NSW mine workplace inspection requirements come mainly from section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022, which requires every mine operator to have arrangements in place for the regular inspection of the working environment. The operator decides how, when, by whom and by how many people, based on a risk assessment of every area of the mine. Coal mines carry an extra, more prescriptive layer in section 88: a written inspection plan, and at a surface coal mine an inspection of each active production area at least once every shift.
This guide covers what those two sections say, how they connect to the safety management system and shift handover, who is allowed to inspect, what has to be recorded, how the NSW Resources Regulator looks at your inspection regime, and where regimes usually fall over.
Why the inspection regime matters more than the form
A NSW mine inspection regime sits inside something bigger. NSW mine safety law is built around the operator’s safety management system and its hazard and control plans. Inspections are how the operator finds out whether those controls are in place today, on this bench, road or machine.
If the inspection is not done, or nothing happens with what it finds, the control plans are just documents. The Regulation cares less about the checklist and more about who inspects, how often, and how findings reach someone who can act.
What the Regulation actually says
The instrument is the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022, made under the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013. Three provisions do most of the work on workplace inspections.
Section 39: inspections at every mine
Section 39 sits in the division of specific control measures that apply to all mines and petroleum sites. It says the mine operator of a mine must ensure arrangements are in place for the regular inspection of the working environment of the mine for the purposes of the WHS laws. In making those arrangements the operator must take into account:
- the procedures for conducting inspections
- when inspections must be carried out
- the persons competent to conduct inspections
- the number of competent persons required to conduct each inspection
The operator must also ensure a risk assessment is conducted on all areas of the mine when working through those four matters. It is an offence provision, with a maximum penalty of 60 penalty units for an individual and 300 for a body corporate. The Regulator quoted it in full in its 2025 Small Mines Roadshow presentation on quarry and pit inspections.
Section 19: inspections belong in the safety management system
Section 19 lists what the safety management system must contain. Paragraph (s) requires the arrangements for all other monitoring and assessment and regular inspection of the working environment. Paragraph (q) requires records management procedures and paragraph (r) requires arrangements for communicating relevant information across shifts. Your inspection arrangements belong in the system, not in someone’s head.
Section 88: the inspection plan at coal mines
Section 88 applies to coal mines only. The operator must prepare an inspection plan and ensure inspections are carried out in accordance with it. The plan must:
- divide the mine into inspection areas, each no larger than a competent person can reasonably inspect in the time allocated
- at a surface coal mine, identify a production area for each area where coal or mineral is extracted, including areas where drilling is carried out and where haul roads, dumps or stockpiles are being used
- provide for how concerns about the size of production areas, and the ability of inspectors to do the job, are resolved
- set out how a safety concern from an inspection is brought to the attention of the people affected and the relevant manager
- set out how a more senior manager is told what the relevant manager did, or did not do, about it
- provide for recording the results of inspections
- provide for the regular and timely review of inspection reports by relevant managers
At a coal mine other than an underground mine, each production area where mining operations are taking place must be inspected under the plan at least once every shift. Inspections may need to be more frequent depending on the risks present. Underground coal mines have a much tighter timed schedule, outside the scope of this guide.
Who is allowed to inspect
At most mines the answer is a competent person, as defined by your own arrangements. Section 39 makes competence and head count something the operator decides through the risk assessment. It does not name a role.
Coal is more specific. Under section 88, the inspection of a production area, or former production area, at a surface coal mine must be carried out by a mining supervisor. The Regulation’s dictionary defines a mining supervisor as a person nominated to exercise one of a set of statutory functions, which includes open cut examiner and quarry manager. Schedule 10 describes the open cut examiner’s statutory function as supervising workers and inspecting work areas in a part of the mine, and that nomination requires a current practising certificate. Other inspection areas can be inspected by a competent person.
At quarries and other non-coal surface mines, Schedule 10 gives the quarry manager the statutory function of supervising mining operations at the mine. Who carries out day to day pit inspections is set by the operator’s arrangements under section 39. Our NSW quarry pit inspection checklist turns them into a field form.
At coal mines, section 88 also requires that workers are permitted to examine their own workplace for risks before and during their work.
How often inspections must happen
Only coal mines have a frequency written into the Regulation. For everyone else, “regular” is defined by your own risk assessment, which means you need to be able to explain why the frequency you chose is enough.
- Surface coal production areas: at least once every shift while mining operations are taking place, and more often where the risks require it.
- After an interruption: at a coal mine, no one may enter a production area once the regular routine of inspections has been interrupted, until the area has been inspected again under section 88. The inspector is the exception.
- Quarries and other mines: whatever the section 39 risk assessment supports. In practice, heavy rain, blasting and changing ground conditions are the usual reasons to inspect more often.
Plant sits on a parallel track. Section 32 requires every operator managing mobile plant to have regard to the maintenance, testing and inspection of brakes, steering, lights and other safety features. Schedule 2 also requires the mechanical engineering control plan to take into account the inspection and testing of plant and structures, including braking, steering, warning systems and other safety critical functions, and the identification and rectification of defects. Pre-start checks and scheduled plant inspections usually live there rather than in the workplace inspection plan.
What has to be recorded and handed over
At a coal mine, the inspection plan must provide for recording the results of inspections and for relevant managers to review those reports regularly and in a timely way. Every mine’s safety management system must include records management procedures that ensure compliance with the WHS laws. No form is prescribed, but a record that holds up shows:
- the inspection area and where in it the finding sits
- who inspected, their role, and the date, time and shift
- what was found, with photos where a picture explains it faster
- what was done immediately, and who was told
- the relevant manager’s response, and whether it was escalated
- when the item was closed out, and by whom
Shift handover is its own obligation. Section 31 requires, at a mine working more than one shift a day, a written report from the outgoing supervisor to the incoming supervisor on the workings, the state of plant and other health and safety matters, with signed or electronically signed acknowledgments in both directions. Inspection findings are the raw material for that report, which is why a clean shift inspection report saves so much time at changeover.
How NSW Resources Regulator inspections test your regime
The NSW Resources Regulator describes its compliance and enforcement approach as risk-based, consistent and responsive. Its compliance priorities for July 2026 to June 2027 list mine safety assessment programs organised by principal hazard and control plan, such as collision of vehicles or mobile plant in roads or other vehicle operating areas, uncontrolled movement of ground or strata at the surface and, for small mines, safety management systems at Tier 3 quarries.
Its consolidated report on roads and vehicle operating areas at small mines and quarries describes the method: a desktop assessment of the relevant plans, an inspection of site operations, worker interviews and feedback to management. An inspector who reads “roads are inspected every shift” in a plan will expect the shift records that prove it, and the defects in them fixed or tracked.
Where inspection regimes break down
- Frequency with no risk assessment behind it. “Weekly” was chosen years ago and nobody can say why. Section 39 expects the risk assessment to drive it.
- Inspection areas too big for the time allowed. Section 88 addresses this for coal. Quarries see it when one supervisor must cover pit, plant and stockpiles before first load.
- Generic forms. A checklist written for any workplace misses the hazards that actually hurt people in a pit. See why general checklists create a false sense of safety.
- Findings that stop at the form. The concern is written down, the form is filed, and the relevant manager never sees it. Escalation paths exist on paper but leave no trace.
- No location. “Edge protection damaged on the ramp” means little when there are four ramps. The next shift cannot find it, and the manager cannot see whether it clusters.
- Records that cannot be produced. Everything exists somewhere, across notebooks, tablets and email, and assembling it takes days.
Turning the requirement into a working routine
The hard part is not the inspection. It is everything after it: getting the finding to the right manager, seeing whether it was actioned, handing it to the next shift, and producing the trail when the Regulator asks. Paper and generic form apps capture the inspection and lose the rest.
HazView puts the inspection on the same site map every role uses. Checklists are built to the mine’s own forms and can be pinned to the location being inspected or attached to a specific hazard, so a finding on a ramp is a mark on the ramp, not a line in a filed report. They work fully offline in the pit and sync back in reception. Conditional logic opens an escalation section when an answer is non-conforming, each question can carry photos and comments, and sign-off can include a countersignature nominated by role, with a PDF record emailed to nominated recipients on submit. The site’s forms and records stay private inside its own deployment. See how HazView works for mine managers, or book a demo built around your own inspection plan.
For the wider picture across Queensland, NSW and WA, see our guide to mine site inspections in Australia.
Summary: NSW inspection obligations at a glance
| Requirement | Applies to | What it asks of the operator |
|---|---|---|
| Section 39 inspections | All mines | Arrangements for regular inspection of the working environment, covering procedures, timing, competent persons and head count, backed by a risk assessment of all areas |
| Section 19(s) | All mines | Inspection arrangements written into the safety management system |
| Section 88 inspection plan | Coal mines | Inspection areas, production areas, escalation to relevant and senior managers, recording of results, timely manager review |
| Section 88 frequency | Surface coal production areas | At least once every shift while operating, more often where risk requires |
| Section 88 inspector | Surface coal production areas | A mining supervisor, such as an open cut examiner |
| Section 31 shift handover | Mines working more than one shift a day | Written outgoing report on workings, plant and safety matters, with signed acknowledgments |
| Schedule 2 mechanical engineering control plan | Mines with mechanical plant and structure risks | Inspection and testing of plant and structures, and defect rectification |
Related guides
- Mine Site Inspections in Australia: What the Law Requires, What to Check and What a Defensible Record Looks Like
- NSW Quarry Pit Inspections: A Practical Checklist
- Pre-start Inspection Requirements on Australian Mine Sites
- Light Vehicle Pre-start Checklist for Mine Sites, and How Faults Are Graded
- All Inspections & Checklists guides
Frequently asked questions
Which clause covers inspection of the working environment at a NSW mine?
Section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022. It requires the mine operator to have arrangements for regular inspection of the working environment, and section 19 requires those arrangements to be part of the safety management system.
How often must a NSW quarry be inspected?
The Regulation does not set a fixed frequency for quarries. The operator decides when inspections happen through a risk assessment of all areas of the mine under section 39, and must be able to justify the answer. The once-per-shift minimum in section 88 applies to surface coal mines.
Does the inspector have to be an open cut examiner?
At a surface coal mine, production area inspections under section 88 must be done by a mining supervisor, and an open cut examiner is one of the roles that counts. Elsewhere, the operator decides who is competent to inspect as part of its section 39 arrangements.
Can inspections be recorded electronically?
Yes. The Regulation does not prescribe paper, and section 31 expressly allows handover acknowledgments to be electronically signed. The Regulator’s 2025 small mines material describes inspections recorded electronically with photographs as ideal for shift handovers, because the oncoming supervisor can see the issue and track whether it deteriorates.
What does the Regulator look for during a planned inspection?
Expect a desktop review of your plans followed by a look at site operations and conversations with workers. The inspector will compare what your plans say about inspections with the records showing they happened, and check that findings reached the relevant manager and were acted on.