Description

Following the 2016 multiple fatality incident at Dreamworld (Gold Coast, Australia), the Queensland government introduced Safety Case legislation for Major Amusement Parks. Chapter 9 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation for Major Hazard Facilities was replicated in Chapter 9A for Major Amusement Parks – with minimal changes. Amusement parks had to transition from being regulated as “registered plant” to demonstrating their amusement device risks are reduced so far as is reasonably practicable in a Safety Case. This has been a significant transition – for both the operators and the regulators.

Most amusement parks initially adopted an aviation approach to resetting their safety practices. However, aviation safety management relies heavily on other established systems within the aircraft industry (such as aviation maintenance, airworthiness, flight planning and pilot training) to support aircraft operational safety management. Amusement parks are now recognising that a more holistic process safety approach may better suit their needs.

This paper will provide a case study of how the process safety framework can be applied to amusement devices, demonstrating how process safety concepts can be successfully applied to non-processing industries.

While the discipline of process safety evolved in the chemical processing industry, the recent release of the CCPS Monograph on process safety in mining, minerals and metals and the well-embedded ICMM critical control management guidelines, clearly indicate that process safety matters in mining. And yet, there is often uncertainty as to what it actually means in mining, and how it fits with other critical risk management practices already in place.

Taking the lessons learnt from Australian amusement parks together with the insights gained from the pre-conference workshop exploring process safety essentials in mining, this presentation will provide a clear roadmap for how process safety can be applied to the mining, minerals and metals industry.