The statutory inspections Queensland coal mines must carry out are set mainly by the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, not by a recognised standard. At an open cut, the core is the open-cut examiner’s inspection of the excavation before work starts and periodically after that, backed by a site procedure for workplace safety inspections. Recognised Standard 06 (RS06), the document many people search for, covers inspections for underground coal mines only.
This guide covers what RS06 is, what the Regulation requires at a surface mine, who inspects, how often, where the records go, and where inspection regimes break down in practice.
First, what Recognised Standard 06 actually is
Queensland’s register of recognised standards for coal mines lists RS06 as “Inspections for underground coal mines”. The title settles the scope. If you run an open cut, RS06 is not the document that tells you how to inspect your pit.
Recognised standards are made under section 72 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999. They state ways of achieving an acceptable level of risk; a mine may use another method if it can show it is at least equivalent. Under section 73 of the Act, a recognised standard is admissible in evidence in a prosecution for failing to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Guidance notes carry less weight again. The standards that do apply at an open cut, such as RS19 for mine roads and RS13 for tyres, wheels and rims, are covered in our guide to recognised standards for open cut coal mines.
For underground mines, the Regulation carries its own inspection division, starting at section 304. Inspectors are appointed in writing by the underground mine manager, must be competent, and work to a standard operating procedure that includes a risk assessment, the matters each inspection covers, how findings are recorded and acted on, and a schedule of when inspections happen. Until that procedure is in place, section 309 points back to the frequency in a recognised standard, which is where RS06 comes in. Everything below is about the surface.
What the Regulation requires at an open cut
Chapter 3 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 applies only to surface mines. Section 102 makes the ways it prescribes the only way to discharge the safety and health obligation in the circumstances it covers, so unlike a recognised standard these are not optional. Four provisions do most of the work on inspections.
Section 106: the open-cut examiner’s inspection
An open-cut examiner must inspect the surface 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 be done before activities start in or around the excavation, and periodically as required under the mine’s 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, in the mine record, that they have read it.
Section 107: what happens when the risk is unacceptable
If the examiner decides an unsafe thing causes an unacceptable level of risk, it must be made safe immediately where practicable. If not, the examiner must immediately notify the people who may be exposed and, until it is made safe, erect a barrier, stop coal mining operations in that part of the mine and withdraw everyone from it. If it is still not safe at the end of the shift, the examiner must report it to their immediate supervisor, to the open-cut examiner doing a similar inspection on the next shift, and to any remote operating centre worker whose information was used in the decision.
Section 141: the safety inspection procedure
A surface mine must have a standard operating procedure for safety inspections of workplaces, and the open-cut examiner’s section 106 inspection is expressly part of it. The procedure must require an inspection before an on-site activity is carried out at a workplace and periodically while activities continue. It must also require the results, including the hazards found and the recommended corrective action, to be made available to the mine’s coal mine workers.
Section 117: spoil dumps and excavated faces
A surface mine must have a standard operating procedure for working on spoil dumps and near excavated faces, and it must provide for inspecting and monitoring them. The field detail for those two inspections is in our spoil dump inspection checklist and highwall inspection checklist.
One boundary to note: the Part 2 provisions on the surface mine manager and open-cut examiner (sections 103 to 109) do not apply to a surface mine that is the surface operations of an underground mine.
Who inspects a Queensland coal mine
Several people carry out inspections under the legislation, and they are not interchangeable.
The open-cut examiner
Under section 59 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999, the site senior executive must appoint an open-cut examiner, holding an open-cut examiner’s certificate of competency and the required practising certificate, for each surface mine excavation. The Regulation requires at least one examiner to be present at the mine and contactable while mining activities are carried out in or around the excavation. What the report itself must contain is covered in Queensland OCE report requirements.
Supervisors
Section 16A of the Regulation, inserted by a 2024 amendment, spells out a supervisor’s responsibilities. They include 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. The shift inspection is therefore a statutory record in its own right, not an informal note. See shift inspection reports in mining for how to structure one.
Site and industry safety and health representatives
A site safety and health representative may inspect the mine to assess whether risk is at an acceptable level. They must write a report, give a copy to the site senior executive and, where the inspection shows danger, immediately notify the site senior executive or responsible supervisor and send a copy to an inspector. Industry safety and health representatives also have a function of inspecting coal mines.
Inspectors
Inspectors and inspection officers from Resources Safety and Health Queensland inspect and audit coal mines to assess whether risk is acceptable, and check that safety and health management systems and procedures are in place. Their findings and any directives also land in the mine record.
How often inspections must happen
For an open cut, the Regulation fixes the trigger points and hands the frequency to the site. The open-cut examiner must inspect before activities start and then “periodically, as required under the mine’s safety and health management system”. Section 141 uses the same pattern for workplace safety inspections: before the activity, then periodically.
So there is no single statutory interval to quote. The interval your inspectors work to is the one your safety and health management system sets, so it needs to come out of the mine’s risk assessment and be defensible. Wet weather, a new dump or a highwall showing movement are all reasons to shorten it.
What is recorded and where reports go
Section 68 of the Act requires the coal mine operator to keep a mine record including all reports of, and findings and recommendations resulting from, inspections carried out at the mine under the Act. Matters stay in the record for at least seven years, and it is an offence to alter it so that it is no longer correct and complete. The full obligation is explained in mine record requirements in Queensland.
The mine record must be available to coal mine workers, industry safety and health representatives and the site senior executive. If one of them asks to see a matter, it must be available within five days if it was recorded in the previous six months, and within 28 days otherwise. Separately, section 69 requires the site senior executive to display a copy of each report of an inspection carried out at the mine in a conspicuous position where affected workers will see it.
Put together, an open cut inspection produces three flows of information:
- Into the mine record: the open-cut examiner’s report, the next examiner’s written acknowledgement that they read it, and supervisors’ inspection reports, findings and recommendations.
- Out to the workforce: the hazards found and the recommended corrective action, made available to coal mine workers under section 141, and inspection reports displayed at the mine under section 69 of the Act.
- Across the shift change: anything not made safe by the end of the shift, reported to the supervisor and the next shift’s examiner under section 107.
Where inspection regimes break down
- The acknowledgement is a tick, not a read. The next examiner signs that they read the last report, but the report was a page of “no change” and the one real issue was in a photo on someone’s phone.
- Frequency lives in a document nobody reads. The safety and health management system sets an interval, but the roster, the weather and the shift pattern decide what actually happens.
- Results are not really made available. Section 141 asks for results to reach the workforce. A signed sheet in the examiner’s folder does not do that.
- Supervisor inspections sit outside the mine record. Under section 16A, supervisors’ inspection findings belong in the mine record. Many still live in a book in the crib room.
- Carried-over hazards lose their location. “Crack on the bench near the ramp” means something to the person who saw it and very little to the next shift.
- Generic forms. A checklist copied from a general template tests whether the form was completed, not whether the excavation is safe. That trap is described in why general checklists create a false sense of safety.
Keeping the inspection chain in one place
Most of those failures happen at hand-over points: examiner to examiner, examiner to supervisor, inspection to workforce.
HazView puts the inspection and the hazard on the same map of the site. Examiners and supervisors complete the site’s own forms in the field, offline if there is no reception, and a finding can be attached to a hazard at the exact place it was seen. Conditional logic can open an escalation section when an answer is non-conforming, so the section 107 steps are prompted rather than remembered. The next examiner opens the map and sees what was found, where, and what state it is in, and reports can be produced from those records in the site’s own format. Forms and records stay private inside the site’s own deployment.
If you are building the report itself, start with the OCE inspection report template, and for the wider picture of inspection types across Australia see our mine site inspection checklist and guide. To see how this works for examiners, read HazView for OCEs and supervisors or book a demo with your own inspection forms.
Summary of statutory inspections at Queensland coal mines
| Inspection | Source | When | Where the result goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open-cut examiner inspection of the excavation | CMSHR s106, s107 | Before activities start, then periodically per the SHMS | Mine record; unresolved items to supervisor and next shift’s examiner |
| Workplace safety inspections | CMSHR s141 | Before an on-site activity, then periodically | Results made available to workers; reports displayed (CMSHA s69) |
| Spoil dump and excavated face inspection | CMSHR s117 | As set in the site procedure | Per the site procedure and mine record |
| Supervisor workplace inspections | CMSHR s16A | As required under the SHMS | Reports, findings and recommendations in the mine record |
| Site safety and health representative | CMSHA s99 | At the representative’s discretion | Written report to the SSE; to an inspector if danger |
| Inspector or inspection officer | CMSHA s128 | At the regulator’s discretion | Findings and directives in the mine record |
| Underground inspections | CMSHR ch4 pt10 div2 (from s304), RS06 | Per the mine’s inspection schedule | Inspection record and next shift |
Related guides
- Mine Site Inspections in Australia: What the Law Requires, What to Check and What a Defensible Record Looks Like
- Spoil and Waste Dump Inspection Checklist, With TARP Levels
- Highwall and Excavated Wall Inspection Checklist for Open Cut Mines
- Choosing Inspection Software for an Australian Mine Site: A Buyer’s Checklist
- All Inspections & Checklists guides
Frequently asked questions
Does Recognised Standard 06 apply to open cut mines?
No. RS06 is titled “Inspections for underground coal mines”. Open cut inspection requirements come from chapter 3 of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, chiefly sections 106, 107, 117 and 141, and from the mine’s own safety and health management system.
How often must an open-cut examiner inspect?
Before activities start in or around the excavation, and then periodically as required under the mine’s safety and health management system. The Regulation does not set a fixed interval for an open cut, so the site must set one that fits its risk and be able to justify it.
Do supervisors’ inspections go in the mine record?
Yes. Section 16A of the Regulation, inserted by a 2024 amendment, makes recording the reports, findings and recommendations of a supervisor’s workplace inspections in the mine record one of the supervisor’s responsibilities.
Can statutory inspections be completed on a tablet?
Nothing in the Act or Regulation requires paper. What matters is that the inspection is done by the right person at the right time, the findings reach the mine record complete and unaltered, and the results are available to the people who need them.