Quality Assurance – Supply Documentation 


The scope of project QA documentation varies with project scale. Documentation options range as follows; 

Level 1 QA - Basic Documentation Package


This ranges from acceptance of supply on the basis of the provision of a product technical specification associated with a supplier invoice, to full pre-supply batch testing against a supply specification, then supply undertaken on the basis of an independent compliance certificate.

Level 2 QA - Mid Level Documentation


This level of documentation is generally associated with the supply of certified products. Current certifications include:

  • AS4419 – Soils for landscape and garden use
  • AS4454 – Composts, soil conditioners and mulches
  • AS3743 – Potting mix
  • NASAA (national Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia) 

Copy of the specific QA certification and the associated product technical specification is supplied in association with project supply invoices.

For non-certified products, this level may alternatively involve the provision of recent (less than 3 month old) product test results, confirming fit-for-purpose status of the formulation.

Level 3 QA – Full QA Documentation and Project Compliance Certification


Full QA documentation involves a number of processes to ensure compliance to project details and specifications.

1. Pre-Supply

  • Project Materials Specifications
This documentation is responsibility of the project Landscape Architect, designer or specifier.

  • Pre-supply Component or Finished Product Testing
This step may or may not be required. Some projects or jurisdictions need non-horticultural chemical analysis such as the suite involved in the NEPM (National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination) Measure - April 2013) Guidelines.

Proof of conformance to key horticultural fit-for-purpose parameters may also be required at this point.

2. Supply

  • Acceptable project batch sizes are determined. For large scale projects 500t is a common batch size.

  • Representative samples collected and lodged for testing
NB: Project schedules often change rapidly, either extending or significantly reducing materials supply windows.

Standard result turnaround on some testing parameters may be 1-2 weeks which often conflicts with necessary supply schedules. To resolve this, selected key parameters are determined that allow materials supply without full compliance testing.

  • Full batch testing completed.
This may require minor amendments to formulations to meet project specifications.

  • Compliance Certificate generated by testing authority

3. Project Completion


Major projects commonly require full batch testing and batch compliance certificates to be provided at project completion. It is at this point that the compliance certification is released in full. As a rule, compliance certificates are batch related and as such, larger scale projects may require the generation of multiple compliance certificates to support the project materials supply agreement.