Last reviewed: 29 September 2026
A mine site inspection checklist is the tool a supervisor, open cut examiner or quarry manager uses to confirm that a workplace is safe to work in, and to record what was found and what was done about it. In Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia the law does not hand you a standard checklist. It requires the mine to have inspection arrangements, to carry them out before and during work, and to keep the results. The checklist is how you meet that, and the record it produces is what you will be judged on.
This guide covers what the regulations in each state actually say, the main types of inspection on a mine or quarry, what a defensible inspection record contains, and where inspection systems fail in practice. It also links to every detailed checklist and guide in this series, grouped by type, so you can go straight to the one you need.
On this page
- Why the inspection record matters more than the form
- What the law requires, state by state
- The main types of inspection on a mine site
- What a defensible inspection record contains
- A core mine site inspection checklist for any workplace
- Where inspection systems fail in practice
- How inspections get managed day to day
- Summary: inspection obligations at a glance
Why the inspection record matters more than the form
Most sites do inspections. The problem is rarely that nobody walked the area. It is that nobody can later show what was checked, where exactly, what was wrong, who was told and whether it was fixed. After an incident, an inspector or investigator asks those questions in that order, and a ticked box answers none of them.
An inspection has three jobs. It finds the hazard before someone is exposed to it. It triggers a response that is proportionate to what was found. And it leaves a record that proves both happened. A checklist that does the first job well but loses the second and third is a memory aid, not a control.
That is why the rest of this guide spends as much time on the record as on the checks themselves.
What the law requires, state by state
Each jurisdiction frames the obligation differently, but the pattern is the same: the operator must have a documented inspection system based on risk, competent people must carry it out, and the results must be recorded and acted on. The detail below comes from the regulations themselves.
Queensland coal mines
The Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 carries three provisions every surface coal operation should know.
- Section 106. 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, to decide whether the level of risk is acceptable. The inspection must happen before activities start and periodically as required by the safety and health management system. Before inspecting, the examiner must read the latest open-cut examiner’s report in the mine record and acknowledge in writing that they have read it.
- Section 107. If the examiner finds an unacceptable level of risk, the thing must be made safe immediately where practicable. If it is not, the examiner must notify exposed persons, erect a barrier, stop operations and withdraw people from that part of the mine, and if it is still not safe by the end of the shift, report it to their supervisor and to the examiner inspecting on the next shift.
- Section 141. A surface mine must have a standard operating procedure for safety inspections of workplaces, including the open-cut examiner’s inspections. The procedure must require an inspection before an on-site activity starts and periodically while it continues, and the results, including hazards and recommended corrective action, must be made available to coal mine workers.
Since the 2024 amendments, section 16A also sets out supervisor responsibilities for all coal mines, including carrying out workplace inspections as required under the safety and health management system and recording the reports, findings and recommendations of those inspections in the mine record. Section 68 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 then requires the mine record to hold the reports, findings and recommendations of inspections carried out under the Act, each kept for at least seven years after it goes in. The detail of how that plays out for examiners is covered in our guide to statutory inspections at Queensland coal mines, and the record itself in what Queensland law requires of the mine record.
Queensland metalliferous mines and quarries
The Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Regulation 2017 received a parallel amendment. Section 95A gives every supervisor the responsibility to carry out inspections of workplaces as required under the mine’s safety and health management system, to record the reports, findings and recommendations from those inspections in the mine record, and to implement and monitor hazard and risk controls. For a quarry, that puts the supervisor’s inspection squarely inside the statutory record, not in a site folder.
In both Queensland regimes, keep the tiers straight. The regulation is law. A recognised standard states a way of achieving an acceptable level of risk, and under section 37 of the coal Act you discharge the obligation only by following that way or another way that is at least as good. A guidance note (QGN) is guidance only. Never treat a QGN as mandatory, and never treat compliance with it as a safe harbour.
New South Wales
The Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 has two provisions that matter most for surface operations.
- Clause 39, all mines. The mine operator must ensure arrangements are in place for the regular inspection of the working environment. Those arrangements must take into account the inspection procedures, when inspections must be carried out, who is competent to carry them out and how many competent people each inspection needs, and a risk assessment must be done on all areas of the mine when deciding them.
- Clause 88, coal mines. The operator must prepare an inspection plan that divides the mine into inspection areas no larger than a competent person can reasonably inspect in the time allowed. At an open cut coal mine, a production area is identified for each area where coal is extracted, including drilling areas and haul roads, dumps or stockpiles in use, and each production area where mining operations are taking place must be inspected at least once every shift. The plan must also cover how safety concerns are raised with the relevant manager and escalated to a more senior one, how inspection results are recorded, and how managers review the reports.
The open cut examiner is a statutory function in NSW coal: the regulation describes it as supervising workers and inspecting work areas in a part of the mine. Our guide to NSW mine workplace inspection requirements works through both clauses, and the NSW Resources Regulator publishes the related guidance.
Western Australia
Regulation 634A of the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 requires the mine operator to have arrangements for the regular inspection of workplaces. An inspection must cover what is needed to keep people safe, and the regulation gives examples: the physical site, the work environment, the activities carried out, the plant and potential hazards. Inspections are carried out by the statutory supervisor for the place where one is appointed, an underground supervisor where relevant, or otherwise a competent person appointed by the operator, and electrical work done by an electrician is inspected by the mine’s electrical supervisor.
The arrangements must be based on a risk assessment and must set the procedures, the timing, the competence required and the number of people. The WA regulations cover quarries as well as mines, and WorkSafe publishes mining self-assessment templates that operations are encouraged to use when reviewing their arrangements. For quarry operators there is a dedicated WA quarry inspection checklist.
The main types of inspection on a mine site
A working mine runs several inspection streams at once, done by different people with different triggers. Treating them as one generic “inspection” is where many systems go wrong, because each has its own owner, frequency and escalation path.
Pre-start inspections
Done by the operator before a vehicle or plant item is used for the shift. The value is in the fault grading: which defects stop the machine, which allow limited use, and which go to maintenance. See pre-start inspection requirements on Australian mine sites for the legal basis.
Shift and statutory inspections
The open cut examiner’s or supervisor’s inspection of the working area, done before work starts and repeated through the shift. This is the inspection the regulations name most directly, and its report feeds the next shift. Our shift inspection report guide covers what it must record, and the Queensland OCE report requirements explain the report in the coal context.
Geotechnical inspections
Highwalls, excavated walls, spoil and waste dumps, and quarry faces. These inspections look for change over time, so they depend on a fixed location and comparable photos, and they usually feed a trigger action response plan (TARP) with defined levels.
Blast, isolation and critical control inspections
Pre-blast area checks by the shotfirer, isolation verification before work on energised plant, and critical control verification that proves a control actually works in the field rather than existing on paper. Each has a hard stop built in: if the check fails, the work does not proceed.
Road, plant and tyre inspections
Haul road condition, berms and drainage, and tyre and rim condition on mobile equipment. These are high frequency, often done by different crews, and easy to let slide into routine box ticking.
What a defensible inspection record contains
Whatever the inspection type, the record has to answer the same questions an inspector will ask. The regulations above point to the same elements: who inspected, when, where, what they found, what they did, and who was told. If your mine site inspection checklist cannot capture each of these, it is incomplete no matter how good the questions are.
| Element | What good looks like | Common weak version |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Named, competent person in the role the SHMS assigns, with a sign-off | Initials, or a crew name |
| When | Date and time of the inspection itself, in site local time | Date the form was typed up |
| Where | A specific location or inspection area, ideally on the mine plan | “Pit 2” or “north end” |
| What was checked | Each item answered, with not applicable recorded as such | Blank items, or a single “all OK” |
| What was found | A description of each defect or hazard, with a photo | “Minor issues noted” |
| Response | The immediate action taken: made safe, barricaded, area withdrawn, TARP level set | Nothing recorded between finding and close-out |
| Escalation | Who was told, and when, including the next shift | Assumed to have happened verbally |
| Owner and close-out | A corrective action with an accountable person, due date and closed status | An action in an email thread |
| Review | Evidence the supervisor or manager read the report | No trace of review |
| Retention | Stored in or linked to the mine record, unaltered | Paper in a ute, or a spreadsheet anyone can edit |
The last row matters more than it looks. In Queensland the mine record must be kept for at least seven years and must not be altered so that it is no longer correct and complete. A record you can quietly edit later is not a defensible record.
A core mine site inspection checklist for any workplace
Every specific checklist in this series builds on the same core. Use this as the frame for a general workplace inspection, then add the sections that apply to the area: walls, dumps, roads, plant or blasting.
| Section | Check | Escalate if |
|---|---|---|
| Before you go | Previous inspection report read and acknowledged; open hazards and TARP levels for the area known | An open hazard has no recorded owner or action |
| Access and ground | Access route, benches, floors and edges in the expected condition; no new cracking, slumping or undercutting | Any new ground movement or loss of an edge control |
| Traffic and interaction | Roads, berms, signage, lighting and separation as designed | A berm, sign or separation control is missing or damaged |
| Plant and equipment | Plant in the area is fit for use; guards and isolations in place where work is under way | Plant operating with a known defect or a missing isolation |
| Environment | Dust, water, drainage, weather and visibility within the limits the SHMS sets | Conditions outside those limits for the planned work |
| Activities | The work being done matches the plan and the controls in the risk assessment | Work is happening that the plan does not cover |
| Critical controls | The critical controls for the principal hazards present in the area are in place and working | Any critical control is missing, bypassed or failed |
| People | Workers know the hazards and the current TARP level for their area | Crew unaware of a hazard or restriction that applies to them |
| Record and hand over | Findings, photos, actions and owners recorded; next shift and supervisor informed | An unacceptable risk remains at the end of the shift |
Where inspection systems fail in practice
The failure modes are consistent across sites, regardless of state or commodity.
- A form without a place. The inspection says “north wall OK” but nothing ties it to a location on the plan, so nobody can tell next month whether the same crack is growing.
- A finding without a hazard. The defect is noted on the checklist but never becomes a tracked hazard, so it lives only in a PDF that nobody reopens.
- An action without an owner. “Fix berm” with no person, no date and no status is an intention, not a control.
- The same answer every shift. When a checklist has fifty items and forty of them never change, people stop reading them. Long generic lists produce confident records of nothing in particular.
- Paper that arrives late. A hard copy completed in the pit and typed up at the end of the week cannot warn the next shift.
- No proof of review. The report exists, but there is no evidence the supervisor or manager read it, which is exactly what the NSW inspection plan requirements ask for.
Generic checklist apps solve the paper problem and little else. They digitise the form but keep it separate from the map, the hazard register and the owner of the fix. Why that gives false comfort is covered in why general checklists create a false sense of safety in mining, and why location is the missing piece in why every mine inspection needs a location.
Inspection checklists and guides in this series
Each guide below is written for Australian mines and quarries and includes the full checklist on the page where it is a template.
Statutory and shift inspections
- OCE inspection report template with a full checklist
- What a supervisor’s shift inspection report must record
- Statutory inspections at Queensland coal mines explained
- NSW workplace inspection requirements for mines
- The Queensland mine record and what goes in it
Geotechnical and quarry face inspections
- Highwall and excavated wall inspection checklist
- Spoil and waste dump inspection checklist with TARP levels
- Quarry face inspection checklist
- NSW quarry pit inspection checklist
Pre-start, plant and road inspections
- Pre-start inspection requirements and who must do them
- Light vehicle pre-start checklist and fault categories
- Haul truck pre-start checklist
- Tyre and rim inspection checklist for mining equipment
- Haul road inspection checklist for mines and quarries
Blasting, isolation and critical controls
- Shotfirer pre-blast area inspection checklist
- Isolation verification checklist
- Critical control verification checklists that prove the control works
- Digital TARPs, from laminated card to live trigger
Going digital
- A buyer’s checklist for mine inspection software
- Going paperless with digital inspections that hold up
- What a quarry actually needs from an inspection app
- Putting every inspection on the mine map
- The limits of general checklists in mining
How inspections get managed day to day
The hard part of inspections is not writing the questions. It is joining the inspection to everything around it: the location on the plan, the hazard it found, the person who owns the fix, the next shift who needs to know, and the record that has to survive seven years. On most sites those live in five different places, and the joins are made by memory and email.
HazView puts the inspection on the same map of the site that every role already uses. Each checklist template is set to be pinned to a location on the map, attached to a specific hazard, or completed with no map where location does not matter. A non-conforming answer can open a follow-up section through conditional logic, TARP levels can sit in the answer options so the level comes out of the inspection itself, and every question can carry photos and comments. Corrective actions become controls with an accountable owner, a due date and a status, instead of a line in an email.
Checklists work fully offline in the pit and sync when the device is back in reception, and a PDF record can be generated and emailed to nominated people on submit. Your existing forms are converted like for like first, then improved once crews are using them. Those forms, and every record made with them, stay private inside the site’s own dedicated deployment and are never published to a public template library. More on how this works for site leadership is on HazView for managers, or book a demo to see an inspection go from the field to the map.
Summary: inspection obligations at a glance
| Jurisdiction | Instrument and provision | Core obligation |
|---|---|---|
| QLD coal (surface) | CMSHR 2017 s 106, s 107 | Open-cut examiner inspects before activities start and periodically; makes safe, barricades or withdraws if risk is unacceptable |
| QLD coal (surface) | CMSHR 2017 s 141 | SOP for workplace safety inspections before and during activities; results shared with workers |
| QLD coal (all) | CMSHR 2017 s 16A; CMSHA 1999 s 68 | Supervisors inspect and record findings in the mine record, kept at least seven years |
| QLD mines and quarries | MQSHR 2017 s 95A | Supervisors inspect as the SHMS requires and record findings in the mine record |
| NSW (all mines) | WHS (MPS) Reg 2022 s 39 | Risk-based arrangements for regular inspection of the working environment |
| NSW (coal) | WHS (MPS) Reg 2022 s 88 | Inspection plan and areas; each open cut production area inspected at least once every shift; results recorded and reviewed |
| WA (mines and quarries) | WHS (Mines) Regs 2022 r 634A | Risk-based arrangements for regular workplace inspections by the statutory supervisor or a competent person |
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard mine site inspection checklist required by law?
No. There is no prescribed mining inspection checklist in Australia: none of the Queensland, NSW or WA regulations sets out a single form. They require the operator to set up inspection arrangements based on risk, carried out by competent people and recorded. The checklist is the site’s own tool for meeting that, which is why it must fit the site’s hazards rather than a generic template.
How often must an open cut coal mine be inspected?
In Queensland, the open-cut examiner must inspect before activities start and periodically as the safety and health management system requires. In NSW, each production area at an open cut coal mine where mining operations are taking place must be inspected at least once every shift under the mine’s inspection plan.
Do inspection records have to go in the mine record?
In Queensland, yes. Section 68 of the coal Act and section 59 of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 both require the mine record to include the reports and findings of inspections under the Act, kept for at least seven years, and both Queensland regulations now require supervisors to record their inspection findings in the mine record. In WA, inspection records given by an inspector must be kept in the mine record.
Who can carry out a workplace inspection at a quarry?
It depends on the state and the site’s system. In Queensland the supervisor carries out inspections as the safety and health management system requires. In WA the statutory supervisor for the place does it where one is appointed, otherwise a competent person appointed by the operator. In NSW the operator’s arrangements must specify who is competent.
Can inspections be done on a tablet instead of paper?
Yes. The regulations care about what the record contains and whether it is kept correctly, not the medium. A digital record is stronger if it captures the location, photos, sign-off and actions, works without reception, and cannot be quietly altered after the fact.
What is the difference between a pre-start and a shift inspection?
A pre-start checks a specific vehicle or plant item before its operator uses it. A shift or statutory inspection checks the working area, its ground, roads, activities and controls, and is done by the examiner or supervisor responsible for that area. Both need a record, but they have different owners and different escalation paths.