On This Day - May 9th 2006
After being trapped underground for fourteen nights, Tasmanian miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb finally walk free.
Beaconsfield is a small town in the northeast of Tasmania, Australia, about 39 km north west of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway. The district was first settled in 1805 and became a centre for limestone quarrying. The mining of limestone led to the discovery of gold in 1869 which caused the area to boom immensely, and by 1881 Beaconsfield was known as the richest gold town in Tasmania.
On the evening of Anzac Day, 25 April 2006, a small earthquake caused a rock fall in the mine. Eleven miners came out safely, but three remained trapped in the shaft about 1 kilometre below the ground. On the morning of the 27 April the body of 44-year-old Larry Knight was found in the shaft. On the evening of the 30 April 2006, the other two miners were discovered to be alive, after being trapped in the mine for five days. Their survival was claimed as nothing less than a miracle. They were protected by the 1.2m square cage they were in at the time, and which was where they spent most of their following fourteen days. Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 35, survived by drinking mineralised water that dripped from the rocks throughout the mine. The family of Larry Knight put aside their grief to share the jubilation of the rest of the town.
The operation to rescue the trapped miners was a long and difficult one, as numerous obstacles were faced. The men were sustained by food, water, medicines and other vital goods sent down to them through piping sent through a smaller tunnel drilled through the rock. Paul Featherstone, instrumental in the rescue of Thredbo survivor Stuart Diver, also played a vital role in this rescue. Webb and Russell were finally freed at 4:47am on Tuesday, 9 May 2006, the same day selected for Larry Knight's funeral. A bell at Beaconsfield's Uniting Church, which had not been rung since the announcement of the end of WWII, pealed in celebration as the news broke, and residents immediately started to converge on the mine site. The men did not surface for another hour, as they were initially taken by 4WD to the mine's "crib room", a room the size of a cafeteria, about 700 metres below the ground, for recovery and health checks. The cage lift brought the men to the surface just before 6:00am.
In another sad twist, long-time Australian television personality, reporter Richard Carlton who was with channel 9's "60 minutes", collapsed and died after a press conference held at the site, just two days before the men were freed. Carlton threw the Beaconsfield mine situation and its apparent dangers into the spotlight during the press conference. His final story for 60 Minutes - an investigation into the Beaconsfield disaster - ran just hours after his death.