Major contractor John Holland Pty Ltd has been fined $180,000 over safety failures that resulted in the death of Mark McCallum at Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal in May 2008.

The 34-year-old crane operator and rigger was working on a coal loading jetty when he was crushed by a moving jinker.

The court found the work method put Mark McCallum out of the range of vision of operator of the front-end loader and there was no radio protocol to confirm receipt of instructions.

The Justice said "the dangers were obvious from the start, relatively simple to avoid but unrecognised and unaddressed". That put the gravity of the offence at the higher end of the scale.

Read the full court decision.