More Trouble At Mine
The Age
Saturday July 26, 2008
THE Beaconsfield inquest has heard of further trouble at the Tasmanian mine's fatal 925 level, where a heavy excavating machine bounced off the ground in a rockfall.
Miner Christopher Mackay said he was working in early October 2005 with a machine called a bogger when rock fell. He felt the 19-tonne machine lift off the ground. Mr Mackay said in a statement given to the Australian Workers Union, put before the inquest yesterday, that the area was subsequently shut down. A bigger collapse followed in the mine on October 26, 2005. Mr Mackay told the inquest that several weeks afterwards he was asked by a shift boss to clear ore out of the 925 level, although to do so meant removing a chain and sign declaring "no unauthorised entry". Mr Mackay told the AWU that morale at the mine was very low and getting worse at the time of the Anzac Day 2006 collapse that killed miner Larry Knight, and trapped workmates Todd Russell and Brant Webb for a fortnight. The inquest before coroner Rod Chandler continues on Monday.
© 2008 The Age
