Posted on 05/09/2006 5:05:51 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Rescued miner Todd Russell has enjoyed a drink at his favourite pub in Beaconsfield, hours after he was freed from the collapsed mineshaft.
Mr Russell entered the Club Hotel about 6.30pm (AEST), to loud cheers and cries of "Toddy" from patrons.
He laughed and hugged his friends after entering the hotel.
Mr Russell joined Channel Nine chief executive Eddie McGuire for a quiet chat and a drink after entering the premises.
The miner who was trapped for 14 nights limped into the bar wearing a pink T-shirt.
The Tasmanian mine shaft hero did a high-five with locals as they gathered around him to wish him well.
Mr Russell was laughing and joking.
"That Sustagen, I wouldn't feed it to my dog," he told Mr McGuire, making light of the drink that was fed to him by rescuers while he was trapped underground.
His mother, Kay Russell, also walked into the pub and hugged her son.
Mr Russell, who appeared in good health, drank a can of Jim Beam and Cola.
Chris Rundle, who runs the Club Hotel, said he threw open the pub's doors at 3.30am (AEST) when he heard through the local grapevine that Tuesday was the day.
Ten minutes after the ambulances took Todd Russell and Brant Webb to hospital, the pub was packed, he said.
The celebrations died down a little while mourners attended Larry Knight's funeral in Launceston, but Mr Rundle said staff had been run off their feet all day.
Peter, one of the miners who helped dig the rescue tunnel was at the Club Hotel celebrating with the rest of the town.
"It's flat out down here, you can't move," Peter told Southern Cross radio.
He said the town was buzzing and they were celebrating with free beer.
"At the moment it is, free as and the feeling down here is wonderful," he said.
He said it was a "bittersweet day" because they also would be farewelling the miner who died in the accident on Anzac Day, Larry Knight, at a funeral later today in Launceston.
"It's good at one time, but a bit sad because we lost one of our colleagues at the same time ... we've got the funeral today."
Larry Knight laid to rest
It wasn't all celebrations in Beaconsfield today as Larry Knight, the miner who was killed in the accident, was laid to rest.
Friends, family and mine colleagues told the funeral service at St John's Anglican Church in Launceston that Mr Knight, 44, was an easy-going, calm man whose personal motto was "she'll be right, sport".
About 700 mourners filled the picturesque cathedral and spilled over to an adjoining building, and included Todd Russell, Beaconsfield mine manager Matthew Gill and Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon.
Brant Webb did not manage to attend the funeral service.
Dressed in a suit and wearing dark sunglasses, Mr Russell arrived with his wife, Jacqui, several minutes before the 1pm service began.
The funeral had been delayed in the hope that Mr Webb and Mr Russell would be able to attend.
At least 50 motorbikes were lining a street alongside a central Launceston church as Mr Knight's funeral started.
After the 40 minute service, Mr Knight's coffin was carried by friends and workmates from the church to a waiting hearse.
As the hearse departed the church, 100 motorcycles started their engines with a deafening roar to form a guard of honour, lead by Mr Knight's Harley-Davidson.
His grieving widow Jackie Knight was being comforted by family members as she walked behind the coffin.
The funeral was followed by a burial service in driving rain at the Carr Villa cemetery in suburban Launceston.
Rockfall 'was man-made'
The rockfall that claimed the life of Larry Knight and left the two other miners trapped for 14 days was a man-made disaster, new evidence suggests.
In an interview with The Bulletin magazine, to be published tomorrow, Australian Workers Union (AWU) national secretary Bill Shorten said it was important people realised the rockfall was not a natural event.
"This is a man-made mining event," he told the magazine.
"The union is concerned about the use of the term 'seismic event' to describe what happened.
"This is not an event caused by the hand of God interfering with the crust of the Earth."
In the article, unnamed workers at the gold mine also point to human error, claiming the mine was left dangerously unsupported after pillars of rock, which contained ore that could be processed for gold, were removed.
Because the pillars were necessary to stabilise the labyrinth of tunnels, blasting in the mine resulted in mini-earthquakes.
The Bulletin said this was admitted by mine management in a letter sent to local residents who complained about heavy explosions that cracked the walls of their homes.
The instability the blasts created may have led to a 400-tonne rockfall in October last year, 10 metres from where Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped.
The unnamed miners also told the magazine the rockfall that trapped the two men on April 25 was not the first collapse that night.
Stepping out into the light
"I can see your light" were the words one rescue worker screamed as he broke through the earth to free Mr Russell and Mr Webb.
The reply came back: "I can see your light too." It was a sign the marathon rescue was over.
Just over an hour later, at 5.58am, the two miners walked out, unaided, from the winder cage that brought them to the surface, punching their fists in the air to the cheers of the Beaconsfield crowds who had gathered outside the mine gate.
Wearing their fluoro jackets and lit miner's helmets, the men switched their safety tags to "safe" on the mine out board before embracing family members who rushed to hug them.
Cheeky until the end, the men also handed out business cards reading "The Great Escape".
"To all who have helped and supported us and our families, we cannot wait to shake your hand and shout you a Sustagen," the card read.
"Thanks is not enough."
The card is signed Brant and Todd.
Rescue crews cleared the last vertical section of the men's 16m escape tunnel early this morning, reaching the collapsed shaft where the men had been pinned in a small cage at 4.47am.
The men, who referred to their cramped pocket 925m underground as a two-star hotel — the pair being the two stars — were passed out through the escape tunnel, which was painstakingly dug out over more than a week, on stretchers.
They took showers and underwent preliminary medical checks before being driven in a four-wheel-drive up the corkscrew incline to a winder cage — the lift that brought them the final 375m to freedom.
The men were then taken by ambulance to Launceston Hospital where they underwent a series of tests to check their physical — and mental — wellbeing. Mr Russell gave the thumbs up sign as he drove past the cheering crowds lining the road outside the mine.
Miners astonishingly well
Rescuer Rex Johnson said there were a few "yee-haas" when the men were freed.
"They are good fellas," another rescuer said. "[Brant] is just a joker, he'll be cracking them up now, having them all in fits of laughter.
"He's just a true blue full-blown Aussie larrikin."
Mine manager Matthew Gill said both Brant — who came out of the tunnel first — and Todd were well.
"I am amazed at their condition. They are pretty tough. They are incredible people. They are absolutely incredible people," he said.
"In fact we were a bit worried with the amount they were eating we would have to make the hole a bit bigger."
Mr Gill said the odds finally worked in favour of the rescuers in the dying hours of the rescue effort.
"The amount of rock we thought we had to break was less. We were a bit further advanced than we though, so for once we had a bit going in our favour.
"The distance between us and Brant and Todd was a lot less and there wasn't the rubble we thought there might be.
"For once we did have something working on our side."
Thank you Lord!
Yes "Thank you, Lord, indeed" I was reading at another web site that they went and punched out when rescued. I posted on another thread that I had to laugh. Some manager is going to get hit with major OT:')
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