Winton Gale attended University in Newcastle NSW where he undertook vacation work in the vineyards and coal exploration in the Hunter Valley. Worked as research scientist in CSIRO and later within ACIRL before forming SCT an underground coal mining consulting and research company. Has a broad experience and understanding of underground mining and rock mechanics developed from working in many coal mining areas over the world. He has undertaken many research projects on behalf of ACARP and individual mining companies. The approach adopted in his work has been to apply rock and fluid mechanics to mining problems in order to understand the environment and then proceed toward solving or mitigating mining problems. Lately, his work has been focused on Coal Burst issues which have developed in the industry. The topic for this presentation reflects the state of the art in this field.