Approximately half of all framework collapses occur during concrete placement. Researchers who have measured the actual loads in formwork shores consistently found that they differ from those predicted. There is some evidence that current methods tend towards underestimation. In Australia the current practice for designing steel formwork shores is set out in Australian Standard AS 3610-1990 Formwork for Concrete. It was the first national standard to be published in limit states format and departed from previous practice introducing new methods for the design of formwork shores. Prompted by doubt cast on current practice and the absence of hard basis for the methods set out in AS 3610, the aim of the research is to develop new more reliable rules for the design of steel formwork shores. This is achieved using first-order probabilistic techniques to compare the reliability of new and reused shores designed in accordance with AS 3610 with current international permissible stress and limit states methods form British, American, Israeli and draft European formwork Standards / Master of Engineering (Hons)