Industry News

Industry seminar highlights safety strategies

Boral’s Remount Road Quarry in Mowbray, Launceston hosted 40 members from the Tasmanian branches of the IQA and Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA) on 10 November. Boral’s Gary Chapman and Ross Schapel were facilitators.

The event was opened by the Hon Guy Barnett MP, the member for Lyons and the Tasmanian Minister for Resources, Energy, and Building and Construction.

According to Barry Williams, the CCAA’s industry relations manager for Tasmania, feedback from the members in attendance was 'very' positive.

“Of interest were the talks from Boral, Hanson and Hazell Brothers about aspects of their safety systems that have particularly worked on their sites,” Williams said.

“The practical demonstration from Tas Fire and the invitation to develop a emergency site plan in partnership with Tas Fire were also well received.

“Conversations after the event indicated many quarry managers were planning to engage with them.”

Safety first
Commenting on why it was important quarry members attend such seminars, Williams said: “When it comes to safety, there is no privileged information in the quarrying industry. It is in everyone's best interest to share information about safety as broadly as possible.

“It is particularly important for small- to medium-sized operators to attend safety seminars, as information about what works and what doesn't and others’ mistakes is communicated, broadening attendees’ knowledge and potentially imparting ideas that will work on their sites.”

The afternoon sessions provided a live emergency response and rescue demonstration, with Tas Fire and Tas Ambulance personnel briefly explaining actions both in preparation and during the incident that could assist first responders to attend to the situation.

A practical demonstration illustrated rescue techniques and equipment that could be used to rescue injured personnel in a quarry.

One scenario demonstrated the use of the snorkel hydraulic platform vehicle to rescue an ‘injured party’ from an elevated walkway.

A second scenario illustrated how heavy lift equipment can be used to carefully extract an injured person trapped underneath heavy machinery.

At the time of publication, the date for the next joint IQA/CCAA safety seminar in 2018 was yet to be finalised.

The seminar

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More reading
Safety: valuing people, not outcomes
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Health, safety training offered to quarries
Health, safety seminars target regional, remote quarries
 

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