Recognised standards state a way of achieving an acceptable level of risk at a Queensland coal mine. They are not regulations, and that distinction is the single most misunderstood thing about them. You can depart from a recognised standard. What you cannot do is depart from one and have no answer when an inspector asks why.
There are 23 recognised standards. Roughly half are written for underground operations and will never apply to an open cut. This guide sorts out which ones actually bite on a surface operation, what legal weight they carry, and how they sit alongside guidelines and guidance notes.
On this page
- Where recognised standards come from
- Recognised standards, guidelines and guidance notes are not the same thing
- Which recognised standards apply to an open cut
- The four that carry the most weight day to day
- The guidance notes worth knowing on an open cut
- The obligation underneath all of it
- Where sites come unstuck
- Making compliance visible instead of filed
Where recognised standards come from
The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 lets the Minister make a standard for safety and health, stating ways to achieve an acceptable level of risk. That is the whole design intent in one sentence. The Act sets the outcome, which is that risk at the mine is at an acceptable level, and the recognised standard describes a way of getting there.
Two consequences follow, and both matter more than the content of any individual standard.
- A recognised standard is admissible in evidence. If a proceeding turns on whether you achieved an acceptable level of risk, the standard comes into the room with you.
- Following it is one way to discharge the obligation, not the only way. If you do something different, you carry the burden of showing your approach achieves at least the same level of risk control.
In practice this means a departure is a decision that needs a documented rationale sitting behind it in your safety and health management system. A departure nobody can explain is not a technical breach. It is an evidence problem, and it is the one that gets written up.
Recognised standards, guidelines and guidance notes are not the same thing
Queensland publishes three tiers of material and they carry different weight. People use the words interchangeably and then get surprised in an audit.
- Recognised standards (RS). Made under the Act, admissible in evidence, coal mines only.
- Guidelines (QGL). Made under the Act for mineral mines and quarries. Different instrument, different sector.
- Guidance notes (QGN). Published by the inspectorate as practical advice. Not law, and compliance with a guidance note is not by itself proof of compliance with the legislation. They are still the best written advice available on several topics, and inspectors know their content.
If you also run quarry or mineral operations, the equivalent picture on that side is set out in which Queensland recognised standards apply to a quarry. The short answer there is none of them, because quarries run under a different Act, and the confusion between the two is common enough to be worth reading.
Which recognised standards apply to an open cut
Of the 23, these are the ones that do real work on a surface operation.
| Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
| RS02 | Control of risk management practices |
| RS07 | Criteria for the assessment of drugs in coal mines |
| RS08 | Conduct of mine emergency exercises |
| RS10 | Mine surveying and drafting |
| RS11 | Training in coal mines |
| RS13 | Tyre, wheel and rim management |
| RS14 | Monitoring respirable dust in coal mines |
| RS17 | Hazardous chemicals |
| RS19 | Design and construction of mine roads |
| RS20 | Dust control in surface mines |
| RS22 | Management structure for the development and implementation of the SHMS |
| RS23 | Fluid power safety in coal mines |
The rest are underground: explosion protected diesel engines, sealed area monitoring, place change mining, explosion barriers, heat management, polymeric chemicals, incombustible dust and the underground inspection and dust standards. Useful to know they exist. Not your problem on an open cut.
The four that carry the most weight day to day
RS22, management structure
Released in August 2021 and the most consequential of the recent additions. It requires the site senior executive to build a management structure for developing and implementing the SHMS, to work out what competencies each delegated position actually needs, and to document those competencies in the structure itself. It is the standard that asks whether your organisation chart describes anything real. See RS22 explained.
RS19, mine roads
The most detailed road design document published in Australia, covering widths, grades, berms, intersections, signage and inspection. It is also the standard most often audited by physical inspection, because a road either meets the geometry or it does not. See the full RS19 guide to the design and construction of mine roads.
RS20, dust control in surface mines
Supports the dust provisions of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 and gives the framework for a dust management plan across every dust generating process on a surface operation. It sits alongside RS14, which deals with monitoring rather than control. See RS20 and dust control on a surface coal mine.
RS11, training
Covers induction, training needs by role, assessment, recognition of prior learning, refresher training and record keeping. It applies to surface and underground alike, and it is where the five yearly refresher obligation lives in practice. See RS11 and training in coal mines.
The guidance notes worth knowing on an open cut
Guidance notes carry no legal force, and several of them are the most practically useful documents the inspectorate has published. On an open cut, four earn their place.
- QGN 20, oxides of nitrogen in open cut blasting. Defines a fume event, sets out what to record when one happens, and who to report it to.
- QGN 29, surface tailings storage facility management. Design, construction, operation and the surveillance regime that validates all three.
- QGN 09, reviewing the effectiveness of the SHMS. The natural companion to RS22, because a structure that exists is not the same as a system that works.
- QGN 15, emergency preparedness for small mines and quarries. Written for smaller operations and still the clearest checklist available for anyone.
The obligation underneath all of it
Standards describe methods. Section 68 of the Act describes the receipts. The coal mine operator must keep a mine record holding the reports, findings and recommendations from inspections, investigations and audits at the mine, every directive issued under the Act, the remedial actions taken in response, and the record of serious accidents and high potential incidents. Matters stay in it for at least seven years, it has to be available for inspection, and nobody may alter it so that it stops being a correct and complete record.
That obligation is what turns every standard above from a document into something you have to be able to prove. It is covered on its own in the mine record and what Queensland law actually requires.
Where sites come unstuck
- Treating a standard as a checklist rather than a way of achieving an outcome. Ticking every clause and still carrying an unacceptable risk is a failure, and the Act is written to catch exactly that.
- Undocumented departures. The departure is usually sensible. The absence of the reasoning is what turns it into a finding.
- Assuming the current edition is the one on the shared drive. Standards are revised through tripartite working groups and reissued. RS20 and RS22 are both recent.
- Confusing a recognised standard with a guidance note, in either direction. One is admissible in evidence. The other explicitly is not sufficient on its own.
- Compliance that exists but cannot be shown. The work is done, the road is right, the training happened, and none of it can be produced without three people and a week of searching.
Making compliance visible instead of filed
Every standard above generates evidence: inspections, measurements, plans, competencies, records of change. The common failure is not that the work is skipped, it is that the evidence lands in five systems and a filing cabinet, and nobody can assemble it on the day it is asked for.
HazView holds that evidence against the place it belongs to on the mine. An inspection is logged where it happened, with the time, the person, the photographs and the result attached, and it stays there permanently. Overdue items and expiring competencies are visible rather than discoverable. Because the platform has a REST API, records can be fed in from the systems you already run and pushed back out to the ones that need them, which removes the double entry that makes people stop recording things properly in the first place.
It does not make the site compliant. That remains the site senior executive’s judgement. What it does is make the state of compliance something you can see on a map instead of something you reconstruct after the fact.
If you carry statutory responsibility on an open cut operation, see how HazView works for managers and SSEs or book a demo and put it against your own site.
Guides in this series
Each guide below covers one part of this topic in depth.
- RS22: Management Structure for the Safety and Health Management System
- The Mine Record: What Queensland Law Actually Requires
- RS20: Dust Control in Surface Coal Mines
- Blast Fume Management in Open Cut Mining
- Tailings Storage Facility Management
- RS11: Training in Coal Mines
- RS10: Mine Surveying and Drafting
- Reviewing the Effectiveness of Your Safety and Health Management System
- Emergency Preparedness for Small Mines and Quarries
HazView keeps this detail live on a site map rather than in a folder. Book a demo to see it against your own site.
Frequently asked questions
Are recognised standards mandatory?
No, not in the way a regulation is. A recognised standard states a way of achieving an acceptable level of risk, and it is admissible in evidence. You may take a different approach, but you must be able to show it achieves at least the same level of control, and that reasoning belongs in your safety and health management system.
How many recognised standards are there?
23 at the time of writing. About half apply only to underground operations. Twelve are relevant to an open cut. The register is maintained by Resources Safety and Health Queensland and is the only place to confirm the current list and edition.
Do recognised standards apply to quarries?
No. Recognised standards are made under the coal mining legislation. Quarries and mineral mines run under the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 and use guidelines and guidance notes instead. Many quarries adopt RS19 voluntarily as a road design benchmark because nothing better exists.
What happens if we do not follow a recognised standard?
Nothing automatically. The question becomes whether the alternative you adopted achieves an acceptable level of risk, and whether you can demonstrate that. The practical risk is not the departure itself, it is being unable to produce the assessment that justified it.
How do I know I have the current edition?
Check the RSHQ register rather than a copy held on site or supplied by a training provider. Older editions circulate widely and cite superseded regulation sections. RS20 and RS22 in particular have been issued or reissued recently.