Queensland’s mine record requirements for coal mines are set by section 68 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999, with a parallel duty for other mines and quarries. The coal mine operator must keep a mine record, the Act sets out what goes in it, each matter must stay in it for at least seven years, it must be produced within fixed timeframes when asked, and it is an offence to alter it so that it is no longer a correct and complete record.
Most sites keep one. Fewer can produce it quickly, and fewer again could show that it is complete. This guide covers what the law requires, what the inspectorate’s guidance adds, what “correct and complete” means when the underlying records live in six different places, and how to keep inspection records digitally so they hold up as part of the mine record.
What must be in the mine record
Section 68 lists it directly. The coal mine operator must keep a mine record containing:
- all reports of, and the findings and recommendations resulting from, inspections, investigations and audits carried out at the mine under the Act
- all directives issued under the Act to the coal mine operator and the operator’s agents or representatives
- a record of all remedial actions taken as a result of those directives
- a record of, and reports about, all serious accidents and high potential incidents that have happened at the mine
- any other reports or information prescribed by regulation
Four further obligations sit around that list and they are the ones that do the real work.
- Seven year retention. A matter must be kept in the mine record for at least seven years after it is included.
- Availability, on a clock. The operator must make the record available for inspection by coal mine workers, industry safety and health representatives and the site senior executive. When one of them asks to see a matter, it must be available as soon as practicable, and no later than 5 days after the request if it was recorded in the previous 6 months, or 28 days otherwise.
- Handover. If the coal mine operator is replaced, the former operator must give the new operator the mine record as soon as practicable.
- Integrity. A person must not destroy, deface or alter the mine record so that it is no longer a correct and complete record. The maximum penalty for that offence is double the penalty for failing to keep the record in the first place.
Read those together and the mine record is not a filing requirement. It is an audit trail with a response deadline and a legally protected integrity requirement attached, which is a rarer thing than it sounds.
What the guidance adds
The inspectorate publishes QGN 05, a guidance note on keeping and using the mine record at mining and quarrying operations. It covers both the coal Act and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999, because both require a mine record. The state’s register of standards and guidance notes lists it for both sectors.
QGN 05 is a guidance note. In Queensland that is a different tier from a recognised standard or a guideline made under the Acts, and it is not mandatory. The note says so itself, and cautions that in some circumstances compliance with it may not be sufficient to comply with the legislation. Treat it as the inspectorate telling you how it thinks about the obligation, not as a safe harbour.
Three points in it matter for anyone running the record electronically. The Acts do not prescribe the form the mine record must take. An electronic system must provide backup so records can be retrieved if they are deleted or lost to a software or hardware fault, and must be set up to prevent records being tampered with. And where workers cannot get to a terminal, the site needs to provide printed copies so they can still inspect the record.
Read it alongside the current Act, not instead of it. The version linked from the register quotes an earlier wording of section 68. The section was amended in 2024, and the fixed 5 and 28 day access timeframes come from the Act as it now stands.
The mine record is not the same as the mine’s records
This is the distinction sites get wrong most often. A mine generates an enormous volume of records: pre starts, permits, maintenance history, survey plans. Most of that is not the mine record.
The mine record is the narrower, statutory set: what inspections, investigations and audits under the Act found, what the regulator directed, what you did about it, and what serious accidents and high potential incidents occurred, plus whatever a regulation prescribes. It is the formal history of oversight and consequence at the mine.
At coal mines, the prescribed part now reaches well into routine inspection work. Under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, a supervisor’s responsibilities include recording the reports, findings and recommendations of the workplace inspections the safety and health management system requires in the mine record (s 16A, inserted in 2024). Before an inspection under s 106, the open cut examiner must read the latest OCE report in the mine record and acknowledge in writing, in the mine record, that they have read it. Training and assessment records (s 82A) and abnormal circumstances declarations (s 123) are also required to go in. The detail of the OCE report itself is covered in Queensland OCE report requirements.
The practical implication is that the mine record has to be assembled from other systems, because the source material is generated elsewhere. An inspection happens in the field and produces a report. A high potential incident is reported through the incident process. A directive arrives from an inspector by email. Each of those has to end up in one place, complete and unaltered, and stay there for seven years. Our guide to mine site inspections in Australia maps which inspections generate that material.
High potential incidents and the mine record
HPIs sit in both the notification stream and the mine record, and the two obligations are separate. Notifying the inspectorate of a high potential incident does not satisfy the mine record obligation, and recording it in the mine record does not satisfy the notification obligation. The timeframes and duties around notification are covered in high potential incident reporting in Queensland.
The common failure is that the HPI notification is done carefully, because there is a deadline and a person chasing it, while the mine record entry is done later, by someone else, from memory.
What “correct and complete” actually demands
The prohibition on altering the record so that it is no longer correct and complete has an implication that most digital systems handle badly: you need to be able to show what a record said at the time, not only what it says now.
Correcting a genuine error is legitimate. Editing an inspection finding six months later so that it reads more comfortably is not. The difference between the two is visible only if the system keeps a history. A spreadsheet where the current cell value is the only surviving fact cannot tell those two situations apart, and neither can you.
This is the same problem that makes paper based statutory reporting fragile, and it shows up in the same way in digitising OCE reports and statutory inspections.
Keeping inspection records digitally so they satisfy the mine record
Most inspection reports are now captured on a tablet or phone. That only becomes a mine record problem when the system was chosen for speed of capture and nobody asked whether its output meets the Act. Test it against four properties.
Complete
The Act asks for reports of inspections and the findings and recommendations that result, and at coal mines the regulation extends that to supervisors’ workplace inspections. A form that captures ticks but lets the inspector skip the findings produces a record that says nothing. Make the fields that matter compulsory, carry the inspector, time and location with every entry, and keep photos with the finding they support. A structured OCE inspection report template is a good test of whether your form captures what the record needs.
Unaltered
QGN 05 expects an electronic system to be set up to prevent tampering. In practice the submitted version should survive, and corrections should show who made them and when, not silently replace the original. A fixed copy made at submission, such as an emailed PDF, shows what the record said on the day.
Retrievable
The 5 and 28 day access timeframes turn retrieval from a convenience into a legal obligation. Pick an inspection from two years ago and time how long it takes to produce. Records captured offline only count once they have synced to the central record, so a device left in a drawer is a gap, not a backup. Check that the system is backed up, and that a crew member without a login can still be given a printed copy.
Retained
Seven years runs from when each matter is included. Check the retention settings of every system holding part of the record, including email archives. A system change, or a change of operator that triggers the handover duty, must move the full history, not just the open items. The same discipline applies to routine shift paperwork; the shift inspection report guide covers what a defensible report contains, and going paperless with mine site inspections covers the move away from paper without losing the audit trail.
Where sites come unstuck
- Nobody owns it. The mine record is the operator’s obligation, and in practice it becomes whoever last had the folder. Ownership needs to be a named position in the management structure.
- Remedial actions are not linked to the directive that caused them. The Act asks for a record of remedial actions taken as a result of directives. A closed action in a separate register with no reference back is not that.
- It is complete but not producible. Everything exists, spread over an email archive, a shared drive, a safety system and a filing cabinet. Assembling it takes days, and the Act now allows 5 days for anything recorded in the last 6 months.
- Seven years is treated as a maximum. It is a minimum. Records can be purged at five years by a retention policy written for a different purpose.
- Edits leave no trace. The system permits changes but keeps no version history, so the integrity obligation cannot be demonstrated either way.
Mine record requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Where it comes from | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection, investigation and audit reports, findings and recommendations | CMSHA s 68(1)(a) | Findings, not just a tick |
| Directives and the remedial actions taken | CMSHA s 68(1)(b) and (c) | Each action traces to its directive |
| Supervisors’ workplace inspection reports, findings and recommendations (coal) | CMSHR 2017 s 16A(d) | Routine SHMS inspections belong in the record |
| Serious accidents and high potential incidents | CMSHA s 68(1)(d) | In addition to notification |
| Keep for at least 7 years | CMSHA s 68(2) | A minimum, not a disposal date |
| Available to workers, ISHRs and the SSE | CMSHA s 68(4) | Not locked behind one person’s login |
| Produce within 5 days (last 6 months) or 28 days (older) | CMSHA s 68(5) | Searchable, not just stored |
| Hand over on change of operator | CMSHA s 68(6) | The full history moves with the mine |
| Never altered so it is no longer correct and complete | CMSHA s 68(7) | Corrections are visible; originals survive |
| Metalliferous mines and quarries | MQSHA s 59 | Same structure applies |
Keeping a record that holds up
A mine record that works has four properties: everything required is in it, each entry is attributable to a person and a time, changes are visible as changes rather than as replacements, and the whole thing can be produced on request without a project.
The usual obstacle is that inspections are done in one place, hazards are tracked in another, and the report in the mine record is retyped from both. HazView puts both on the same site map. Inspections are completed in the field on the site’s own forms, offline if needed, with the completer’s sign-off, a countersignature where required, and photos against the relevant question. Hazards keep their full history, so a change of status shows as a change.
On submit, a PDF of the inspection can be emailed to nominated recipients, a fixed copy of what was recorded on the day. Statutory and shift reports are produced in the site’s own format, and each site’s records stay private in its own deployment in an Australian region.
What it does not do is decide what belongs in the mine record, or set the site’s retention policy. Those are judgements made by people with statutory obligations. The platform’s job is to capture the inspection once, at the source, signed and attributable, so it does not have to be retyped into the record later.
See how HazView works for OCEs and supervisors, or book a demo.
Related guides
- Recognised Standards for Queensland Open Cut Coal Mines
- RS20: Dust Control in Surface Coal Mines
- Blast Fume Management in Open Cut Mining
- Tailings Storage Facility Management
- All QLD Open Cut Coal guides
Frequently asked questions
What is the mine record?
The statutory record a Queensland mine operator must keep, containing reports and findings from inspections, investigations and audits under the Act, directives issued under the Act, remedial actions taken in response, and records of serious accidents and high potential incidents.
How long must the mine record be kept?
A matter must be kept in the mine record for at least seven years after it is included in the record. That is a minimum, not a disposal date, and it is easy to breach with a generic corporate retention policy. Separately, a requested matter must be produced within 5 days if it was recorded in the previous 6 months, or 28 days otherwise.
Can the mine record be electronic?
Yes. QGN 05 notes that the Acts do not prescribe the form of the mine record. An electronic mine record must still be a correct and complete record, available for inspection within the required timeframes and retained for at least seven years. QGN 05 adds that an electronic system should be backed up and set up to prevent tampering, with printed copies for workers who cannot access it. A system with a proper history demonstrates integrity more convincingly than a bound book with pages torn out.
Who is responsible for the mine record?
The coal mine operator carries the obligation. In practice the work is delegated, and that delegation should appear in the management structure required by RS22 rather than being assumed.
Do quarries have to keep a mine record?
Yes. Section 59 of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 carries its own mine record obligation, with the same seven year minimum, access timeframes and integrity offence, and QGN 05 addresses both sectors. The detail differs, the principle does not.
Is correcting an error in the mine record allowed?
Correcting a genuine error is what keeps the record correct. The prohibition is on altering it so that it is no longer a correct and complete record. The safe approach is a system where the correction and the original are both visible, so the change can be explained rather than merely asserted.