2018 Conference Presentations

An Interview with the last Mining Warden, Frank Windridge, by John Tate, Barrister, Crown Law Mr Frank Windridge Appointed as a Magistrate and Warden in 1982, Frank was the Queensland Mining Warden from 1990 to 2001. During Frank’s appointment as Mining Warden, he oversaw the investigation of all fatalities and serious accidents that occurred in the Queensland mining industry. In particular, Frank’s contribution to advancing health and safety is best illustrated by the introduction of risk-based legislation in 1999, following his investigation and 1996 Report into the 1994 Moura No. 2 Underground Coal Mine disaster. Frank’s continuing passion is the improvement of mine health and safety. His experience has been gained through the fatalities he has investigated, as well as through the impact he has seen on families, work mates and the industry when loss of life occurs. Mr John Tate John was admitted to practice law as a Barrister and Solicitor in 1981. He has practised both privately and in government in a number of Australian jurisdictions – in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Norfolk Island and Queensland. Since 1996, John has acted as Counsel Assisting in Mining Warden’s and Coronial inquiries in virtually all mining, explosives, petroleum and gas fatalities in Queensland. Additionally, he has been retained in a range of other fatality inquiries where the primary issue has concerned hospital misadventure, aircraft failure, fatigue, or the suspicion of murder. To this point, John has acted as Counsel Assisting in over 90 public fatality inquiries. For many years, John’s interests and experience have focused on the critical review of safety and health management and training systems, on accident investigation methodologies, and on compliance issues. Reflecting this, he is frequently engaged as a speaker in public forums and conferences.

Andrew McMahon – Chief Executive Officer, MATES in Mining Andrew the face of MATES in Mining (MATES) – prior to joining MATES, Andrew worked in the mining industry as Director Health and Safety at the NSW Minerals Council and Minerals Council of Australia, and as a Board Member of Coal Services. He is passionate about suicide prevention and mental wellbeing, fostering landmark research on mental health in the mining industry and published a national mental health and wellbeing blueprint for the industry. Andrew can often be found pottering in his gardening, reading, cooking, enjoying a glass of wine and attempting to play the violin. He also loves trail running and ironman triathlons – just to balance out the eating and wine bit.

Chair: Greg Dalliston – Industry Safety & Health Representative, CFMEU Mining and Energy Division Queensland Region This is your opportunity to influence the standard of supervision in our industry. Over the last few years, the industry has had a number of serious and fatal accidents where effective supervision has been raised as a contributing factor. This session will include a brief introduction to the reasons why the review into the three units of competency (Risk Management, Accident Investigation and Communications) is being undertaken, with Industry, Department and Unions represented. It will then be open to give attendees a chance to have input into a review of what skills and competencies the industry sees as being required to assist persons appointed as supervisors to ensure that the work under their care is conducted to an acceptable level of risk, their responsibilities and obligations to the workers being supervised and that safety and health related information is passed on to those continuing with that work at the mine. The session will conclude with a summary of the issues raised which will be fed back into the Project Committee through the IRC, SSO and PWC.

Roseanne Baxter – Occupational Therapist, Encompass Therapy Holly Whitelaw – Data Collection Officer, Glencore Coal Assets Australia

ABSTRACT

Dozer operation at surface mining operations has traditionally been considered one of the higher risk tasks undertaken in the surface coal mining industry due to exposure to significant levels of whole-body vibration. As per Australian Standard AS2760.1, SafeWork Australia promotes the practice of regular monitoring of whole-body vibration levels and encourages employers to minimise workers’ exposure levels to below levels associated with increased risk of health affects. Although not legally binding, these limits are considered benchmarks in industry monitoring reports. Recent published Australian research has shown a large spread of exposure levels, some of which exceeded recognised limits for likely health effects. A research project has been undertaken to gather whole-body vibration data matched to video and operator survey to investigate which tasks and in what ground conditions are dozer operators at a surface mining operation exposed to the higher levels of whole-body vibration. This provides rationale for prioritisation of allocation of controls targeted at the tasks and/or ground conditions associated with higher wholebody vibration readings. Discussion regarding the range of data analysis methods currently referred to in research and industry reporting is advocated to improve consistency of reporting and understanding of results.

David Chatto – Head of REMSAFE

ABSTRACT

Isolation of machinery is an everyday occurrence on mine sites, and practices have improved considerably over time. This presentation will explore some of the key advances in isolation practices over many decades. Up-to-date isolation-related incident data from Queensland will be presented and examined. It will be suggested that improvement has at best plateaued and that a shift is required in our approach to isolation practices – in particular: a focus on higher-order controls. Human factors will be identified as the leading ongoing cause of isolation-related incidents. Highly effective, currently available treatment options will be discussed. In particular, autonomous isolation (often called ‘remote isolation’), will be put forward as a key method of driving step-change improvement in this area. Using James Reason’s model of human error (slips, lapses, mistakes and violations), it will be shown that autonomous isolation is highly effective in treating all forms of human error. Case studies will be presented to demonstrate the benefits of autonomous isolation and a recent technical advancement will be introduced to demonstrate the continuing evolution of isolation.

Prof Robin Burgess-Limerick – Professor of Human Factors, The University of Queensland

ABSTRACT

Operators of earth-moving equipment at surface mines are exposed to whole-body vibration. Prolonged exposure to high amplitude whole-body vibration accumulates to cause adverse health effects, particularly back disorders. The potential for instantaneous high impact loading also exists and these high impacts (jolts and jars) experienced by earth-moving equipment operators may cause acute injury. ACARP project C23022 successfully demonstrated the use of an iOS application (WBV) as a cost-effective means of measuring whole-body vibration. An extension of this work is underway which enables continuous communication of the accelerations to which equipment operators are exposed to a central server to facilitate the management of both whole-body vibration and instantaneous impacts. The server software will undertake further analysis and provide an alert in the event that a high amplitude impact on the operator is detected, or when the daily vibration dose approaches the upper limit of the ISO2631.1 Health Guidance Caution Zone. The vibration data will also be combined with GPS data to allow further analysis of the sources of elevated whole-body vibration levels and high impact incidents.

Paul Shorthouse – Senior Training Officer, Simtars

ABSTRACT

Queensland legislation requires all coal mines, mineral mines and quarries to have an induction process. These inductions, including the current Standard 11 mine induction, address a wide range of topics including risk management, vehicle interaction, fire-fighting and a generic isolation procedure. The underpinning knowledge that is required and crammed into two days only allows for a brief amount of time to focus on the main points and not given the attention and time they require. This makes the induction more of a ‘tick in the box’ exercise rather than a valuable strategy aimed at training the worker to stop and think about what is required to safely accomplish the task they are about to perform. This talk will ponder the following questions: Is the current induction process effective? What metrics should we be using to gauge its effectiveness? How can the delivery of the course be improved to increase knowledge retention and improve the decision making choices of mining personnel? Are meaningful inductions even more important with the casualisation of the workforce? What additional training could decrease the amount of injuries, accidents, high potential incidents and equipment damage?

Glenda Abraham – Chief Engagement Officer, Mine Super

ABSTRACT

In addition to the substantial personal costs, poor financial wellness is a major drag on Australian businesses, costing an estimated $33 billion per annum. According to Workplace Super Specialists of Australia’s ‘Workplace Financial Wellness Index’, employees who lack financial wellness tend to be more stressed, as observed by more than three in five employers (63.3%). A significant number of employers also noted presenteeism (43.3%), low morale (30%), and absenteeism (16.7%) as other consequences of poor financial wellness. This data clearly shows a connection between tired, disengaged and distracted employees and an increase in work health safety incidents. This presentation will help you integrate a financial wellness program as part of a holistic approach to employee wellbeing and a component of a healthy workplace.

Cristian Sylvestre – Managing Director, HabitSafe

ABSTRACT

Queensland Mines and Energy initiated in March 2008, a review of the role of human factors in mining incidents and accidents in Queensland. What followed was the largest independent and most comprehensive study of a portion of mining incidents across all classes of mining in Queensland. This presentation will recount the findings of the study and what lessons for leadership are present. It will explore the presence of human factors, the most abundant factor and the role leadership played in these incidents. It will also explore the strengths and weaknesses of the data set, so a balanced view is presented. Importantly, the paper will present how to move forward with these findings and offer research supported steps leaders can take to reduce the impact of the most prevalent human factors.