South Sister St. Marys, Tasmania

South Sister Correspondence

email to s. manson on workplace safety

From: David Clement
To: Steve Manson
Cc: Graham Wilkinson, EDO, Michael Polley, Danny Dougherty
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 5:26 AM

Mr Manson,

Workplace Safety South Sister Coupe NI114A

I refer you to my previous advice (28/1/5, 13/2/5, and 14/2/5) regarding the risk arising from conducting forest operations on the above coupe at South Sister due to the failure by Forest Tasmania in planning operations for the coupe to identify the existence of up to 150 ha of abandoned, flooded, landslip prone coal mine workings sitting underneath the proposed operations, the Jubilee Mine. Forestry Tasmania is aware of the risk posed by coal mine workings as is evidenced by the Forest Practices Plan (PWJ0010) for this coupe, which states (page 8) in respect of the Cardiff Mine on the coupe 'exclude coal mine workings ... due to risk of coal mines under dolerite talus'

The Cardiff Mine is a minor part only of the geological unit including both the Jubilee and Cardiff Mines, and has the same characteristics, except that it is more than 100 times in area, and has a far more extreme history of flooding, roof faulting and landslip.

I refer you to the provisions of the Forest Safety Code (Tasmania) 2000, the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 and the Workplace Health and Safety regulations 1998 rr 17, 18, 19, and assert that Forestry Tasmania has failed to identify this hazard in the workplace, has failed to assess the risks associated with the hazard, and has failed to take appropriate measures to control that risk, as it is required to do.

In the circumstances, Forestry Tasmania would be failing in its Duty of Care, be in breach of the Code, Act and Regulations, and be negligent if it undertakes forest operations, including roading, on this coupe before resolving this issue.

David Clement

We have received no response for days