TL;DR: A drone inspection survey in Mackay puts a high-resolution UAV on the conveyor gantries, headframes, calciner stacks, CHPP structures and shiploaders of the Bowen Basin and Hay Point without scaffold, EWPs or rope-access crews. For BMA, Anglo American, Stanmore and the Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point coal terminals it removes people from height on live plant, compresses an inspection from days to hours, and hands back a geotagged, AS-aligned defect record. ISS flies under a CASA ReOC with licensed RePL pilots and mobilises across the Bowen Basin from Mackay.
Key takeaways
- A drone inspection survey replaces working-at-height access on Bowen Basin assets — overland conveyors, transfer towers, ROM bins, headframes, stacks and the stacker-reclaimers and shiploaders at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay — typically cutting inspection time 60-80% and eliminating the highest-risk access tasks under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017 and the WHS framework.
- ISS captures imagery at a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 1-3 mm/pixel on close-range work, resolving hairline cracks, weld-toe defects, coating breakdown and corrosion to the level of a hands-on close visual inspection under AS 4100 and AS 3788.
- Mackay's Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay terminals form the world's largest coal export facility (combined capacity exceeding 180 Mtpa), where coastal salt exposure drives corrosion on shiploaders, conveyors and wharf steel that a repeat drone inspection survey Mackay programme tracks over time.
- The work is regulated by CASA under CASR Part 101; ISS operates under a Remote Operator Certificate (ReOC) with registered aircraft, licensed RePL pilots and aviation-endorsed public liability cover, and holds Queensland coal-mine site inductions.
- A single rope-access campaign on a major stack or shiploader can exceed $30,000 once access, standby and downtime are counted; a drone inspection survey covering the same asset typically runs $2,000-$6,000 and removes the fall risk entirely.
Drone inspection for Mackay and the Bowen Basin
Mackay sits at the coast end of Australia's largest coal reserve. The Bowen Basin runs roughly 650 kilometres from Collinsville south to Emerald, the Isaac Regional Council area alone hosts 31 active coal mines, and the bulk of that production flows east through Mackay to Hay Point. Every link in that chain — underground longwall and open-cut mines, coal handling and preparation plants (CHPPs), overland conveyors, rail receival, stockyards and shiploaders — is built from tall, mechanically dense, hard-to-reach steel structures that need inspecting regularly and cannot easily be reached by foot.
That is exactly the access problem a drone inspection survey solves. On a CHPP transfer tower, a kilometres-long overland conveyor gantry, a 60-metre calciner or boiler stack, or a rail-mounted stacker-reclaimer spanning 60-plus metres, a conventional close visual inspection means scaffold, an elevated work platform or rope-access technicians — slow, costly and high-risk. A UAV reaches the same surfaces in minutes, flies a repeatable path, and brings the inspector a sharper view than the naked eye from a cherry picker. The drone is a remote-sensing tool; the engineering judgement stays with a competent person who classifies what the imagery shows.
Key point: A drone inspection survey is not a replacement for a structural engineer's assessment — it is a far better way to feed one. On Bowen Basin coal infrastructure the deliverable is evidence, captured safely and repeatably, that turns inspection from a reactive scramble into a condition-based programme.
Local applications and sites around Mackay
The density of operations within reach of Mackay means a single mobilisation often covers several assets. The table below maps the region's key sites to the inspection work a UAV does best.
| Site / asset | Operator | Inspection focus |
|---|---|---|
| Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Blackwater | BMA (BHP Mitsubishi Alliance) | CHPP transfer towers, conveyor gantries, ROM bins, dragline and large-equipment structures |
| Moranbah North, Grosvenor | Anglo American | Headframes, ventilation infrastructure, conveyor drives, surface plant steel |
| Isaac Plains, Isaac Downs, South Walker Creek | Stanmore Resources | Open-cut conveyor systems, processing plant structures, water and tailings infrastructure |
| Hay Point Coal Terminal | BMA | Shiploaders, stackers/reclaimers, overland conveyors, wharf and berth superstructure |
| Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal | DBI | Stacker-reclaimers, conveyor corridors, transfer stations, marine berth steel |
| Racecourse Mill / Mackay industrial precinct | Various | Boiler houses, stacks, bagasse and bulk-handling structures, tanks |
Across these sites the recurring targets are the same: fatigue cracking at conveyor truss nodes, weld defects on transfer-chute and bin steelwork, coating breakdown and corrosion on stacks and gantries, blocked or deformed drainage on tailings storage facility (TSF) crests, and salt-driven section loss on coastal terminal steel at Hay Point. A drone inspection survey images all of it without standing down production, and because each sortie is geotagged it becomes the baseline against which the next inspection is measured.
For open-cut sites, the same UAV team that runs visual inspection also delivers stockpile and pit work — see the Mackay pages on drone volumetrics and 3D laser scanning for the geometry side of the picture. This page is about seeing defects; those are about measuring shape.
Method and equipment
A drone inspection survey is only as good as its optics, its stability in wind, and the discipline of the flight. ISS plans each Mackay inspection as a series of controlled passes at a fixed stand-off — typically 3-10 m from the surface — so every square metre is captured at a known GSD. For complex geometry such as a CHPP transfer tower or a shiploader boom, automated structure-following missions guarantee coverage and overlap rather than leaving it to the pilot's eye.
The aircraft are high-stability multirotor platforms carrying mechanical-shutter RGB sensors in the 20-45 MP class. At a 5 m stand-off these resolve a GSD of roughly 1-1.5 mm/pixel — fine enough to identify hairline cracking, weld defects and early coating breakdown. Obstacle sensing and precise position hold allow safe close-range work near steelwork and live conductors. Where stand-off cannot be reduced — energised switchyards, hot stacks, restricted exclusion zones at the terminals — a long-range optical zoom payload captures detail from a safe distance, and a radiometric thermal sensor (<0.05 °C NETD) adds anomaly detection for overheating bearings and motors, wet or blocked refractory, and electrical hot spots.
Where a defect must be located on a 3D model or compared between inspections, ISS establishes ground control with Leica and Trimble GNSS and total station equipment — the same instrumentation behind our engineering and mechanical survey work. That georeferencing lets defect positions be tied to real coordinates to within 20-50 mm, so deterioration is tracked, not guessed. Imagery is processed into the agreed deliverable: a geotagged image library, an orthomosaic of each face, a textured 3D inspection model with defects pinned, or a thermal report. A typical single-asset inspection is half a day on site plus one to three days of review, with reports delivered within three to five business days.
Key point: Stand-off distance, not just sensor megapixels, sets the achievable detail. A 45 MP sensor flown at 15 m resolves less than a 24 MP sensor flown at 4 m. The skill in a drone inspection survey is flying close and steady enough, safely, to capture the GSD the defect actually requires — which in a live CHPP or on a working coal berth is a matter of planning and pilot competency, not just kit.
Standards and compliance
Two kinds of accuracy matter: how small a defect the imagery resolves, and — where geometry is captured — how precisely it can be located. The inspection itself is conducted against the standard relevant to the asset: AS 4100 for structural steel, AS 3788 for in-service pressure equipment external condition, AS 1418 and AS 2550 for cranes and runways such as terminal stacker-reclaimers, and dam-safety guidance such as ANCOLD for TSF embankments. ISS records the standard applied, the inspector's competency and a measurement-confidence statement with every report.
| Parameter | ISS specification | Typical benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Image GSD (close range) | 1-3 mm/pixel | 5-10 mm/pixel |
| Smallest resolvable defect | ~0.5 mm crack width | ~2 mm |
| Defect location (georeferenced) | 20-50 mm | 100 mm+ |
| Thermal sensitivity | <0.05 °C NETD | 0.1 °C |
| Coverage completeness | 100% of nominated faces | Spot checks |
Aviation compliance is governed by CASA under CASR Part 101 and the associated Manual of Standards. ISS holds a current Remote Operator Certificate, flies registered aircraft with licensed RePL pilots, and manages all airspace coordination on your behalf — including the controlled-airspace and aerodrome-proximity considerations that apply around Mackay Airport and the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay marine precincts. On mine leases the work is conducted under the site's safety management system and Queensland's Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2017, with surveyors holding current site inductions for major Bowen Basin operations.
⚠️ Watch out: A drone inspection does not by itself satisfy every mandated inspection regime. Some pressure-equipment and crane standards still require hands-on or NDT inspection at defined intervals. Used well, a drone inspection survey extends the interval between intrusive inspections and targets them where they are needed — it does not blindly replace them. ISS confirms the regime that applies to your asset during scoping.
Why ISS in Mackay
ISS is an independent industrial surveying firm — not tied to any aircraft brand or maintenance contractor — so the inspection serves your asset, not an upstream agenda. We mobilise to Bowen Basin mines and the Hay Point precinct from Mackay and Brisbane, coordinating to align with your maintenance shuts and operational schedule. CHPP shuts run on tight 48-72 hour windows; we plan inspection sorties to capture asset condition faster than scaffold can be built, feeding the shutdown scope before it starts and verifying work after it.
Crucially, the same team that flies the drone inspection also runs our engineering and mechanical surveying work. When an inspection finds something that needs measuring — a cracked truss node, a settled TSF crest, a misaligned shiploader rail — we can bring a total station, laser scanner or photogrammetric capability to bear without re-engaging a new contractor. Queensland also faces the most severe surveyor shortage in Australia, with the state's $61.6 billion resources sector competing for a shrinking pool of professionals; ISS provides specialist UAV inspection capacity that generalist firms in the region cannot match.
This page is the drone-inspection specialisation of our broader surveying services in Mackay and the Bowen Basin and the local delivery of our national visual inspection service.
Frequently asked questions
Can a drone inspection survey be done while a Bowen Basin CHPP is running?
Usually, yes. The capture is non-contact, and most live coal handling and preparation plant assets can be inspected without standing down production, provided an exclusion zone is maintained around people and operating plant. Energised switchyards and hot surfaces are flown from a safe stand-off using an optical zoom or thermal payload. This is one of the main reasons operators choose a drone inspection survey over scaffold or EWP access on a working plant.
How does ISS handle coastal corrosion inspection at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay?
Salt air and tidal exposure drive corrosion and section loss on shiploaders, conveyors and wharf steel faster than inland assets. ISS captures high-resolution, geotagged imagery of the nominated faces at 1-3 mm/pixel and georeferences defects to within 20-50 mm, so a repeat inspection programme measures coating breakdown and steel deterioration over time rather than recording a single snapshot. Comparison reports flag change against the previous baseline.
Is ISS approved to fly drones over Mackay mine sites and the coal terminals?
Yes. ISS holds a current CASA Remote Operator Certificate and manages all CASR Part 101 airspace compliance, including coordination around Mackay Airport and the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay marine precincts. On mine leases our pilots and field staff hold current Queensland coal-mine site inductions and work under your site's safety management system. You provide site access and inductions; we handle the aviation and exclusion-zone management.
What do we receive after a drone inspection survey in Mackay?
You receive a geotagged image library, a defect register with each defect located, photographed, severity-rated and paired with a recommended action, and — where required — an orthomosaic of each face, a textured 3D inspection model, or a thermal report. For repeat inspections we add a comparison report against the previous baseline. Reports are typically delivered within three to five business days of capture.
Request a quote
If access, height or downtime is making your structural and asset inspections across the Bowen Basin slow, expensive or hazardous, a drone inspection survey is very likely the safer and cheaper path — and the payback usually lands on the first inspection. Tell us the asset, the site and the defects you care about, and ISS will scope a fixed-price drone inspection survey, recommend the right payload and deliverables, and manage every part of the CASA compliance. Call 0407 057 015 to speak with a surveyor who knows Bowen Basin coal operations and the Mackay terminals.