The COVID-19 pandemic placed extraordinary pressure on FIFO mine sites, including placing pressure not just on systems but on people. Drawing on lived experience as a site-based counsellor during this time, this presentation explores what happens when already-demanding conditions are compounded by external stressors. This period intensified typical site conditions and gave insights into decreasing psychosocial risk by resilience-building during unprecedented times.

While ‘resilience’ is often framed in terms of mindset, this session introduces the concept of structural resilience: a model that considers the full spectrum of psychosocial factors influencing a worker’s ability to cope. Grounded in clinical experience (from mental health, substance use, and family domestic violence), the model highlights key domains—mental health, physical health, family, social connection, hobbies, career, finances, and faith/intellectual life—as foundational pillars.

Through practical examples from underground mining contexts during COVID, the session will explore how strength across multiple life domains reduces psychosocial risk, enhances workforce stability, and strengthens site safety culture—especially under pressure.

In the Queensland resources industry, where safety is non-negotiable and workforce dynamics are rapidly evolving, traditional top-down communication is no longer enough. To meaningfully engage our people - across diverse roles, locations, and cultures - we must move from broadcasting messages to building genuine conversations that empower ownership of safety.
This presentation explores how people-first, visually-driven communication - delivered through the digital platforms our workers already use - can transform how safety messages are received and acted upon. By harnessing the power of social media, short-form video, graphics, and interactive media, we can cut through the noise and inspire genuine behavioural change.
Drawing on real-world examples and insights from mining, energy, and resource operations across Queensland, Melanie demonstrates how to:
Use short-form video, branded graphics, and interactive content to simplify complex safety messages and boost retention.
Transform safety communications into dynamic, two-way dialogue via social platforms, internal networks (e.g., Yammer), and real-time feedback tools.
Co-create content with workers to build relevance, trust, and psychological safety.
Tailor messaging for different generations, languages, and cultural backgrounds to ensure everyone - from FIFO crews to site leadership - feels informed, engaged, and valued.
As safety leaders and communicators, we play a critical role in embedding a safety-first culture - not only through what we say, but how we listen and involve our people in the process. This session with Melanie equips attendees with practical strategies, tools, and case studies to elevate communication efforts and build stronger, safer industry communities.

Takeaways:
Practical frameworks for using video, graphics, and interactive media in safety communications.
How to co-design content with “our people” to build trust and peer accountability.
Metrics and methods to measure the impact of social and visual safety campaigns.
Engagement strategies that turn workers into safety ambassadors.
Platform-specific tactics (e.g., Instagram Reels, internal Yammer polls, QR-linked micro-surveys) that drive participation and feedback.
Approaches to culturally and generationally responsive messaging across distributed teams.

Providing Coal Mine Workers (CMWs) with the necessary tools to comprehend and identify the line of fire from potential uncontrolled release of stored energy events is crucial in reducing the current rate of industry fatalities.

A Safety Alert released by RSHQ (No.452 V1, 23/10/24) highlighted a concerning pattern involving workers in 'no-go zones' and the lines of fire in recent serious accidents. Of the four fatalities in 2024, three involved maintenance work and 'no-go zones'. A review of two separate internal ICAMs and discussions with RSHQ inspectors for industry-wide events revealed that in most cases, 'the line of fire' was identified as a hazard, but the exclusion zone had not been correctly identified or managed, partly due to a lack of understanding of the background physics involved in these types of events.

To address this issue, BMA has developed a 'Stored Energy Awareness' training package that breaks down stored energy into Pulling, Pushing, Lifting, and Removing tasks. This package explains the background physics in a way that all CMWs can understand, using animated videos to detail hazards and controls for each task. It provides examples of serious accidents and fatalities within the industry associated with each task and requires CMWs to apply what they have learned to answer questions on potential lines of fire associated with the task. Diagrams are used to explain the potential line of fire in simple terms, reinforcing the importance of understanding this concept.

This presentation will cover the need for this type of training within the Queensland mining industry, share the content of the training package through audiovisual presentations, and discuss our objectives in the workplace.

By enhancing the knowledge of our workforce regarding the identification of the line of fire and the implementation of effective controls to manage stored energy risks, we aim to reduce the frequency of these events.

The ‘Fine Cotton scandal’ of 1984, was a notorious and hilarious event in Australian horse racing. It involved a bunch of bungling Gold Coast thugs and their substitution of a slow racehorse, Fine Cotton, with a faster one, Bold Personality. The goal was to manipulate betting outcomes and make fast cash. The scheme was hastily executed – to say the least - leading to noticeable discrepancies that aroused suspicion and ultimately caused the scandals demise.
This presentation delves into this comedic series of events as a case study to explore the more serious lessons of moral leadership.
By analysing the events and aftermath of the Fine Cotton affair, attendees will gain insights into how leadership and misplaced incentives can create environments where unethical decisions flourish.

Most safety professionals’ pride themselves on data driven decisions and processes. Yet often the data drives a reactive approach to resolving issues and preventing errors.
It was initially data that highlighted safety concerns with lifting and cranage activities at Glencore, and which sparked a review of human factors contributions across a range of safety incidents. This review showed that most incidents included actions or inactions by operators either not using the checklist as it was intended or making a decision to deviate from the plan once they got to the job, without then revisiting the checklist.
Checklists are generally created out of an identified problem, with intention to support human performance. That is, they are supposed to help us remember what we need to remember for safety critical tasks. But checklist development, implementation and particularly checklist evolution over time is often a reactionary response to an event or series of events. After every investigation, we add more and more items to the checklist, trying to cover all possibilities. After a while the checklist is lengthy and cumbersome, no longer fit for purpose, and importantly, no longer supports the human operator to get the job done safely. Rather, we just create more administration – paper safe. This then leads to noncompliance with the checklist, either intentionally or unintentionally.
The success of any job aid relies on its usability (ease of use) and its usefulness (does it actually help?). In response to the outcomes of the incident review, we looked closer at our lifting and cranage procedures, and particularly at our checklists. We found (a) considerable inconsistency across our sites, and (b) in general, our checklists were not well designed for humans, considering human performance limitations.
This presentation will outline our review of current practice against the science of checklist design, our learnings and our future plans for checklist and procedure design which translates to supporting our operators’ safe performance of lifting and cranage tasks, and wider.