A NSW quarry pit inspection is a regular, structured walk of the working pit by a competent person, checking faces, benches, edges, roads, drainage, dumps and water bodies, so that section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 is met in practice and not just on paper. Below is a complete checklist you can take into the pit, with what good looks like for each check and the point at which you stop and escalate.
It covers what the regulation requires, what the NSW Resources Regulator tells quarries to check in a pit inspection, how to set the checklist up, and how pit inspections fail.
Why the pit inspection matters
A quarry pit changes every shift. Blasting moves the face, loaders undercut stockpiles, rain fills the sump, and spillage slowly raises road levels under powerlines. None of that shows on the mine plan.
Most face and dump failures give warning: a crack behind the crest, seepage, a bulge at the toe. The inspection is the control that catches it. Rushed, done from the cab or written up from memory, it misses the warning or delivers it too late.
What the NSW regulation requires
The obligation sits in section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022. The mine operator 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 matters. The regulation prescribes no form and no frequency. You decide both, area by area, on risk, and must be able to show how.
Section 4 of the same regulation lists ground or strata failure, inundation or inrush of a substance, and roads or other vehicle operating areas among the principal hazards for mining operations. Most pit checks tie back to one of those three. How the plans fit together at a quarry is covered in our guide to the NSW quarry safety management system.
What the Resources Regulator has told quarries
During its 2025 Small Mines Roadshow (February to April 2025) the Regulator presented a session titled Quarry/pit inspections. It quotes section 39, then sets out prompts for a basic checklist and for a more complex one.
The basic prompts are faces (slips, slumps or failures, or the potential for them), water seeping from the face, bunding at the crest of highwalls and faces, bunding around water bodies such as dams, in pit sumps and silt dams, bunding on roadways, roadway conditions, drainage and pooling, dump design, compaction, bunding and drainage, and signage that is in place and legible.
The complex prompts go further: consult a geotechnical engineer on the checklist and have one carry out periodic inspections, recognise that the original design may not suit the local geology, consider dams in pit sumps, check bunding on ramped-up stockpiles, and check clearance under powerlines and structures as road levels rise. A further slide of examples from other operators adds haul roads, stockpiles, edge protection, benches, access restrictions, and UHF communications and call points.
The session points quarries to the Regulator’s guide Health and safety at quarries (November 2018). Most of the detail in the checklist below comes from it. It predates the 2022 regulation, so its clause numbers refer to the earlier regulation. The Regulator’s current material for smaller operations sits on its small mines and quarries page.
Setting up the checklist for your pit
Start from the risk assessment, not the template
Section 39 asks for a risk assessment on all areas of the mine. Use it to decide which checks apply where, and how often. A generic template checks everything lightly, the problem described in why general checklists create a false sense of safety.
Set the frequency by area
The quarries guide describes pre-shift inspections by operators, supervisor inspections through the shift, and end of shift or daily reports, reviewed by supervisors and managers. For dump heads it says a competent person should inspect before work and at least once each shift, with a written record. Where a pond or dam is a principal hazard, it says a competent person should inspect every accessible area at least weekly. It adds that crests may need more frequent inspection during heavy rain and after large blasts.
Name who is competent
Write down who may sign each inspection and the training they need. Where a check needs geotechnical judgement, have the engineer set what the inspector looks for and when to call.
Make every check end in a decision
Every check should end in one of three outcomes: acceptable, fix and record, or stop and escalate. That is what the “Escalate if” column below is for.
The NSW quarry pit inspection checklist
Adapt the triggers to your geotechnical assessment. Where your site has set a trigger, that trigger wins.
| Check | What good looks like | Escalate if |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Faces and highwalls | ||
| Face condition | No slips, slumps or fresh failures; face shape matches the design | Any slip, slump or fresh fall, or signs one is developing |
| Loose rock | Face scaled; no loose or overhanging material above work areas | Loose rock above people or plant that cannot be scaled now: cordon off |
| Crest tension cracks | No cracks behind the crest; old cracks marked and unchanged | New crack, or an existing crack has lengthened or widened |
| Water on the face | Face dry or seepage known and unchanged | New seepage, increased flow or muddy water from the face |
| Crest bunding | Bund in place along the full crest, built to site standard | Bund missing, breached or too low for the largest vehicle |
| Face after blast | Post-blast check done before re-entry | Excessive overbreak, new cracking or suspected misfire |
| 2. Benches and edges | ||
| Bench width | Wide enough to catch rockfall and let plant work safely | Bench narrowed by failure or filled with spill so it no longer catches |
| Bench edge protection | Windrows or barriers where people or plant work near an edge | Edge unprotected where plant operates |
| Access restrictions | No-go areas barricaded and signed | Barricade down, bypassed, or area used without approval |
| 3. Pit floor, roads and ramps | ||
| Road surface | Graded, free of potholes, ruts, rocks and spillage | Ruts or rocks that affect control or tyres; soft spots under load |
| Road bunding | Windrows continuous along drop-offs, correct height, no gaps | Gap, low section or tyre marks showing a vehicle has hit it |
| Ramps | Grade and width to design; running surface firm | Grade steeper than design, or ramp narrowed by spill or slump |
| Overhead clearance | Clearance under powerlines and structures still meets the limit | Road level has built up; clearance below the limit |
| Signage | Signs in place, legible and correct for current layout | Signs missing, unreadable or pointing to an old layout |
| Dust and visibility | Water cart keeping dust down; clear sight lines | Visibility poor enough to hide vehicles or edges |
| 4. Drainage, sumps and water bodies | ||
| Drainage paths | Water directed away from faces, crests and dumps | Water running toward a crest, into a crack or over a face |
| Ponding | No standing water on roads, floors or dump tops | Ponding at a face toe, on a dump or on a haul route |
| Sump and in-pit dams | Level known; bunded; not undercutting walls | Rising unexpectedly, overtopping, or eroding a wall or bench |
| Dam and pond bunding | Bund around water bodies near roads and work areas | Bund missing or breached |
| Dam walls | No erosion, slumping, settlement or cracking on the crest | Slumping, new seepage on the downstream side, or cracking |
| 5. Dumps, tip heads and stockpiles | ||
| Tip head cracks | No cracks or settlement near the edge | Any crack: dump at least one truck length back or use another area |
| Slope bulging | Slope at normal angle of repose; toe undisturbed | Bulging on the slope or at the toe: stop dumping |
| Soft areas | Firm tipping surface; no ruts or water | Ruts, water or tyres sinking at the tip point |
| Tip head windrow | Windrow in height and profile; no tyre marks on it | Windrow low, damaged, or showing trucks are backing hard into it |
| Undermining | Stockpile toe not loaded out below an active tip head | Toe loaded out below an edge: cordon off, no tipping |
| Ramped stockpiles | Bunding on ramped stockpiles of fines or road base | No bunding on a ramped stockpile that plant drives on |
| 6. Communications and emergency | ||
| UHF and call points | Radio coverage across the pit; call points working | Dead spot in a work area, or a call point not working |
| Emergency access | Emergency route open; people know where it is | Route blocked by stockpile, plant or failure |
| 7. Close out | ||
| Previous findings | Items from the last inspection closed or still controlled | Earlier finding worse, or its control removed |
| Photos and location | Every defect photographed and located in the pit | A defect that cannot be found again by the next shift |
| Handover | Findings passed to the oncoming supervisor and quarry manager | Stop-work item not yet communicated |
For the face itself, use the quarry face inspection checklist alongside this one. If you are moving the checklist off paper, see what to look for in a quarry inspection app.
Where pit inspections go wrong
- Inspected from the floor. Crest movement cannot be seen from below, which is why the quarries guide stresses frequent inspection of crests above active work.
- A tick with no location. “Face OK” on a form does not tell the next shift which face. Without a location and photo, nobody can tell if a crack has grown.
- No trigger, so no decision. Seepage is noted, but the form never says when seepage means stop.
- The frequency never changes. Heavy rain and large blasts call for extra crest checks, but the roster still says once a shift.
- Findings do not reach the manager. Paper reaches the quarry manager at the end of the day or week. The Regulator’s deck calls electronic records with photos ideal for shift handover, because the oncoming supervisor can see the issue and act if it worsens.
- The checklist was never reviewed. It was written when the pit was two benches shallower.
Pit inspections are one part of a wider program. See NSW workplace inspection requirements for mines for the other duties, our guide to quarry safety in NSW for the wider framework, and our overview of mine site inspections in Australia for how it fits together across states.
Keeping the pit inspection record usable
The hard part is not the walk. It is making sure what the inspector saw at 6am is visible, in the right place, to whoever decides at 2pm whether the loader works under that face. Paper and generic form apps record that a check happened, not where the crack is or whether it has grown.
HazView approaches it from the pit map. The site’s own checklist is converted like for like, then improved, and completed on a phone or tablet, fully offline when the pit has no reception. Each inspection can be pinned to a location on the site map or attached to a specific hazard, such as a marked tension crack, so the next inspection of that hazard sits alongside the last. Every question can carry photos. Conditional logic means a non-conforming answer opens the escalation questions, and a PDF record can be emailed to the supervisor and quarry manager on submit. Forms stay private inside the site’s own deployment. There is more on how this works for quarry and mine managers. If you would like to see your pit checklist running on your own map, book a demo.
Related guides
- Mine Site Inspections in Australia: What the Law Requires, What to Check and What a Defensible Record Looks Like
- Pre-start Inspection Requirements on Australian Mine Sites
- Light Vehicle Pre-start Checklist for Mine Sites, and How Faults Are Graded
- Haul Road Inspection Checklist for Mines and Quarries
- All Inspections & Checklists guides
Frequently asked questions
Is a pit inspection a legal requirement at a NSW quarry?
Yes, in substance. Section 39 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 requires the mine operator to have arrangements for the regular inspection of the working environment. The Regulator’s quarries guide and its pit inspection session both apply that requirement to quarries. The regulation does not name a “pit inspection” or prescribe a form, but the pit is the working environment, so it has to be covered.
How often should the pit be inspected?
The regulation leaves frequency to the operator’s risk assessment. The Regulator’s quarries guide points to pre-shift and in-shift inspections as the baseline, with more frequent crest checks during heavy rain and after large blasts.
Who can carry out a quarry pit inspection?
A person the operator has determined is competent for that inspection. Section 39 requires the operator to consider who is competent and how many competent people each inspection needs.
Does the Regulator provide an official checklist?
No. Its 2025 roadshow session gives prompts for basic and complex checklists, but each site builds its own from its risk assessment. The checklist on this page expands those prompts into field checks.
Can a quarry pit inspection be done on a phone?
Yes. The Regulator’s deck notes that many quarrying companies use electronic pre-start apps on phones or tablets, adapted for pit inspections, with photos attached and reports sent straight to the supervisor and quarry manager. What matters is that the record is complete, located and acted on.