About Simtars

From humble beginnings to world-leading research centre

Simtars — the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station — was established in 1983 by the Queensland Government following the tragedies of the Box Flat Colliery and Kianga No 1 Colliery underground mine explosions.

We started operations in 1986, and commissioned our purpose-built analytical and research facilities at Redbank, near Ipswich, in 1988. In 1997, we opened an office and laboratory in Mackay to serve the Central Queensland region.

From these humble beginnings, we've grown to become a world-leading centre for mining safety and health research, delivering complementary scientific, engineering and training services nationally and internationally.

Improving safety and health outcomes for mine workers

In 2008, the Queensland Government introduced an industry fee to recover the costs of the safety and health activities it provided to the coal mining, metalliferous mining, quarrying and explosives industries.

This fee helps fund Simtars' efforts to improve safety and health outcomes of mine workers, including emergency preparedness and response activities, health surveillance and whole-of-industry safety research.

We work closely with the Queensland Government Mines Inspectorate, industry and other stakeholders to focus our research, training and other activities.

Fee-for-service activities

Simtars provides many services to domestic and international customers on a fee-for-service basis. These services are all focused on the same goals — enhancing the knowledge, skills and capabilities required to:

• strengthen mine safety and health in Queensland
• respond capably and efficiently should emergencies or disasters unfold.

This model has been designed to leverage Simtars' spare capacity and aids in offsetting the cost to industry in maintaining emergency response.