QMRS ran its first course during March last year and since then has put about 90 mine employees through five four-day courses. QMRS operations manager Mick Farrag said 10 courses will be held this year due to demand.

“More mines are being exposed to the system and are implementing it at their minesites, so because of that they need to train their people to be part of the management control team,” Farrag said, adding that there was only one mine in Queensland that hadn’t had someone come through the course to date.

MEMS looks to provide a more structured approach to how coal mines deal with emergency situations. The system is based on the Australian Inter-agency Incident Management System (AIIMS) approach, used by fire brigades, the Queensland Police Force and the Australian Armed Forces to name a few.

The MEMS model basically adds structure to an incident control team and contains four functional management components: an incident controller, an operations coordinator, a planning coordinator and a logistics coordinator.

The incident controller sets objectives and oversees the entire situation but is able to step back and not get caught up in detail. He is also responsible for liaison with external bodies such as the inspectorate and media.

The planning coordinator gathers, processes and validates information and develops the plans to meet objectives, while the operations coordinator puts the plans into place on how to combat the incident. The logistics controller handles all resources such as people, meals, fuel and equipment supplies, and medical needs.

Farrag said since the courses began he has seen evidence of MEMS being implemented during a crisis. He cited a recent incident at a minesite where MEMS was in place and several employees had already gone through the course.

“The system just fell into place and they started using it without anyone saying ‘this is what we have to do’,” Farrag said.

QMRS’ Lindsay Creighton added he had seen the system put into place at the Level One emergency exercise at Broadmeadow last year, when he was acting as the responding officer.

Farrag said that the system also had wider applications that the industry was just beginning to realise.

“At the moment people see it as a system to manage emergencies but as they are going through the course they are starting to see that you can use it to manage everyday tasks. For example, if you had a roof fall or a heating in the goaf you can use the process,” he said.