The shift inspection report mining supervisors complete each shift is the written record of what they inspected, what they found, what they did about it and what the next crew needs to know. In Queensland the supervisor’s workplace inspection findings belong in the mine record. In New South Wales every production area of a surface coal mine where mining is under way must be inspected at least once every shift, and where more than one shift is worked a day, the outgoing supervisor must give the incoming one a written report.
This guide sets out what the law in each state requires, gives you a field checklist you can use next shift, and explains what separates a report that stands up after an incident from one that only proves somebody drove past.
Why the shift inspection report matters
The supervisor shift inspection is the most frequent structured look at the pit that most sites get. The open cut examiner may cover a large area and the geotechnical engineer visits on a cycle, but the supervisor is on the benches, the roads and the dumps every shift.
That makes the report the first place an investigator looks. Was the soft windrow on the ramp noticed? Was the lighting plant that failed at 0200 in the handover? If the report says “all areas OK” with a signature, the answer to every one of those questions is “we cannot tell”.
What the law requires in Queensland
Queensland does not prescribe a named “shift inspection report” form. The obligations come from several provisions of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, and the detail is set by each mine’s safety and health management system (SHMS).
- Section 16A, supervisor’s responsibilities. Inserted in 2024, it makes it a supervisor’s responsibility to carry out workplace inspections as required under the SHMS and to record the reports, findings and recommendations of those inspections in the mine record.
- Section 141, safety inspections. A surface mine must have a standard operating procedure for safety inspections of workplaces, including the open cut examiner’s inspection. 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.
- Section 117, spoil dumps and excavated faces. The standard operating procedure for working on dumps and near faces must provide for inspecting and monitoring them.
- Sections 106 and 107, the open cut examiner. The OCE inspects the excavation before activities start and periodically, reads and acknowledges the previous OCE report first, and reports anything not made safe at the end of the shift to their immediate supervisor, the next shift’s OCE and, where one supplied information for the decision, the operational ROC worker.
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, kept for at least seven years. Our guide to Queensland mine record requirements covers what that means for retrieval and integrity.
Metalliferous mines and quarries have the same supervisor duty under section 95A of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Regulation 2017. The Queensland regulations do not fix a per-shift frequency for surface workplace inspections: how often each work area inspection happens is whatever your SHMS says, so it needs to say it clearly. You may also see Recognised Standard 06 mentioned in this context, but RS06 covers inspections at underground coal mines, not open cut work areas.
What the law requires in New South Wales
New South Wales is more prescriptive. The Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 sets out three provisions that shape the shift report directly.
- Section 88, inspection plan (coal mines). The coal mine is divided into inspection areas sized so a competent person can reasonably inspect them in the time allowed. At a surface coal mine, a production area includes areas where drilling is carried out and where haul roads, dumps or stockpiles are in use. At a coal mine other than an underground mine, each production area where mining operations are taking place must be inspected at least once every shift, and more often if the risk requires it, and the inspection must be done by a mining supervisor. Nobody may enter a production area after the routine of inspections has been interrupted until it has been inspected again. The plan must also cover how safety concerns reach affected people and the relevant manager, how unresolved concerns escalate to a more senior manager, recording of results, and timely review of inspection reports by managers.
- Section 31, communication between shifts. Where more than one shift is worked each day, the operator’s system must have the outgoing supervisor give the incoming one a written report on the workings, the state of plant and other health and safety matters. Both supervisors sign, or electronically sign, written acknowledgments, and the incoming supervisor passes the content on to their crew.
- Section 39, inspections. Every mine must have arrangements for regular inspection of the working environment, with procedures, timing and competent persons set by a risk assessment of all areas.
Our article on NSW mine workplace inspection requirements goes through these provisions in more depth, and the NSW Resources Regulator’s legislation page lists the instruments that apply.
Queensland and New South Wales side by side
| Question | Queensland (coal) | New South Wales (coal) |
|---|---|---|
| Who inspects work areas each shift? | Supervisors, as the SHMS requires (s.16A); the OCE under s.106 | A mining supervisor inspects each surface production area (s.88(7)) |
| How often? | Before activities and periodically, as the SHMS sets (s.141) | At least once every shift, more often by risk (s.88(4) and (6)) |
| Where do findings go? | The mine record (s.16A and Act s.68) | Recorded under the inspection plan and reviewed by managers (s.88(3)) |
| Written handover required? | OCE must report unresolved unsafe things at shift end (s.107(5)); broader handover set by the SHMS | Yes, outgoing to incoming supervisor with signed acknowledgments (s.31) |
What a supervisor’s shift inspection must record
A defensible report answers four questions: who inspected which areas and when, what condition each area was in, what hazards were found and what was done, and what was handed over. The shift inspection checklist for open cut work areas below covers all four.
The open cut shift inspection checklist
Adapt it to your inspection plan, SHMS and principal hazard management plans, removing rows that do not apply and adding the checks your hazard register calls for.
| Check | What good looks like | Escalate if |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Shift details and scope | ||
| Supervisor, date, shift, start and finish times | Complete, matches the roster | Covering an area without a briefing |
| Areas covered this shift | Each area named against the inspection plan; any area missed listed with a reason | An active area has no inspection this shift |
| Previous handover and OCE report read | Open items from last shift checked first | An open item cannot be found or confirmed |
| 2. Haul roads, ramps and access | ||
| Road surface and running width | No potholes, rocks or soft spots; width suits the largest vehicle | Spillage or damage that affects braking or steering |
| Windrows and safety berms | Continuous, built to the site standard, not undercut or breached | Missing, low or breached section at an edge |
| Intersections and signage | Signs visible, sight lines clear | A sign is missing or a sight line is blocked |
| Grade and ramp condition | Surface as designed, no scouring or slippery wet patches | Traction concern on a loaded ramp |
| Dust and watering | Visibility adequate, no over-watering | Visibility loss or slick surface after watering |
| 3. Dumps and tip heads | ||
| Tip head bund | Bund in place along the full tip edge at the site standard height | Bund missing, low or cracked |
| Crest condition | No tension cracks, slumping or overhang behind the crest | New or widening cracks, or settlement |
| Dump surface and water | Grades toward drainage, no ponding near the crest | Water ponding on or near the crest |
| Material being dumped | Matches the dump plan | Wet, fine or unplanned material being placed |
| 4. Faces, highwalls and benches | ||
| Face and wall condition | No loose material, overhang or new cracking above work areas | Rockfall, new cracking or movement |
| Bench and catch berm condition | Berms clear and able to catch material | Berm full or undercut above an active area |
| Barricades and closed areas | Barricades and signs intact at every closed or restricted area | Barricade moved or down, or anyone inside a closed area |
| Exclusion zones and standoffs | Marked and respected, matching the current TARP level | Plant or people inside an exclusion zone |
| Edge protection and open drill holes | Berms or other controls on every edge with a vertical drop of 1 metre or more; entry to open hole areas controlled | Unprotected edge or uncontrolled open holes |
| 5. Water and drainage | ||
| Pit floor and sumps | Water in sumps, pumps running, floor trafficable | Rising water near work areas or roads |
| Seepage and runoff | No new seepage from walls or dumps | New seepage, piping or discoloured flow |
| 6. Lighting and visibility | ||
| Lighting plants | Working, aimed correctly, not blinding operators | Lighting failed at a dig, dump or intersection |
| Weather and visibility | Fog, rain, dust and heat conditions recorded | Conditions meet a TARP or stop-work trigger |
| 7. Interactions and mobile plant | ||
| Light vehicle and heavy vehicle separation | Rules followed, positive communication in use | Light vehicle in a heavy vehicle only zone |
| Loading and dumping positions | Trucks spotted correctly, safe distances kept | Unsafe queuing or spotting |
| Parked and broken down plant | Parked safely, isolated and delineated | Plant parked on a road or below an unstable face |
| Plant condition observed | Defects reported through the prestart system | Plant operating with a known safety critical defect |
| 8. People and work practice | ||
| Task observation | Work observed follows the procedure | Deviation from a critical control |
| Fitness and fatigue | Crew fit for work, breaks taken | Fatigue concern for an operator |
| 9. Hazards found and actions | ||
| Hazard location and description | Precise enough for someone else to find; photo attached | Location cannot be described clearly |
| Immediate action | Made safe, barricaded, area closed or people withdrawn, and recorded | Risk cannot be controlled this shift |
| People told | Affected crews and the responsible manager informed | The responsible manager cannot be reached |
| Follow-up action | Owner and due date assigned | No owner, or due date passes without closure |
| 10. Handover and sign-off | ||
| Open items for next shift | Listed with location and status | A hazard is left open without being handed over |
| Changes during the shift | New areas, closed roads and plant moves recorded | Next shift would walk into an unrecorded change |
| Acknowledgments | Outgoing and incoming supervisor sign | Handover not acknowledged before work starts |
| Record filed | Report lodged where the SHMS requires, including the mine record in Queensland | Report cannot be located at the end of shift |
What makes the report defensible
- It can be traced to the plan. Areas in the report match the inspection areas in the plan or SHMS, so gaps are visible.
- It is timed. Each area is logged when it was inspected, not at the end of shift.
- It records evidence, not opinion. A photo and a location beat “berm looks fine”.
- Every hazard has an action and an owner. Findings without actions are exactly what an investigator looks for.
- It reaches the next shift and management. In NSW the s.88 inspection plan must provide for timely manager review of inspection reports; a report nobody reads protects nobody.
- It is unaltered. In Queensland, section 68(7) of the Act prohibits altering the mine record so it is no longer correct and complete, so corrections add to the record rather than overwrite it.
Where shift inspection reports go wrong
Tick and flick. A generic yes or no list completed in the crib room. The problem with general checklists is that they record that a box was ticked, not that a condition was assessed.
Hazards with no location. “Crack on dump” with no dump, bench or coordinate.
Handover by conversation only. A verbal handover at the go-line falls short of the written report and signed acknowledgments s.31 requires in New South Wales, and leaves a gap in the record everywhere else.
Reports that do not match the OCE’s. The supervisor and the examiner record different things about the same ground. The OCE inspection report template and the OCE report structure guide help line the two up so they reinforce each other.
For who inspects what across an Australian site, see our guide to mine site inspections in Australia.
Keeping the shift record in one place
The shift inspection, the hazard it found, the action and the handover usually live in four places: a paper form, a radio call, a whiteboard and somebody’s memory. When an inspector asks what happened, someone has to rebuild the story, and forms left in a vehicle never make it back at all.
HazView puts the inspection on the same site map every role already uses. Your own form is converted like for like first, and it works offline in the pit, syncing when the device is back in reception. A non-conforming answer can open an escalation section, the checklist can be pinned to its location on the map, and the hazard it finds sits on that map with a control, an accountable owner and a due date. The shift report is generated in the site’s own format from what was recorded, not rebuilt from memory.
Our guide to digitising statutory inspection reports covers the same approach for OCEs, and the HazView page for open cut examiners shows how it fits the shift. To see it with your own forms, book a HazView demo.
Related guides
- Mine Site Inspections in Australia: What the Law Requires, What to Check and What a Defensible Record Looks Like
- Why Every Mine Inspection Needs a Location
- OCE Inspection Report Template: What It Must Record, With a Full Checklist
- Statutory Inspections at Queensland Coal Mines: RS06 and the Open Cut Regime
- All Inspections & Checklists guides
Frequently asked questions
Is a shift inspection report a statutory document?
In most cases it is a statutory shift report, even if no form is named in law. In Queensland, section 16A of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 requires supervisors to record the findings of the workplace inspections their SHMS requires in the mine record. At a New South Wales coal mine, the section 88 inspection plan must provide for recording inspection results, and at any NSW mine working more than one shift a day, section 31 requires a written shift handover report.
How often must a supervisor inspect work areas?
In New South Wales, each production area at a surface coal mine where mining operations are taking place must be inspected at least once every shift, and more often if the risk requires. In Queensland the regulation requires inspection before activities start and periodically after that, with the frequency set by the mine’s SHMS.
Is the supervisor’s inspection the same as the OCE inspection?
No. In Queensland the open cut examiner has specific duties under sections 106 and 107, while a production supervisor’s inspection is required through the SHMS and section 16A. Where one person holds both roles, the record should still show which duty was being performed.
Can the shift handover be signed electronically?
In New South Wales, section 31 expressly allows the outgoing and incoming supervisors to sign or electronically sign their acknowledgments. In Queensland the SHMS sets the form of the handover, so check your procedure allows electronic signatures.
How long must shift inspection records be kept?
In Queensland, anything in the mine record must be kept for at least seven years: section 68 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 for coal mines, and section 59 of the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 for other mines and quarries. In New South Wales, follow the retention periods set in your safety management system.