Government of Western Australia | Two mining-related companies and their director have been fined a total of $2.34 million for engaging in unauthorised mining at sites near Leonora and Sandstone in Western Australia.

Gold Valley Iron Ore Pty Ltd, Odell Resources Pty Ltd, and the companies’ sole director, Yuzheng Xie, pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court to mining without authority, and the director failing to take all reasonable steps to prevent the offence.

For the offences at Malcolm near Leonora, Gold Valley was fined $1.26 million, Odell Resources $90,000 and Mr. Xie $630,000. For the offences at Sandstone, Gold Valley was fined $240,000 and Mr. Xie $120,000. The parties were also ordered to pay $12,500 in costs.

Under the Mining Act 1978, it is an offence to mine without authority. This extends liability to officers of a body corporate, making them personally accountable under the State’s Criminal Code.

Gold Valley is part of a diversified group involved in mining, services, bulk transport and civil contracting. The group’s operations include the Wiluna West Iron Ore Project. Gold Valley owns several subsidiaries, including Odell Resources, which operates a haulage business.

In March 2024, Gold Valley acquired full ownership of the Wiluna West Iron Ore Mine. Before this acquisition, iron ore from the mine was trucked to Geraldton Port for export.

By June 2024, Gold Valley secured an agreement with the Port of Esperance for ore exports. Odell Resources was tasked with hauling ore in stages to Leonora, where it would be transported by rail to Esperance.

To support this operation, Gold Valley selected a site near Leonora for laydown and stockpiling, adjacent to the Malcolm railway siding, which would allow for rail transport.

Under the Mining Act, a miscellaneous licence is required for areas used for ore stockpiling and mine support activities, such as mining roads, truck laydown areas, maintenance and refuelling.

Although Gold Valley applied for this licence on 6 September 2024, the company began mining activities without holding the authority to do so.

Stockpiling and transport activities continued from 16 September to 25 October 2024, with Mr. Xie coordinating the actions of both companies.

In addition to operations near Leonora, Gold Valley operated another unauthorised site near Sandstone between 17 September 2024 and 31 July 2025. This site was used for transporting, stockpiling and transhipping iron ore. It also included facilities for road train parking, maintenance, and refuelling. Ore from the Wiluna mine was transported to Sandstone before being reloaded for export via Geraldton Port.

Gold Valley had applied for a miscellaneous licence for this site, but it had not been granted for these operations or the installation of support facilities.

Operations at Sandstone continued even after the former Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS), now the Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration (DMPE), directed Gold Valley, Odell Resources and Mr Xie to cease activities at the Malcolm site in October 2024. The Sandstone operation was still ongoing up to 31 July 2025, even though the prosecution proceedings for Malcom had commenced in May.

WorkSafe Victoria | A potato supply chain service has been convicted and fined $95,000 after a worker was seriously injured when their foot became trapped in a machine at a Hallam warehouse.

Fiorelli Packing Co 2 Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work.

The company was also ordered to pay $10,913.68 in costs.

The court heard Fiorelli’s warehouse featured an item of plant known as the potato cutter.

Sweet potatoes would be tipped into the machine’s hopper, then onto a conveyor belt where they would pass through blades and be cut into pieces.

In September 2022, the worker was instructed by his supervisor to climb onto the machine while it was operating and hold a broomstick against the hopper to slow the output of potatoes and spread them on the conveyor belt before they passed through the cutter.

During the task the worker’s foot slipped and became entangled in the rotating blades.

After his supervisor activated the machine’s emergency stop button, the worker remained trapped in the blades and could see part of his foot had been cut off and was located on the conveyor belt. He was eventually freed by emergency services and transported to hospital.

The worker’s foot was unable to be re-attached, ultimately resulting in an amputation of his leg below the knee.

A WorkSafe investigation found that standing on top of the machine while it was operating and using a broomstick to improve product flow was common practice among workers at the warehouse.

The company admitted it was reasonably practicable to have reduced the risk of shearing, cutting, and entanglement by providing an interlocked physical guard or perimeter fence which prevented bodily access to the danger area while the machine was operating, ensuring an isolation procedure, such as a lock-out tag-out (LOTO) system, was in place before workers performed task, and installing emergency stop buttons which were accessible near the danger area of the plant.

WorkSafe Victoria | A healthcare provider has been convicted and fined $230,000 after an aged care resident was injured when her reclining chair failed.

Benalla Health was sentenced at Melbourne County Court after pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to ensure persons, other than employees, were not exposed to health and safety risks.

In October 2021, the 93-year-old resident of the Morrie Evans Aged Care facility fell backwards when the back of her reclining chair detached as a staff member tried to move it following an outdoor family visit.

A subsequent X-ray showed fractures to the woman’s rib and spine. In the following days, she developed a chest infection and died a week after the incident.

WorkSafe’s investigation found Benalla Health failed to maintain a system of work for ensuring chairs used for transporting residents were regularly assessed for safe functionality, scheduled for preventative maintenance, and tagged accordingly.

WorkSafe Victoria | A property renovation and maintenance company has been fined $100,000 after a contractor’s fall at a Campbellfield factory left him with catastrophic injuries.

Konstrukteur Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to two charges of failing to ensure people other than employees were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

The company was fined with conviction and also ordered to pay costs of $5,373.

In April 2023, a 35-year-old labourer and the site supervisor were tasked with installing new corrugated iron sheets as part of roof rectification works at the factory.

The pair, neither of whom were wearing a harness, used an elevated work platform to access the rooftop and began removing the old sheets one by one, each time exposing an open void, which was then covered by a replacement sheet.

After one of the sheets was removed, the supervisor turned his back and did not see the labourer fall 5.5 metres through the void to the concrete floor below.

The labourer was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries and placed on life-support before undergoing multiple surgeries. He now requires 24/7 care because of the injuries.

A WorkSafe investigation found that Konstrukteur prepared a safe work method statement (SWMS), but it was not signed off or made available to workers and was not specific to the site.

The court heard none of the workers on site had been provided with training for safe working at height, despite the falls risks associated with the works being undertaken.

The company admitted it was reasonably practicable to have reduced the risk of falls by ensuring the work was performed in line with a prepared SWMS and by ensuring workers used a fall arrest system, such as safety harnesses.

Government of Western Australia | A construction company has been fined $350,000 (and ordered to pay more than $6,600 in costs) over the death of a 19-year-old worker in 2021.

M Construction (WA) Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment and was fined in the Perth Magistrates Court.

In November 2021, an employee of PAWS Construction and Maintenance Pty Ltd died after suffering a traumatic head injury when he was struck by a sea container drawbridge ramp weighing around 250kg. At the time he was assisting his supervisor to lower the ramp.

M Construction had engaged PAWS Construction to complete the works, including the lowering of the sea container ramp. PAWS Construction was also prosecuted over the incident and was fined $250,000 in August 2025.

The ramp to be lowered was held in place by two pins. The first pin was removed, and before removing the second pin, the supervisor instructed the worker to stand to the left of the ramp out of the drop zone.

When the second pin was removed the ramp fell quickly to the ground, striking the worker who suffered fatal injuries.

The workers had not been provided with a safe work procedure or instructions for the raising or lowering of the ramp.

A winch was installed to assist with the raising and lowering of the ramp, but it was not maintained and was not operational at the time of the incident.

SafeWork NSW | The Danebritt Group Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $90,000 in the Industrial Court of NSW as a result of a prosecution by SafeWork NSW.

The proceedings arose from an incident on 24 November 2022, when two workers were placed at risk while stocking a newly installed sunglasses display cabinet that was only partially affixed to a wall.

The Danebritt Group Pty Ltd plead guilty to an offence pursuant to section 33 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) for failing to comply with its health and safety duty to persons other than workers under section 19(2) of the Act.

The Danebritt Group Pty Ltd has the right to appeal against its sentence.

WorkSafe Victoria | WorkSafe has charged a worker with allegedly obtaining more than half a million dollars in fraudulent workers compensation payments.

The 54-year-old Ararat woman faces a total of 20 charges, including eight charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception under section 82(1) of the Crimes Act and four charges under section 585(1) of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act for providing false or misleading information.

WorkSafe alleges that between December 2019 and December 2024, the worker received WorkCover payments into their bank and superannuation accounts totalling $527,197 after failing to declare that they were working during this period.

The worker faces an additional eight charges for providing false or misleading declarations in breach of section 585(3)(d) of the WIRC Act.

It’s alleged that between December 2022 and October 2024 the worker submitted certificates of capacity that falsely declared that she had not worked.

Government of Western Australia | A Welshpool drill services company has been fined $897,500 (and ordered to pay almost $6,500 in costs) over the death of a worker in 2023.

Airdrill Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and was fined in Perth Magistrates Court.

The company provides services relating to drill rigs, including design, manufacture, and commissioning of new rigs and the maintenance, servicing and refurbishment of existing drill rigs.

The use of overhead cranes is a common part of the Airdrill operation, but the company did not have any documented risk assessment or safe systems of work for the use of overhead cranes at the workplace. There was no procedure in place to ensure that complicated lifts were properly planned and supervised.

In February 2023, an Airdrill employee suffered fatal crush injuries when he attempted to move a skid mounted mud pump (skid assembly) on a trailer that had been placed on trestles.

The weight of the skid assembly and its centre of gravity were not known or assessed at any time prior to the incident and the skid assembly was placed on the trestles in an improvised configuration that meant it was inherently unstable and prone to tipping.

The worker was assigned to work on the skid assembly after it had been lifted onto the trestles. At the time the incident occurred he was standing on the skid assembly and operating the overhead crane using a handheld crane control pendant when the trailer unexpectedly tipped sideways, trapping him between the chain from the overhead crane and a handrail on the skid assembly.

The worker was a licensed dogger and would have had some knowledge of how to connect loads to cranes, however Airdrill did not provide verification of competency or training and did not require the worker to complete a risk assessment and lift plan before doing the job.

SafeWork NSW | JBS Australia Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $330,000 in the District Court of NSW as a result of a prosecution by SafeWork NSW.

The proceedings arose following a workplace incident on 14 July 2022, when a worker was injured after being struck by a forklift in a chilled storage area for processed meat.

The worker suffered severe injuries to his left leg as a result of the collision.

JBS Australia plead guilty to an offence pursuant to section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) for failing to comply with its health and safety duty to workers under section 19(1) of the Act.

JBS Australia Pty Ltd has the right to appeal against its sentence.

Government of Western Australia | A spray painting and sandblasting company has been dealt the biggest ever fine under Western Australia’s workplace safety and health laws over the death of a 16-year-old worker in 2023.

RPC Surface Treatment Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker and was issued a global fine in the Perth Magistrates Court.

In June 2023, a labourer who assisted with spray painting and sandblasting was killed when a steel beam weighing approximately 425kg suspended from an overhead monorail system fell on his chest.

The steel beam was attached to the monorail at each end by S-hooks (fabricated steel hooks in an s-shape) connected to chain slings. The beam had been primed and coated and was left suspended to dry in the main spray booth.

Early on the morning of 15 June 2023, the labourer and three other workers were instructed to move the beams to another area where they were to be collected later in the day.

When the labourer was pushing the beam by hand, the S-hooks deformed and straightened out under the load and the beam fell onto him, causing fatal injuries.

The workers at RPC routinely selected lifting devices by a process of trial and error, and they were not required to determine the weight of the load prior to suspending it.

The weight was estimated via a visual inspection and whether it had been unloaded by hand or with a forklift, and the S-hooks did not have a known working load limit or rated capacity.

In March 2021, WorkSafe inspectors had issued a Prohibition Notice to RPC prohibiting the activity of working underneath suspended loads.

While this notice did not relate to the monorail or S-hooks directly, it did direct RPC to the same risk, namely being crushed by falling objects while working under suspended loads.

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