The Moura incident of August 7, 1994 – an explosion at the underground coal mine that led to the deaths of 11 miners – proved the catalyst for a major shake-up in the approach to safety in all kinds of mines around Australia over the late 1990s and early 2000s.

However that could still not hide the truth: The mining industry is extremely hazardous and has one of the highest work-related death rates in Australia.

Miners are exposed to numerous dangers including electrical hazards, flooding, explosions, asphyxiation, roof collapses, noise, exposure to dust and in some cases, poor illumination and ventilation.

This is the tragic tale of some of Queensland’s biggest mining disasters >>>

1921

In 1904 five died in a mining accident at the Brilliant Mine, Charters Towers.

Just four years later 12 more die in rock falls at Mt Morgan.

However one of the worst mining disasters was to come: in 1921 75 die in an explosion at Mt Mulligan.

Four of the dead had been at the mouth of the pit at the time of the explosion, with 74 bodies recovered by the time the Royal Commission ended.

The disaster rocked the country, in part because the six-year-old mine had been considered safe and had no previous indications of gas leaks.

1954

Seven Collinsville miners were killed in a tragedy that touched the lives of everyone in the community.

The men were poisoned by gas after explosives were detonated to loosen coal at a depth of 275m and 1.5km in from the pit mouth. Death from the “black damp’’ gas was immediate.

The 2300 residents in the town — which had seen a total of 26 deaths since 1912 – were devastated and turned out in mass for the men’s funeral.

A truck carrying the seven coffins was preceded by a mournful procession of 2000 miners, union leaders and townspeople. The wives and children of the dead followed in cars.

After the funerals, the miners accused the mine management and state government officials of not taking even the most elementary precautions to prevent the disaster. And until they were assured of maximum safety provisions they would not work.

1972

On July 31 17 miners lives were lost at the Box Flat Colliery, Ipswich, following a huge explosion.

The blasts were seen in all outlets of the No. 5 and No. 7 mines which were then sealed at the surface.

The disaster started when a small fire was seen burning in the mine.

By the time the mine inspector went to view it, the fire was burning fiercely, ventilation was reduced and it was apparent water would not extinguish it.

1988

A man crushed to death in the Collinsville coal mine cave-in of August 1988 was the father of four young children.

The body of David Joseph Firth, 31, was found about 11pm.

Firth’s fellow coalminers stopped work as a mark of respect.

The cave-in was caused by a roof collapse in the Collinsville No. 2 mine about 5pm.

The personnel manager of the Collinsville Coal Company, Geoff Vance, said Mr Firth was a popular local man.

1994

On August 7 an explosion occurred in the Moura No 2 Coal Mine.

A total of 21 people were working in the mine. Ten escaped while the remaining 11 failed to return to the surface.

A secondary explosion on August 9 hindered any rescue attempts and the mine was subsequently sealed and closed.

1997

Mt Isa Mines was accused of putting its cost-cutting process above mine safety after the fifth fatality at its operation in a year.

Unions and the State Opposition criticised the company for putting “profit above lives’’ after a man was crushed by an excavator.

The State Government reacted to criticism that the Mining Warden was under-resourced, and moved responsibility to the “extensively resourced Justice Department’’.

Mt Isa executive general manager Stephen O’Donnell said the safety performance at the mine was ``totally unsatisfactory’’ but it was simplistic to say the company’s cost-cutting had caused the accident.

The man killed was believed to have been loading scrap metal about 12.54am when an excavator reversed into him, crushing him against his truck.

1998

A mine engineer, 31, was killed in November after he fell from a mine shaft platform at Mount Isa Mines.

A police spokesman said the man fell 40m from an underground drilling platform at the Enterprise copper mine, owned by MIM Holdings.

It was not known if the man was wearing safety gear.

The engineer was helping build an internal shaft of the copper mine.

2000

All Queensland coal mines were in May shut down by a miners’ strike following the death of a miner in a cave-in.

In the second mine fatality that year, a miner died and another was injured when an underground tunnel collapsed at the Oaky Creek No 1 mine, near Tieri in central Queensland at 4am.

The dead man was father of two Michael Morris, aged 36.

He was among a crew of 20 people working hundreds of metres underground on a continuous mining machine when the roof of the tunnel fell on top of them.

2003

A man, 39, was killed in March in a drilling accident in south-central Queensland.

The accident, just after midnight, was at the No. 16 oil and gas rig operated by Century Mining, about 20km east of Condamine, 340km west of Brisbane.

A police spokeswoman said the man had been crushed between two drilling pipes after a stand collapsed.

His chest was crushed and he died at the scene.

2006

A man was killed in October at a mine site at Mt Carbine, 127km northwest of Cairns.

Mareeba police confirmed the man, 55, of Mt Molloy, died about 2pm but would not release the cause of death, nor the man’s name or occupation.

“The death was the result of an accident at a mine site,” Sgt Mark Ewin said.

The former wolfram and tungsten mine has been closed for nearly 30 years.

2012

An explosion killed a 22-year-old Caboolture man on his first day at work for a mining services company in north Queensland in March.

Emergency services rushed to the business on Goonyella Rd at Moranbah, southwest of Mackay, just before 7am after the explosion ripped through the site.

The man had only just been employed by not-for-profit business Tri Q, which describes itself as a mining industry job-training business for the disabled and disadvantaged. General manager Bernie Scott said he and his workers were shattered by the death.

“We’re deeply distressed for his young wife and family,’’ Mr Scott said.

2013

Townsville man Daniel Hensler, 19, was killed in June in a freak mining accident at Cannington Mine, near Mount Isa.

Daniel had been undertaking electrical work underground when the cage he was in fell to the ground from a forklift.

His death had left a gaping hole in the lives of parents Wayne and Alison, who lost their beloved eldest son, and sisters, Kelly, 17, and Amanda, 13, who no longer had their big brother to look up to.

Wayne said Daniel would always be remembered for his passion for everything he encountered.

“He was very outgoing and loved a bit of a laugh,’’ he said.

2013

Work at a Mount Isa mine was halted in June after a 50-year-old miner was killed in an underground accident involving heavy machinery.

The incident occurred at Xstrata’s George Fisher Mine, about 20km north of Mount Isa, just before midnight.

Industry sources said the man was a well-known and much-loved load operator, who had worked in Mount Isa for several decades.

The Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation said the worker had been backfilling a stope using an underground loader when he entered the stope working area.

The loader he was in fell 24m over the edge of the stope.

2013

The mining township of Moura was in mourning following the death of another miner in the latest of a string of tragedies to hit the central Queensland community.

Police said the 41-year-old man had plunged 50m to the foot of a wall where his body was found, the day after he was last seen in the Dawson Mine at the township, west of Gladstone.

The alarm was raised when the miner failed to return to his home in Moura after his shift at the huge open-cut mine, run by Anglo Coal Australia.

A police spokeswoman said the man plummeted to his death, but could not say why he was not discovered until the following day.

In July a 27-year-old man plunged to his death when land collapsed under him at a mine in Mt Isa.

2014

Unions were in May asking why central Queensland coal miner Paul McGuire was in a closed part of the Grasstrees mine ­before he died.

Mr McGuire, 34, was found dead of apparent asphyxiation from gases in the mine, and the powerful coal union, the CFMEU, said there were a lot of questions about the death that needed to be answered.

The tragedy followed a warning from the Queensland Government’s mine safety commissioner, Stewart Bell, about the increasing safety incidents in Australian mines.

Last month, Mr Bell said 2013-14 was shaping up to be a dangerous year.

2015

A mining company in February launched an internal investigation after a Cairns man died in hospital almost two weeks after a workplace accident.

Fly-in, fly-out underground operator Jason Braid, 46, was involved in an underground incident at the Glencore-operated Ernest Henry Mine at Cloncurry on February 1.

Mine officials confirmed that he was supposed to make a full recovery and he was transferred to Cairns to be closer to his family while undergoing rehabilitation.

Mr Braid died suddenly in the Cairns Hospital after a blood clot had formed.

EHM officials could not confirm if his death was the result of the injuries suffered in the mining incident.

2017

Mining giant Anglo Coal was in May slapped with Queensland’s biggest fine over the death of a worker.

Ian Downes, 45, was killed in a rock fall while working on an underground wall at the company’s Grasstree mine in central Queensland in December 2014.

Anglo Coal pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace and was convicted under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act and fined $284,625 at Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Magistrate Nerida Wilson noted it was the second fatality at the mine in seven months.

2018

Adam Malone, 25, was fatally injured at Jacks Quarry when the articulated dump truck he was operating hit an embankment and turned over on a haul road in July.

In November Connor-Shaye Campbell Milne, 21, was fatally injured at Fairfield Quarry when he was ­entangled in the tail pulley of a conveyor.

The next month Allan Houston, 49, was fatally injured when his bulldozer overturned at BMA’s Saraji Open Cut Coal Mine near ­Moranbah.

2019

A 27-year-old man was killed at the Baralaba North Coal Mine Queensland in June.

It’s not known how he died, however, contractor Golding said the “experienced mining operator” was “fatally injured” in an accident.

The accident came less than two weeks after the death of Mackay father David Routledge at Middlemount Coal Mine in central Queensland.

In February Bradley Hardwick died when two pieces of machinery collided underground at Anglo American’s Moranbah North mine

While in December 2018 Allan Houston was fatally injured when his bulldozer overturned at BMA’s Saraji Open Cut Coal Mine near Moranbah

2019

A 57-year-old Ipswich man died in July at Fitzroy Australia Resources’ Carborough Downs coal mine after sustaining “critical injuries”.

The site is located just east of Moranbah, and about 180km southwest of Mackay.

Fitzroy Australia Resources CEO Grant Polwarth said the company’s primary focus is on providing the family all necessary support and assistance.

“We are deeply saddened by this news and Fitzroy extends our deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the worker,” he said.

2020

Donald Rabbitt, 33, was the victim of an horrific workplace incident at Curragh Coal Mine in January.

Heartbroken father Robin Rabbitt said it should never have happened.

It’s understood Donald had been working a shift alone and was changing a 4.5 tonne tyre when it fell from about waist height, crushing him. He was found about 4.30pm.

2021

Central Queensland mining union officials declared the September mining collapse which claimed the life of a 60-year-old man and trapped another man in the rubble for four hours at an Emerald mine as an “absolute tragedy”.

Emergency services were called to the Sojitz Gregory Crinum Coal Mine on Lilyvale Road near Emerald.

Workers were undertaking roof support works when the roof collapsed and a section of wall and ceiling fell. Paramedics assessed a 60-year-old man for critical injuries, however he died at the scene.

2021

A man was crushed to death in an underground mine accident in central Queensland in November.

Curragh mine worker Clark Peadon died from crush injuries following an incident involving a ­dragline.

Mr Peadon’s death was the second fatality at Curragh mine in the past two years.

Work at the site, about 10km north of Blackwater, was suspended as police, mine inspectors and union representatives investigated the tragedy.

CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland president Stephen Smyth said there had been “a lot of messiness” across the resources industry in the past six months, including a fatality at Sojitz Gregory Crinum mine and a serious crush injury at Coppabella.

Graham Dawson, 60, died after he was trapped under a partial roof collapse about midnight on September 14. He suffered critical injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

2022

A mine worker killed in an underground disaster in March was identified as Gavin ­Feltwell.

A shell-shocked community gathered at Moranbah Miners’ Memorial to mark the tragic death of father-of-two Mr Feltwell.

Memorial secretary Andy Collins left a lit lamp at the memorial, Isaac Regional Council Mayor Anne Baker laid a wreath and Councillor Kelly Vea Vea read out the ­remembrance.

“We come together to ­support each other as members of the mining community because that’s what we do and that’s who we are,” Ms Vea Vea said.

The community stood in silence to remember the 59-year-old family man who died at Moranbah North mine while working to move an old piece of equipment in a roadway.

2024

Family and friends of fallen coal mine Luke O’Brien celebrate his life in January dressed in colour honouring one of his passions – speedway.

The 27-year-old was fatally crushed between a B-double tanker and a ute at Saraji mine about midday on January 15.

Investigations indicated the tanker had lost traction and became bogged while exiting a parked location within the fuel-bay area of the Dysart-based BMA mine and as a result a ute was being set up to tow the larger vehicle.

Mr O’Brien, who had worked for one of BMA’s contracting partners BEP Engineering and Maintenance, had been between the two vehicles – when the ute was reversed it pinned the 27-year-old between its tray and the fuel tanker’s bull bar.

He was taken to Dysart hospital but died later that day from his injuries.

2024

New details were released in August about the worker killed when a vehicle was crushed under a haul truck at a Bowen Basin mine, the second death at the same site in less than three weeks.

A 56-year-old man, who was a Macmahon contractor, was driving the light vehicle when it and a large haul truck collided at Byerwen open cut mine, near Glenden, about 1pm Thursday.

The man suffered life threatening injuries and tragically died.

This comes as workers were still mourning the death of another colleague in a crane accident earlier this month.

Mining and Energy Union General Vice President Steve Smyth has now called for the mine to be shut down until the investigation is complete and any underlying issues linked to safety resolved.

Initial reports suggest two vehicles, including a haul truck and a smaller vehicle, collided about 1pm and the smaller vehicle went underneath the larger vehicle.

On August 3, Chris Schloss, 48, suffered fatal injuries after he was struck by a crane.

2024

Loved ones of a miner killed in a work incident in Central Queensland in October 2024 were reeling in the wake of the tragedy, the latest in a series of incidents plaguing Queensland mines in 2024.

Frank Thomas was one of two men carrying out maintenance works involving a conveyor belt at Glencore’s Oaky Creek Coal Mine on October 2 when a cable snapped and struck them about 4.34pm.

Tragically 51-year-old Mr Thomas was killed.

As a result operations at the mine were suspended and Resources Safety and Health Queensland was investigating.