David Allan Frith first injured his back in 1999, when he slipped and fell while working with a concreting company.

Mr Frith damaged his spine, but was able to return to the concreting company on light duties, and then eventually full duties.

The day after he told his employer he could resume full duties, he was dismissed.

Early in 2006, he started working with a sawmill at Hume run by Integrated Forest Products Pty Ltd.

Mr Frith drove a front-end loader with a grabber, using it to pick up and move bundles of logs.

But by November 2007, the company was facing hard times, and was likely to be forced to close.

Employees were being laid off and the sawmill was not operating.

Mr Frith and others were told to work at the planing mill instead.

That work involved grading, stamping and bundling planks of wood so they were ready for sale.

He was unhappy with this new work, but complied anyway.

Mr Frith was then forced to lift planks and place them in a trolley.

He then had to push the full

trolley into a new position, a job usually meant for two people.

Lifting the trolley was hard because of the weight - estimated at between 246 to 676 kilograms - and the sawdust and woodchips on the floor.

The wheels on the trolley were also old and rusty and did not move freely. He had to use a bending, twisting motion, with one hand on top of the trolley and a foot in the air to balance.

As he was pushing the trolley, Mr Frith straightened up and felt a burning sensation in his lower back. He felt pain from his knee and up the back of his leg, had trouble walking, and could not make it up a set of stairs.

Mr Frith was then taken to the emergency department of the Canberra Hospital. He was left with permanent back injuries that have caused him to suffer severe back pain every day. The injury has also left him with permanent pain in his left leg.

Master David Harper said he was satisfied on the evidence that the sawmill and the system of work Mr Frith was allocated to was unsafe. He found the trolleys to be unsafe, and the process of moving them to be ''inherently hazardous in terms of the likelihood of back injury''.

''I am satisfied that the trolleys should have had handles, and some means of securing the stacks of planks,'' he said.

''The wheels, it seems to me, were not adequately maintained, and the floor should have been swept and kept clean.''

He said Mr Frith was given no training or instruction on how to perform the new tasks, and ultimately found that the injury was caused by the negligence of the sawmill. ''The risk of injury was greatly increased on the day of the plaintiff's injury by requiring him to move the trolleys unaided,'' Master Harper said. ''Moving a trolley was clearly a two-man job at least.''

Mr Frith has been left unemployable because of his injury, and has suffered from mental health issues since the incident.

''It will be with him for the rest of his life,'' Master Harper said.

In October, the ACT Supreme Court had reserved deciding on the amount of damages and compensation to be paid to Mr Frith.

But on Tuesday, the court ordered that Integrated Forest Products pay Mr Frith $1,025,309, and cover his court costs.