Qualla: Beaconsfield Mine Collapse

Beaconsfield Mine Collapse: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. It was Anzac Day, the night Australia pauses to remember its dead, when the ground gave way beneath Beaconsfield. At 9:26 in the evening on 25 April 2006, a small earthquake, magnitude 2.3, shuddered through the quartz nearly a kilometre below this quiet town in northern Tasmania. Rock that had stood for hundreds of millions of years came down in seconds. Fourteen miners scrambled clear. Three did not. One of them, Larry Knight, was killed where he worked. The other two, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, were alive, sealed in a steel cage at the end of a loader's arm, in the dark, with the weight of a mountain pressing down on them.

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Beaconsfield Mine Collapse: The Richest Hole in Tasmania

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Gold built Beaconsfield. In 1877 two brothers, William and David Dally, found a payable reef on the slope of Cabbage Tree Hill, and within two years the Grubb Shaft was being sunk into the hill. For decades this was the richest gold town in the state, drawing hundreds of men unde...

Image: Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Beaconsfield Mine Collapse: Two Men in a Cage

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Webb and Russell had been standing in a basket, meshing a wall, when the rockfall buried them. Webb was knocked unconscious; Russell's legs were pinned under rubble. When Webb came to, the two cut themselves free of clothing and boots fused into the rock with utility knives, then...

Image: Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Beaconsfield Mine Collapse: A Town, a Nation, a Foo Fighter

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Beaconsfield turned its grief and hope into small acts of care. Down a narrow pipe went fresh water and food, then dry clothes, letters from home, and iPods loaded with the music the men asked for, including the Foo Fighters. When Dave Grohl heard, he sent word by fax: two ticket...

Image: Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Beaconsfield Mine Collapse: I Can See Your Light

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. After fourteen nights, in the small hours of 9 May, rescuers Glenn Burns, Donovan Lightfoot and Royce Gill broke through the last barrier of stone. One of them shouted, "I can see your light." The miners called back, "I can see your light too." Webb was freed at 4:47 a.m., Russel...

Image: Original uploader was Kyle sb at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0