Brisbane Markets awash with fluorescent  

Brisbane Markets has become a sea of colour as wholesalers, buyers, transport operators and most workers entering the largest fruit and vegetable hub in Queensland began wearing high visibility safety wear from this week.

While 4,000 people who are employed or visit the Brisbane Markets daily are required to wear a fluorescent safety vest, some of the younger visitors are already being offered a funkier option.

School students, who regularly visit the Markets on educational trips, are given high visibility hats to wear and take home with them as a reminder of their visit.  The sight of groups of up to 25 students at a time, bobbing their way through the Brisbane Produce Market, draws plenty of attention from the 300 forklift drivers and up to 1,000 buyers who are hard at work on the site most trading days.

Up to 20 educational tours are conducted through the Brisbane Markets annually for school students through the Queensland Kids Fresh Net program, a free program that provides resources and educates kids in 750 schools around Queensland on the importance of eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

The tighter regulations to wear high visibility safety garments are part of a push by Market owners Brisbane Markets Limited as part of its policy of continuous improvement to make the 77-hectare site a safer place to work and visit.

Other new safety measures include Forklift Safety Rules being affixed to all forklifts in a place so they can easily be read and reminders being sent to the 160 businesses that are Brisbane Markets tenants, on how to keep their staff safe.

Monetary sections are being imposed for breaches of safety on site.

After most of the early morning trading is finished and the forklifts cleared, members of the public can enter the site during public hours without the use of high visibility safety garments.

Public entry is Wednesday to Friday, from 9.30pm to 11.30am in Winter and 9am to 11am in the Summer months and costs $2 a person or $5 a vehicle.