South Australia restricts sale of fridges that can't be opened from inside

The Short Answer

TRUE! You cannot sell a refrigerator with any compartment larger than 42.5 liters unless every door can be easily opened from inside.

The Full Story

This law exists because children were dying. Kids would climb into abandoned fridges to play hide-and-seek, the door would close, and they'd suffocate—unable to open the door from inside.

The regulation mandates that large fridges must have doors that can be pushed open from inside. It also prohibits dumping a large fridge without first removing all doors and lids.

Exception: Fridges manufactured or imported before 1962 are exempt (these are antiques now anyway).

Common Misconceptions

This law is not unique to South Australia — many jurisdictions worldwide enacted similar laws after a wave of child deaths from entrapment in discarded refrigerators in the 1950s. The U.S. passed its own Refrigerator Safety Act in 1956. The South Australian law also does not ban old-style fridges entirely; it provides a defence for units manufactured or imported before 1 January 1962.

Actual Legal Text

Summary Offences Act 1953, Section 58B(1): "A person must not sell or hire, or offer or expose for sale or hire, a refrigerator, ice chest or icebox having in it a compartment of a capacity of 42.5 litres or more unless that compartment is so constructed or equipped that every door or lid can be opened easily from the inside of the compartment when any lock or catch that can be operated from the outside of the compartment is fastened." Section 58B(3) also requires that refrigerators placed on dumps, public places, or unfenced vacant land must have doors/lids removed or rendered incapable of being fastened.