Two Tasmanian gold miners trapped 3,000 feet underground for 14 days were rescued yesterday, ending a saga that had gripped Australia. The rescue of the pair, who had been feared dead, has been described as "an inspiring example of Australian mateship."
Todd Russell, 34, and Brant Webb, 37, were trapped in a safety cage in the mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, after a 2.1 magnitude earthquake caused a collapse of underground rocks and killed their colleague, 44-year-old Larry Knight on April 25. Initially, it was feared that the two men, both married and both with three children, had also perished but investigators using a thermal imaging camera five days after the collapse found them still alive and the non-stop effort to bring the pair to safety began.
The men were able to walk unaided from the mine's main lift shaft, despite their ordeal and cramped muscles. They hugged family and friends before climbing into two ambulances.
A fire engine drove through the town with its siren wailing to alert locals to news that the pair had been rescued. A church bell rang out in celebration shortly after 5am (1900 GMT).
Hundreds of locals from the close-knit town of Beaconsfield, in the island state of Tasmania, gathered at the gates of the mine to welcome the men, who have become national heroes. Television cameras, photographers and journalists shouting questions also greeted the men above ground, reflecting the enormous media encampment that had followed every twist of the rescue effort.
Television networks, whose bulletins had already been interrupting normal television programming, cut live to the news that the men had been saved.
The miners received medical treatment before appearing in front of members of the public. Onlookers applauded as an ambulance carrying the men drove slowly past with its doors open.
The men appeared to be in good health and smiled broadly, punching the air in jubilation and waving to wellwishers. "The great escape is over," union official Bill Shorten told Nine Network television after the men emerged. "A giant rock of pressure has been taken off these families." Mine manager Matthew Gill, who is a close friend of the pair, said the men were "incredible people", adding: "I am amazed at their condition."
He said the rescue operation had involved keeping the miners horizontal for as long as possible in case they were injured. The men were then pulled to safety through a vertical tunnel.
But there was a bittersweet edge to the rescue, as it came just hours before the funeral of their colleague Mr Knight. The father-of-four is due to be buried in Launceston today. Mr Gill said the two survivors had expressed a desire to attend the service.
The men had displayed an impressively laid-back attitude to their fate throughout their ordeal. They survived the first week on a cereal bar and by licking the water from the rocks but have since been fed on meals passed down to them through a 40ft pipe.
On a psychologist's advice, an iPod with their favourite music stored on it was also sent through the pipe to keep up their spirits.
Yesterday, according to the local Mercury newspaper, they made an unsuccessful request for chips and gravy to be sent down but doctors would only agree to chicken and cheese bread rolls with some tinned fruit for dessert. Omelettes and home-made soups were also dispatched through a device similar to a dumb waiter.
The trapped men also joked about asking for the classified ads column from the local paper so that they could see what other jobs might be on offer.
The bonhomie which characterised the rescue attempt was saluted by the Australian prime minister, John Howard. "It's just been terrific to see the way that community has worked together, the mayor, the churches, the union leaders, all of them have come together, emergency workers and, most importantly, all those who have actually gone down and dug through to try and rescue their mates," he said.
The Mercury reported that the prime minister had hailed the saga as "an example of Australian mateship".
The rescue team worked around the clock, using low-impact explosives, hydraulic rock splitters, hand-held drills and diamond-tipped chainsaws.
They faced enormous problems in trying to drill their way in zigzag fashion through the rock without endangering the lives of the men as they tried to cut them a metre-wide escape tunnel in the 25 degree underground heat.
The two men had to help their rescuers by spreading grout over loose rocks to prevent collapses around them as the final push was made in an area where gold had been discovered in 1877.
As the rescuers appeared to be getting closer, excitement mounted.
"The fat lady might not have sung but I can certainly hear her clearing her vocal cords," Mr Shorten, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, told the Associated Press shortly before the men emerged.
There was further drama when one of Australia's best-known journalists, Richard Carleton, collapsed and died during a press conference about the rescue attempts. Carleton, 62, of Nine Network's 60 Minutes programme, had just asked the mine manager about the company's safety record when he suffered a heart attack.
His report, which aired after his death, was critical of safety procedures at the mine.
Journalists covering the rescue attempt found themselves suddenly reporting on the death of one of their colleagues, a man who had covered many of the major foreign stories of the past four decades and who had worked for ABC and the BBC in a long, award-strewn and sometimes controversial career. Mr Howard described him as "a colourful bloke".
Carleton had famously crossed swords with Bob Hawke, one of Mr Howard's predecessors.
There are few more universal real life dramas than those involving people trapped below the ground or sea.
Earlier this year, one such drama played out first as miraculous survival and then as tragedy when, in January, the families of 12 American miners, trapped underground after an explosion in Sago, West Virginia, were mistakenly told that their men were alive.
Church bells rang and relatives and friends celebrated only to find out a few hours later that, in fact, all but one had died. Some of the men left behind notes for their families saying they had not suffered. In February, desperate attempts were made for more than a week to rescue 65 coal miners trapped in a Mexican mine just south of Texas.
Such tragedies are now almost routine in China, the world's largest coal producer, where 6,000 died in various mining accidents in 2004.
Such has been the rate of fatalities that the Chinese government has closed some of the smaller private mines because of lack of safety.