An inspection app with map records where every inspection happened and where every finding sits on the mine, so the next person can walk straight back to it, the shift change can see it, and trends can be read by area instead of by guesswork. On a mine site the location is not a nice extra on the record. It is the part of the record that makes the finding actionable.
A finding without a place is a finding nobody can go back to
Read a stack of paper inspection sheets from any open cut and the same problem shows up. “Crack on crest, near ramp.” “Windrow low, south side.” “Water ponding at the dump.” Each one was obvious to the person standing there. By the next shift, on a pit that moves every day, it can mean three different places.
Location is what connects an inspection to everything that follows it. The supervisor fixing the windrow has to find it, and the geotechnical engineer has to know whether a crack is last week’s or a new one fifty metres along. If the record cannot answer “where”, people either repeat the search or assume.
What the legislation implies about location
No Australian mining instrument says “inspections must be recorded on a map”. But the statutory duties are written around parts of the mine, and a record that cannot identify the part is a weak record of the duty.
Queensland coal
Under section 106 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, an open-cut examiner must inspect a surface mine excavation and the part of the mine near it where activities are to be, or are being, carried out, before those activities start and periodically as the safety and health management system requires.
Section 107 is even more spatial. If, after that inspection, the examiner decides an unsafe thing causes an unacceptable level of risk and it cannot be made safe immediately, they must erect a barrier to stop people unknowingly entering the part of the mine where the risk exists, and stop operations in and withdraw people from that part. If it is not made safe by the end of the shift, they must report it to their supervisor and to the examiner doing the next shift’s inspection.
Section 141 requires a surface mine to have a standard operating procedure for safety inspections, with results, including details of hazards and recommended corrective action, made available to coal mine workers. Section 16A makes supervisors responsible for carrying out the workplace inspections the system requires and recording the findings in the mine record, which section 68 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 requires to be kept for at least seven years. The Queensland regulator, Resources Safety and Health Queensland, inspects against these obligations.
Put those together and an inspection record needs to say which part of the mine was inspected, which part was barricaded, and where the corrective action is needed. That is the practical case for location based inspections in mining: “near the ramp” does not survive a seven year retention period.
New South Wales
Section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 requires the mine operator to have arrangements for regular inspection of the working environment, and to conduct a risk assessment on all areas of the mine when setting how, when and by whom inspections are done. The NSW Resources Regulator’s quarry and pit inspection material quotes that section directly. Inspections recorded against those areas make that easier to demonstrate.
The wider statutory picture, state by state, is covered in the guide to mine site inspections in Australia.
Three ways an inspection can relate to the map
Not every inspection belongs at a single point. A good map based inspection system lets the site decide, per form, how the inspection relates to the ground.
Pinned to a location
The inspection is dropped on the map where it was done: a dump tip head, an intersection, a section of haul road, a pump station. This suits area inspections, where the question is “what did this place look like at this time”. Over weeks, the pins show which parts of the pit are inspected often and which are not.
Attached to a specific hazard
The inspection belongs to a hazard that already exists on the map, such as a highwall section with a known crack, a spoil dump under a TARP, or an unstable batter. Each inspection adds to that hazard’s history, so the geotechnical engineer sees every observation of the same feature in order, rather than a pile of separate forms that happen to describe it. That link between the inspection and the feature is what hazard map inspections are for. This is where a digital TARP earns its keep: the inspection that observes a trigger sits on the hazard whose level it changes.
Deliberately standalone
Some checks have no meaningful place on the pit. A light vehicle pre-start, a document review, a monthly fire extinguisher round of the office. Forcing a pin onto those adds noise and teaches people the pin does not matter, so a sensible system allows no map at all for these forms.
The map as the shared picture at shift change
Shift handover is where location information is lost most often. The outgoing examiner knows exactly which bench has the rill problem and which road has a soft spot. The incoming examiner reads “bench near ramp” and drives around looking.
When inspections and hazards sit on one map, the handover becomes a conversation over the same picture. The incoming crew can see which areas were inspected, what was found, which areas are open, restricted or closed, and which barricades were erected under section 107 and why.
It is the argument made for hazards in why visual hazard maps outperform text-based systems, extended to inspections: hazards say what is wrong, inspections say who looked, when, and what they saw.
Imagery and survey layers under the inspection
A pin on a blank background is barely better than a text description. What makes a mine map useful is what sits underneath.
- Drone imagery. A recent aerial shows the pit as it is, including the berm, windrow and toe the inspector was looking at.
- Survey layers. Survey DXFs carry design and as-built lines, so you can tell a departure from plan from a plan problem.
- Hillshade. Terrain shading picks out slope and relief that flat imagery hides, which matters for dumps, highwalls and drainage.
Layers also go stale. A map that shows last quarter’s pit shell will mislead people about where the working face is. Give the layers a named owner, usually survey, and an update cadence that matches how fast the pit moves. Visual hazard mapping software covers what to expect from the mapping side in more detail.
GPS, offline and the reality of a pit
Buyers often ask for a GPS inspection app, and phone positioning is a useful starting point. But a phone’s location fix tells you where the inspector was standing, which is not always where the finding is. The record should show the crack, not the ute parked at a safe distance from it. The practical answer is an app that lets the inspector place or adjust the point on the map, with the imagery in front of them.
Reception is the other reality. Pit floors, dump toes and the far side of a ridge routinely have no signal. An inspection app that needs a connection to open the form, load the map or save the record will be abandoned for paper on the first bad day. The requirement is that the whole inspection, including the map position and photos, can be completed offline and synced later. The Bowen Basin version of this problem is covered in offline hazard mapping when reception fails.
Reading trends by area
Once inspections carry a location, new questions become answerable. Which dumps generate the most findings? Is one haul road segment failing every week? Has part of the active pit gone uninspected for longer than the system allows? On paper, or with location as free text, answering means reading and coding every record by hand. With location captured consistently, it is a filter.
Where map based inspections go wrong
- Every form forced onto the map. Pre-starts and paperwork checks pinned to the car park turn the map into clutter, and people stop trusting it.
- Location left as free text. A dropdown of area names is better than nothing, but it cannot tell you which end of a two kilometre road the problem is on.
- Out of date layers. Inspections pinned onto an old pit shell look wrong and are hard to find on the ground.
- Inspection and hazard kept apart. The inspection finds a problem, a separate hazard register records it, and nothing links the two. The history of the feature is split across systems.
- Online only. The app works in the office and fails in the pit, so the real inspection happens on paper and the digital one is typed up later from memory.
How HazView ties inspections to the ground
On most sites, inspections, hazards and the mine plan live in three places: a form, a register entry, and a survey plot on the office wall. Joining them up is left to whoever has time.
HazView puts all three on one interactive map of the site that every role uses. Each checklist template is set to one of the three modes above: pinned to a location, attached to a specific hazard, or completed with no map at all. Hazards carry their type, status, photos and full history, and hazard rating systems include area states of open, restricted or closed, so every role sees the same status. Survey DXFs, drone imagery and hillshade sit underneath, so an inspection is seen against the pit as it actually is.
Checklists can be completed fully offline and sync when the device is back in reception, and every question can carry comments and photos. Forms are converted like for like from the site’s existing paper first, then improved, and they stay private inside the site’s own deployment rather than being published anywhere. Dashboards then show trends and KPIs. See how open-cut examiners use HazView, or book a HazView demo.
What to ask before you buy an inspection app with map
The broader evaluation is in the mine inspection software buyer’s guide, and the case for moving off paper at all is in paperless inspections on a mine site. On the map question specifically, these are the tests that separate a real mine map from a pin on a street map.
| Requirement | Why it matters on a mine | Ask in the demo |
|---|---|---|
| Map mode chosen per form | Area inspections need a pin, hazard inspections need the hazard, pre-starts need neither | Can one form be pinned, another attached to a hazard, another map free? |
| Inspection attached to an existing hazard | Builds one history for one feature instead of scattered forms | Show me every inspection of this highwall section in order |
| Place the point, not just the phone | The finding is often some distance from where the inspector stands | Can I move the pin onto the crack I am looking at? |
| Mine layers underneath | Street maps do not show benches, dumps or haul roads | Load our survey DXF and latest drone imagery |
| Fully offline | Pit floors and dump toes have no reception | Put the tablet in flight mode and complete a full inspection with photos |
| Area status visible | Barricaded and restricted areas must be obvious at shift change | Show me which areas are closed right now and why |
| Trends by area | Repeat findings in one place point to a design or control problem | Which part of the pit had the most findings last month? |
Related guides
- Mine Site Inspections in Australia: What the Law Requires, What to Check and What a Defensible Record Looks Like
- OCE Inspection Report Template: What It Must Record, With a Full Checklist
- Statutory Inspections at Queensland Coal Mines: RS06 and the Open Cut Regime
- Spoil and Waste Dump Inspection Checklist, With TARP Levels
- All Inspections & Checklists guides
Frequently asked questions
What is an inspection app with map?
It is a digital inspection tool where each completed inspection, and each finding in it, is recorded against a place on a map of the site. On a mine that map should carry the site’s own survey and imagery layers, so the location means something on the ground.
Does the law require inspections to be recorded on a map?
No Australian mining instrument requires a map as such. But duties such as the Queensland open-cut examiner inspection and barricading obligations are framed around parts of the mine, and NSW requires a risk assessment of all areas when setting inspection arrangements. A record that identifies the place is far easier to stand behind.
Is a GPS inspection app enough on a mine site?
Phone GPS is a useful default, but it records where the inspector stood, not necessarily where the finding is. Look for an app that lets the inspector place the point on mine imagery and that works fully offline, because much of a pit has no reception.
Should every checklist be pinned to the map?
No. Area and hazard inspections benefit from a location, but pre-starts and document checks usually do not. Pinning everything clutters the map and weakens trust in it, so choose the map mode per form.
How do map based inspections help at shift change?
They give both shifts the same picture: which areas were inspected, what was found, and which areas are restricted or closed. The incoming examiner does not have to turn a written description back into a place before acting on it.