Quick Answer
Build a mobilisation schedule by fixing the commencement date and planning backwards, starting at least eight weeks out for a new site. Book the long-lead items first — medicals, third-party VOCs and induction seats — then contractor documentation, then travel and accommodation, then PPE and plant freight, with a pre-mobilisation review one week before the crew flies.
- T-8 weeks: confirm scope, roster and commencement date.
- T-6 weeks: book medicals and VOCs — the critical path.
- T-4 weeks: inductions, training, flights and camp rooms.
- T-3 weeks: plant servicing, inspections and freight.
- T-1 week: pre-mobilisation review against evidence, not memory.
- Carry a cleared standby for every critical role.
Why timing is the whole job
Mobilisation is everything between winning a scope and having a compliant crew doing productive work — see what mobilisation means in mining for the full breakdown. Almost nothing in that window fails because a task was hard. It fails because a task was started too late. A medical booked at T-2 weeks, an induction session that only runs fortnightly, a VOC assessor who is booked out — each one moves your commencement date.
So a mobilisation schedule is a reverse plan, not a to-do list. You fix commencement, subtract the lead times, and see immediately whether the date is achievable. If it is not, you renegotiate it in week one rather than explain it in week seven.
Typical lead times to plan against
These are indicative ranges for Australian mining contractors. Confirm the real numbers with your providers and the site operator, then store them as your own planning baseline — they are stable per client and worth measuring.
| Item | Typical lead time | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Site medicals / coal board medicals | 4–8 weeks | Provider availability is the constraint, not the appointment. Coal mine worker health assessments in Queensland and NSW involve a nominated medical adviser and reporting, so book these first. |
| Third-party VOCs | 3–6 weeks | Assessor availability, machine availability and the site's own verification process. Often has to happen on site or at an approved facility. |
| Site induction bookings | 2–6 weeks | Many operators run inductions on set days with limited seats. Missing a session can cost you a fortnight. |
| Contractor portal approval | 2–4 weeks | Insurances, SWMS, licences and company documents reviewed by the client, usually with at least one round of questions and resubmission. |
| Training and ticket courses | 2–6 weeks | High risk work licences, working at heights, confined space and rigging courses run to a schedule and fill up. |
| Drug and alcohol screening | 1–2 weeks | Quick to do, easy to forget, and some sites require it within a set window before mobilisation. |
| Flights and charters | 2–4 weeks | FIFO charters have fixed days and seat allocations. Late bookings mean commercial fares or a wasted swing day. |
| Camp or town accommodation | 2–4 weeks | Camp rooms are allocated, not booked on demand. Regional towns fill up around shutdowns and events. |
| PPE issue and fit testing | 1–3 weeks | Site-standard hi-vis, boots and task gear, plus respirator fit testing where required. Sizes and stock are the risk. |
| Plant mobilisation and freight | 3–6 weeks | Servicing, inspections, tagging, registration on site, low-loader or transport booking, and permits for oversize loads. |
| Tools, consumables and spares | 2–5 weeks | Order early so they arrive before the crew. Nothing wastes a mobilisation faster than a crew on site waiting on a delivery. |
Example: an eight-week mobilisation timeline
A worked example for a crew of ten mobilising to a new Queensland or WA mine site on a 2:1 roster. Compress it for a known site with current records; extend it for larger crews, specialist plant or a site you have never worked.
Lock the commencement date and scope
Get the start date, duration, roster, work area and the client's contractor requirements in writing. Nominate a mobilisation owner and set the pre-mobilisation review date now. Everything else is scheduled backwards from commencement.
Select the crew and run a compliance gap check
Name the workers and the standby pool, then check each one against the site's requirement set — inductions, licences, VOCs, medicals — and check every expiry against the end of the campaign, not day one.
Book medicals and VOCs
The longest lead items go first. Book coal board or site medicals, audiometric and respiratory testing, and any third-party VOCs. Record the booking dates in the schedule so slippage is visible.
Lodge contractor documentation
Insurances, company pack, SWMS, JSAs and risk assessments into the client's portal, plus licences to work and emergency contacts. Allow for a resubmission round.
Book inductions, training and travel
Reserve induction seats, enrol anyone needing a ticket or refresher, and book flights or charter seats and camp rooms against the roster. Confirm who pays for what.
Prepare plant, tools and freight
Service and inspect machines and vehicles, tag lifting gear, complete light vehicle compliance, book transport, and order consumables and spares to land before the crew.
Issue PPE and confirm site access
Kit each worker to the site standard with fit testing where required, complete drug and alcohol screening, and confirm access requests, gate passes and vehicle permits are approved.
Hold the pre-mobilisation review
One meeting against one checklist: every worker cleared with evidence attached, documents accepted, travel and accommodation confirmed, plant on site or in transit, scope and roster understood. Anything red gets an owner and a date.
Final confirmations and crew pack
Reconfirm flights, buses and rooms, send the crew pack — roster, travel, camp, site contacts, SWMS, inductions — and confirm the standby worker for each critical role.
Mobilise and verify on site
Site and area inductions, take-5s and pre-starts, and verify the crew list on site matches the crew list you cleared. Log the actual start of productive work.
Close out and cost the mobilisation
Record actual mobilisation hours, travel, accommodation, training and freight against the job, note what slipped and why, and update the template so the next mobilisation is faster.
How to build your own schedule
Start from the commencement date and work backwards
A mobilisation schedule is a reverse plan. Fix the date productive work must start, then subtract each lead time. If the maths does not fit, you negotiate the date now rather than fail at the gate.
Separate the crew stream from the plant stream
People and equipment have different lead times and different failure modes. Run them as two parallel tracks that converge at the pre-mobilisation review.
Schedule the long-lead items first
Medicals, third-party VOCs and induction seats are the critical path. Put them at the front and treat every other task as fitting around them.
Give every task an owner and a due date
'HR' is not an owner. A named person and a date is what makes a mobilisation schedule different from a checklist.
Build in float, and a standby worker per critical role
One failed medical should not stop the mobilisation. Carry a cleared standby for each critical role and a week of float before commencement.
Validate expiries against the campaign end date
A ticket valid on day one but expiring mid-swing will demobilise a worker halfway through. Check against the last day of the roster.
Align it with your operational schedule
Mobilisation dates need to sit in the same roster and job schedule as the rest of your work, or you will double-book a crew across two clients.
Track slippage weekly, in writing
A short weekly status against the schedule catches a delayed VOC while it is recoverable. Two weeks of silence is how commencement dates get missed.
Turn it into a reusable template per client
Each mine's requirements and lead times are stable. Save the schedule as a template so the second mobilisation to that site takes days to plan, not weeks.
Obligations that affect the timing
Competence must be verified before work, not during
As a PCBU you must ensure workers are competent, informed and supervised so far as is reasonably practicable, and coordinate with the mine operator. The schedule exists so that verification happens before anyone starts, with evidence retained.
Health monitoring has its own timing rules
Coal mine worker health assessments and other statutory health monitoring have defined content, approved providers and validity periods. Track the next-due date, because an assessment expiring mid-campaign is a mobilisation problem, not just an admin one.
Travel and rosters bring fatigue obligations
Long drive-ins, flight days and 12-hour shifts need journey management and rest between shifts built into the schedule. A crew that arrives at 11pm should not be on a 5am pre-start.
Pay and allowances start at mobilisation
Travel time, travel allowances, site allowances and living-away arrangements are decided by the applicable award or agreement. Settle these before the first pay run, not after a query.
Confirm the detail with Safe Work Australia and your state regulator — Resources Safety & Health Queensland, DEMIRS (WA) or the NSW Resources Regulator — plus the Fair Work Ombudsman for travel time, allowances and rosters, and the site operator's own contractor requirements.
Common scheduling mistakes
Starting the schedule four weeks out
Medicals and third-party VOCs alone can consume six weeks. Eight weeks is a realistic minimum for a new site.
Treating the checklist as the schedule
A list without owners, dates and lead times does not tell you whether you will make commencement.
No standby crew
One failed medical or one expired ticket then becomes a short crew on day one.
Booking flights before compliance is cleared
Cancellation fees, or worse, a worker flown in who cannot pass the gate.
Plant arriving after the crew
You pay a full crew to stand around. Freight and servicing belong on the critical path.
Never reviewing what slipped
Without a post-mobilisation review the same delay repeats on every job.
Pre-mobilisation review checklist
- Every nominated worker cleared, with evidence attached and no expiry inside the campaign.
- A cleared standby worker identified for each critical role.
- Inductions booked or completed, and confirmed by the site.
- Medicals, health monitoring and drug and alcohol screening completed and recorded.
- Contractor documentation accepted in the client's portal — not just submitted.
- Flights, buses or journey plans and accommodation confirmed against the roster.
- PPE issued and fit tested; task-specific gear allocated.
- Plant serviced, inspected, tagged, registered on site and in transit or arrived.
- Tools, consumables and spares shipped to land before the crew.
- Site access, gate passes and vehicle permits approved.
- Scope, roster, supervision and emergency arrangements briefed to the crew.
- Mobilisation costs budgeted and set up to be captured against the job.
Related reading: What does mobilisation mean in mining · What is mobilisation software · How to know if a worker is compliant for site · Planning & scheduling · Staff management.
Mobilisation schedules — FAQs
This article is general information for Australian mining and heavy industry contractors, not legal advice. Lead times are indicative — confirm them with your providers, your state regulator, the site operator and your own WHS and employment advisers.
