Sarah Withell

Career chronology

• Issuer FY2026 executive roster; earlier role dates described in the finding: Whitehaven Coal Limited — Executive General Manager, Health, Safety and Environment. FY26 Appendix 4E and annual report (Printed p15)

Industrial safety

Tarrawonga serious injury and company prosecution

2022–2026 · documented · high materiality

The NSW Resources Regulator investigated a serious leg injury to a contractor at Tarrawonga on 13 November 2022. The original research checkpoint recorded the regulator listing a November 2024 prosecution against Whitehaven Coal Mining Ltd as in progress on the review date; the retrospective audit could not reopen that specific entry to independently reverify status. The matter is an allegation against the company, not a proven individual offence.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. The executive held a senior group role during the incident and prosecution. No source establishes their personal involvement or liability.

Relevance: Safety and governance context; the prosecution outcome remains unresolved.

Worker seriously injured during lifting activity (Printed pp4–7, investigation findings); Prosecution summaries: Whitehaven Coal Mining Limited, Tarrawonga (Whitehaven Coal Mining Limited entry; accessed 31 October 2026); Worker seriously injured during lifting activity (IIR22-06) (pp1–2, incident and mine operator)

Reported safety and environment measures

FY2025–September 2026 · issuer reported · medium materiality

The FY26 remuneration report gives a full-year TRIFR of 3.3 versus 4.6 in FY25 and recognises one FY26 scorecard enforcement event concerning a February 2025 dust complaint. It says two FY22 fume matters were still subject to legal proceedings and a separate FY21 noise proceeding was resolved in the company’s favour in June 2026. The September 2026 quarter report separately gives a quarter-only TRIFR of 7.4; the periods are different.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. The executive held a leadership role. Company metrics and unresolved proceedings do not establish individual causation or guilt.

Relevance: Current safety and compliance context.

FY26 Appendix 4E and annual report (Printed p45, remuneration scorecard and environmental actions); September 2026 quarterly production report (Original cached ASX PDF physical p1, quarter-only TRIFR)

Suitability for the current role

Reported career and role

Career and appointments through FY2026 · analyst inference · low materiality

Whitehaven says she was appointed EGM HSE in July 2020 after senior roles including BHP NSW Energy Coal and BMC. The company reports a Master of Engineering Science; it does not independently verify the qualification.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. The biographical facts are issuer-reported; their relevance is an analytical inference, not independent qualification verification.

Relevance: Experience is relevant to the executive’s reported responsibilities.

FY26 Appendix 4E and annual report (Printed p15)

Evidence gaps

• Person-specific targeted searches across all topics, previous employers, court and regulator records are incomplete; the broad combined searches cannot establish an exhaustive negative result.

• Independently verified qualifications, precise previous-employer tenure and person-specific project contributions are unavailable or were not established in this limited pass.

• Dated FY26 roster and the undated leadership page support the described roles, but every role’s exact continuation on the cutoff date is not independently established.

• The final Tarrawonga prosecution outcome and the final disposition of the Maules Creek fume proceedings are unverified; no individual liability is inferred.

• The original research checkpoint records the searches and source reviews, but the original tool-call transcript was unavailable to this retrospective audit, so the precise historical calls cannot be independently verified. The broad query is reused across topic rows and does not establish dedicated topic searches.