Nathaniel Beesley’s fellow rock face scaling colleagues give evidence on “crumbly” rocks, “large” cracks in mine wall

A witness in the inquest into Nathaniel Beesley’s mine death has recounted a shower of small rocks moments before being told to “run”, and another witness burst into tears recalling tragedy.

A witness in the inquest into Nathaniel Beesley’s mine death has recounted a shower of small rocks moments before being told to “run”.

Father of two Mr Beesley was scaling a rock face at Grange Resource Ltd mine at Savage River with his SRG colleagues when a rockfall killed the former Royal British Marine.

Scaling colleagues Tim Herbert, Jahra Hose and Grant Tullipan gave evidence at the coronial inquest into the 32-year-old’s death on Thursday.

Mr Herbert had observed a “large crack” in the wall on the day of the tragedy, noting in his affidavit it “went further than I could see”.

He tested the crack by inserting a bar into it, in accordance with standard procedure.

Counsel for Mr Beesley’s family Chris Hoile said it had been mentioned during evidence pushing into the rock was unlikely to have destabilised the rock face, but it wasn’t impossible the action caused the rockfall.

Father Nathaniel Beesley, pictured with then 4-year-old son Freddie, died on March 17, 2017 while working in a Tasmanian mine.

“At the time of the incident, were you aware of that possibility?”

Mr Herbert nodded and burst into tears.

Cracks weren’t uncommon in mine walls, the court heard from several witnesses, but Mr Herbert noted this crack was longer than average and had been about 20m above where Mr Beesley was standing when he was hit.

Robert Phillips, counsel for Mr Beesley’s wife, asked “Is (the incident) something that you have tried to put out of your mind?”

With a quivering voice, Mr Herbert responded, “I don’t think I can really”.

Fellow scaler Mr Hose said the Grange mine had been “very soft, very crumbly” compared to other mines.

“I do remember me and Nathan looking up at small rocks falling down on top of us,” he said. “Just a shower of small rocks. That’s what alerted me to start looking up and it wasn’t long after that that Grant yelled ‘run’ to us.”

Nathaniel Beesley, pictured with wife Katie Beesley, died on March 17, 2017 while working in a Tasmanian mine.

Project manager Kieran Toon said he had not been made aware about rockfalls earlier that year, including a 250T rockfall in January.

“My understanding at the time was very limited due to being very new at SRG and any exposure to that type of mine,” he said.

“I was not aware that there were rockfalls occurring without any prior (radar) detection.”

Scaler Mr Tullipan said the golden rule in every scaling job was “if you can’t move it with your body weight when you’re hanging on ropes, it’s not going to fall on its own”.

He said if he’d thought anything was unsafe, he would have stopped the job.

When he heard a “crack” sound, he yelled for his crew to run.

“I had an idea what was about to happen,” he said.

The inquest will continue on Friday.