Countless lives lost in mining collapses, accidents and tragedies
Ballarat mine shaft victim Kurt Hourigan’s name will sadly be added to a lengthy list of lives lost in mine disasters in Australia. Here, we revisit their stories.
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While significant health and safety improvements have been made in the mining industry over the last decade, the sector still has one of the highest rates of fatalities of any industry, data from SafeWork Australia shows.
In the 12 years to 2015, the fatality rate in the mining industry decreased by 65 per cent from 12.4 worker fatalities per 100 000 workers in 2003, to 4.4 in 2015.
However, the industry still has third highest fatality rate of any industry with an average of nine workers dying each year.
As tributes pour in for 37-year-old Kurt Hourigan who was killed in the collapse at Ballarat gold mine, we’ve revisited recent mining disasters from across the country.
It makes for sobering reading.
Sadly, this is just a small snippet of the lives lost in mining tragedies.
2023
Dylan Langridge and Trevor Davis
Barminco employees Dylan Langridge, 33, from Bundaberg, and Trevor Davis, 36, from Pimpama on the Gold Coast, died after their vehicle fell down a void within a previously backfilled stope at the Dugald River underground zinc mine in Queensland on February 15.
“Losing a friend is never easy. Losing two at the same time is unthinkable,” a fundraiser created in the wake of their deaths read.
A crew mate of two miners later revealed the “haunting” breakfast he shared with his “brothers” just hours before they died.
Jump operator Steven Poznik said that he had changed over to a new contractor that week but shared breakfast with Dylan and ‘Trev’ on that fateful morning.
“We just shook hands and said ‘good luck with the next contract’ … those boys only had seven days left on site,” he said.
2021
Clark Peadon
Curragh mine worker Clark Peadon, 54, was fatally crushed by a dragline while working at the site on November 21 at 12.43am.
Mr Peadon had worked at the open-cut coal mine located 30 km north of Blackwater in Central Queensland, since 2006.
He was also a father, loving husband and member of The Caves Rural Fire Brigade, which he had volunteered for about 16 years.
Mr Peadon was a long-term resident of The Caves, north of Rockhampton, where he lived with his wife Susan.
Mr Peadon’s death was the second fatality at Curragh mine in as many years.
Graham Dawson
Graham Dawson, 60, died after he was trapped under a partial roof collapse about midnight on September 14 at Sojitz Gregory Crinum coal mine in Central Queensland.
His co-worker, aged 25, sustained crush injuries to his legs and pelvis and was trapped underground for more than four hours before he was able to be pulled out and flown to Rockhampton Hospital for treatment.
It was revealed in the days after the incident that three men were doing work in a conveyor drift and two of them were in a man basket, drilling holes into the roof and when a part of the roof dislodged and fell onto them.
2020
Donald Rabbitt
On January 12 Donald Rabbitt, 33, was crushed to death under heavy machinery at Curragh coal mine.
The mine contractor was just minutes from the end of his Sunday shift when tragedy struck.
He was working in the maintenance department when he became trapped under a piece of heavy machinery and suffered critical injuries. He died at the scene.
Cameron John Goss
Cameron John Goss, 46, was killed during a rockfall at the Henty Gold Mine in Tasmania on January 23.
He was reported missing about 4am after his colleagues could not make contact with him and entered the area he was working in, about a 20-minute descent underground.
The three men found a section of earth collapsed and were unable to locate their colleague.
His body, and the loader he was operating at the time of the rockfall, were brought back to the surface, and back to his family, on February 17.
In a death notice, his wife Christine said: “Somewhere in my dreams tonight, I’ll see you standing there. You look at me with a smile. Life isn’t always fair.”
He was also farewelled by his two children Alysha and Kaleb.
Mr Goss’ death was the first at the Henty Gold Mine since it started operations in 1996.
2019
Bradley Hardwick
Bradley Hardwick, 47, was crushed to death by the grader he had been operating after its braking system allegedly failed on February 20 at Moranbah North underground coal mine in Queensland.
He had stopped the grader on a travel road and stepped off the machine, when it rolled tragically striking the father of two before also colliding with a drift runner carrying a number of other workers.
Lisa Hardwick said the grief from her husband’s sudden death had made simple tasks, such as dropping her children to school, a challenge.
“That shock and sadness is still felt on a daily basis,” she said.
David Routledge
South Mackay grandfather David Routledge, 55, was crushed to death following a high-wall collapse at Middlemount mine on June 26.
The grandfather of two was operating a digger when part of the high-wall collapsed and engulfed the machine just after midday, crushing the equipment and claiming his life.
Middlemount Coal was fined $70,000 plus $110,000 in costs over Mr Routledge’s death. A conviction was not recorded.
Brad Duxbury
Brad Duxbury, 57, was fatally crushed while repairing machinery at Carborough Downs mine at Coppabella in Queensland on November 25.
Mr Duxbury died after defective equipment failed to stop falling coal.
Friends of the Ipswich man said he was a “proud” father who was reserved but “passionate”.
Mr Duxbury’s death came less than three months after another worker was seriously injured at the same mine.
The contractor was struck by falling roof linked to a geological fault, and within three weeks of similar collapses in the same area.
Craig Butler
Craig Butler, 59, was buried alive under 48,000 cubic metres of soil and rock after a wall collapsed at the Bootu Creek Mine in the Northern Territory on August 24.
International mining company OM Manganese was convicted and fined $487,500 for its failure to comply with its workplace safety duty and exposing nine of its workers to the risk of death or serious injury, four years after the death of Mr Butler.
Darwin Local Court judge Thomasin Opie said the Singapore-based mining company ignored the early signs of danger at its Bootu Creek Mine, 110km north of Tennant Creek, on August 24, 2019.
Ms Opie said workers had raised the alarm over dangerous conditions in the pit days before the catastrophic slip, reporting rocks tumbling down the slope and catch berms starting to lose structure, crack and give way.
2016
Sid Cuddy
Police and firefighters dug with their hands to retrieve the body of 62-year-old Sid Cuddy from a collapsed trench at a shallow-cut opal mine in Central West Queensland on October 23.
Emergency services were alerted at around 4pm on Saturday after a friend visited the remote site between Winton and Jundah – 150km south of Winton – and found the trench filled with dirt and rubble.
It took emergency services six hours to travel to the station in Opalton due to the remote location and rugged terrain, police said.
It is understood the well-known and well-liked Longreach man had been prospecting alone at the site.
2014
Phillip Grant and Jamie Mitchell
Phillip Grant, 35, and Jamie Mitchell, 49, died instantly after the collapse of a mine wall in Yancoal’s Austar coal mine near Cessnock, New South Wales on April 16.
The pair were operating a “continuous miner” 500m underground and 10 kilometres along the mine when hundreds of tonnes of coal collapsed on them.
Six others working in the vicinity escaped uninjured.
The pair were described as devoted dads and “genuine” good blokes.
Michael Welsh, Craig Gleeson and Alistair Lucas
Michael Welsh, 53 died in a mudslide at Copper Mines of Tasmania’s Mt Lyell mine on January 17, 2014.
Just one month prior, Craig Gleeson, 45, and Alistair Lucas, 25, died at the mine when a platform collapsed on December 9, 2013.
Mr Gleeson died at the scene, while Mr Lucas died in an ambulance.
Copper Mines of Tasmania pleaded guilty in separate criminal proceedings to failing to provide a safe workplace in relation to Mr Lucas and Mr Gleeson’s deaths and was fined $225,000.
Charges against the company in relation to Mr Welsh’s death were dropped in 2016.
Hazelwood mine fire
A huge fire at the Hazelwood coal mine raged for 45 days across February and March and threatened the lives of Morwell residents and mine workers.
More than 7000 firefighters from the CFA, interstate agencies and the mine owners were deployed over the 45 days to battle the blaze, with more than 500 firefighters fighting the fire at any one time, using water and foam to cool the burning coal.
Locals living near the mine were “sick to their stomachs” from the smokey air, an inquiry later heard.
Hazelwood Power Corporation was fined $1.56m over the blaze.
2006
Todd Russell and Brant Webb rescued, Larry Knight dead
Beaconsfield miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb survived a fortnight in a tiny steel cage after an earthquake trapped them almost a kilometre underground.
Mr Webb and Mr Russell were surrounded by 800 tonnes of rock and dirt and survived by sharing a muesli bar and drinking the groundwater in their helmets, which seeped through the rocks above.
A decade later in 2016, the men revealed how they struggled to live with the psychological trauma that remained long after the physical effects of the ordeal faded away.
Mr Webb described the moment he woke up.
He said: “It was the most horrific 15 seconds of my life.”
Webb recalled how he got a cigarette lighter out of his pocket and lit it up, only to reveal the tight space they were both trapped in
While many see the two men as heroes, Mr Webb described them both as “survivors”.
“We are survivors. And our heroes are the guys that got us out,” he said.
Mr Webb said he was still angry over the death of their colleague Larry Knight, who lost his life in the mine collapse.
1921
Mount Mulligan mine disaster
It was 9.25am on September 19, 1921, when the fledgling Mount Mulligan community became the scene of Queensland’s worst mine disaster.
From the school, black dust could be seen erupting from the foot of the mountain 800m away and pieces of timber were flying high in the air.
Underground, an explosive on top of a large block of coal had gone off prematurely and 75 miners didn’t stand a chance.
The blast was heard up to 30km away. Outside the mine entrance, grass was smouldering and debris was flung 40m.
With a population of only 360, the tight-knit community had lost almost a quarter of its residents in a flash, and not a single household was left untouched. About one adult in every three, or one in every two men, had perished, leaving 40 widows and 83 children fatherless.
Within minutes of the explosion, a heroic rescue effort was underway and for the next five days the locals, with the help of hundreds of volunteers from the surrounding district, risked their own lives looking for survivors and retrieving bodies.
What was the biggest mining collapse?
The worst mining disaster in the history of Australia occurred in 1902 at Mount Kembla mine and claimed the lives of 96 miners.
The incident was the result of an explosion.
What is mined in Australia?
According to Geoscience Australia, Australia has over 350 operating mines which extract 19 useful minerals.
From these minerals, materials such as metals can be extracted.
Australia is one of the world’s leading producers of bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, diamond, rare earth elements, uranium, and zinc.
Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile.
In addition, Australia produces large quantities of black coal, manganese, antimony, nickel, silver, cobalt, copper and tin.
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