venue.
The boundary between the public cellar door areas and the working winery is the most critical safety line on the site. Barriers and bollards along this boundary create a clear physical separation that keeps visitors out of the production area, where forklifts, barrels, and equipment present hazards the public is not equipped to navigate.
Many cellar doors host events, weddings, and outdoor dining in areas that adjoin vehicle access routes or production zones. Expandable barriers and bollards provide flexible separation that can define the event space, protect guests from adjacent vehicle movement, and be reconfigured as the use of the space changes.
The winery loading and dispatch area handles incoming supplies and outgoing wine, with forklifts and trucks operating in a defined zone. Barriers and bollards keep this operational area separated from visitor movement and protect the infrastructure from vehicle contact during loading operations.
Inside the winery, barrel stores and production floors see forklift movement around stored stock and equipment. Rack-PRO protection and bollards protect barrel racking, stored stock, and structural elements from forklift impact, maintaining both safety and the integrity of valuable stored wine.
Verge supplied and installed over 1,000 metres of safety barriers, gates and related products at the Probiotec Limited pharmaceutical facility in Kemps Creek, working with Mainbrace Constructions in a tight timeframe with precise coordination required throughout. The project demanded proactive problem-solving and open communication to stay on schedule. The client feedback on completion was described as ‘just UNREAL, just PERFECT,’ reflecting the standard of workmanship and project management delivered.
Brookfield invested in Verge loading dock safety gates at their Sydney facility following heightened legislative focus on loading dock safety. Verge supplied and installed the Dock-PRO system to protect personnel at the loading dock area, delivering a significant improvement in pedestrian safety at one of Australia’s leading property groups.
Every Verge product is manufactured at our Glendenning, NSW facility, meaning faster delivery, local technical support, and products designed specifically for Australian conditions and WHS compliance requirements.
Cellar door safety infrastructure needs to protect visitors without creating an industrial appearance that detracts from the experience. Verge products are available in finishes and configurations that provide effective protection while complementing the look of a premium wine venue.
Verge products are designed to meet Australian Work Health and Safety standards, helping winery operators document their hazard controls and demonstrate duty of care to the visitors, staff, and contractors on their site.
Cellar door visitors are relaxed, unfamiliar with the site, and not thinking about industrial hazards. Verge barriers and bollards provide passive, permanent protection that keeps the public separated from production areas without relying on signage or supervision.
Cellar doors regularly reconfigure their spaces for events, functions, and seasonal use. Verge's expandable barriers and modular range provide the flexibility to define and protect event spaces as needs change throughout the year.
Local manufacturing means we can respond quickly when a safety gap needs to be addressed or an event requires temporary barrier solutions, without waiting on international supply chains.
Every cellar door has a different layout, visitor flow, and relationship between the venue and the working winery. Whether you need to protect a car park, separate visitors from production, or define an outdoor event space, Verge can help you find the right solution.
Contact us today for a free site assessment and quote.
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