What it does
The Mines and Works Inspection Act 1920 (SA) establishes a framework for the regulation and inspection of mines and associated works in South Australia. Its stated purpose, from the long title, is to make better provision for the regulation and inspection of mines and works, and for other purposes. The Act creates a system of government-appointed inspectors, sets out their powers to enter and inspect mines at any time, and confers authority to issue orders to address safety, health, nuisance, property damage, and amenity impairment. It also provides for miners themselves to appoint inspectors from among their number. The Act applies specifically to operations undertaken under the Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act 1982, the Whyalla Steel Works Act 1958, and coal mining at Leigh Creek authorised under the Electricity Corporations Act 1994 (s 5). Its operational scope is therefore not universal across all mining in South Australia; it targets those particular large-scale or historically significant operations. The Act empowers the Governor to make regulations covering an extensive list of subject matters set out in the Schedule, which includes ventilation, health and sanitation, safety, explosives, winding machinery, shafts, ladders, signals, electricity, machinery, abandonment, preservation of amenity, certification, and waste disposal (Schedule items 1-27). The Act also contains provisions for default penalties for continuing offences, imprisonment for wilful neglect endangering safety, and a review mechanism before the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) for orders made on amenity grounds. It is a statute of considerable age , enacted in 1920 , but has been amended repeatedly, most substantially in 1978, 2003, and most recently by the Statutes Amendment (Mineral Resources) Act 2019 (which commenced on 1 January 2021). These amendments have modernised definitions, introduced amenity and review provisions, and replaced the former Mines and Works Appeal Board with SACAT.