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RING THOSE BELLS
Miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb could be only hours away from freedom:
A church bell that has not rung in more than 60 years, since it welcomed the end of World War II, is likely to be tolling for joy again in Beaconsfield this morning to mark the rescue of miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell.
The little Tasmanian town (population 1300) knows of war loss:
During World War I – when the population was far smaller – Beaconsfield lost 21 of its fathers and sons. The impact of their deaths and the years-long absence of others who fought was a major contributor to the mine’s continued closure after 1914.
Then, as the effects of these losses were at last receding, there was another war and Beaconsfield again sacrificed its young men – 23 this time.
From the nameless convicts lost in the lime pits to the mine victims of the early 1900s, through the wars, Depression and now the tragic loss of Mr Knight, the town has survived.
Larry Knight, a father of four killed in the mine collapse that trapped Webb and Russell, will be laid to rest following the recovery of his workmates, whose resilience inspires rescuers:
Paramedic Peter James said dealing with the men was a humbling experience.
Asked what it was like to be close to them in the mine – talking via an intercom through a 12m-long PVC tube – he said: “I could think of a couple of words and one is humble. You’re honoured to be dealing with guys like this.”
Webb, Russell, and Knight are part of mining’s brave and often tragic history, briefly reviewed here in a Bulletin picture gallery:
Note that the rescuer is carrying a canary; that was the technological level in 1937. Hit the above link for more details. The current rescue effort is unprecedented:
Medical experts who are helping bring Brant Webb and Todd Russell to safety believe the magnitude and duration of the marathon retrieval is unparalleled in the history of Australian disaster rescue.
The magnitude of media coverage is also unparalleled. The Bulletin’s Tony Wright:
Beaconsfield has been inundated with journalists. Beaconsfield has never seen anything like this and with a bit of luck it will never see anything like this again.
Media attention isn’t all bad:
Mine survivors Todd Russell and Brant Webb are in line for million-dollar paydays with an interview, book and even a movie deal set to be negotiated.
Good luck to them.
I have only been vertical for a couple of hours and had taped television all night to see the magic moment.
It appears that it will be a long time until the miners are freed.
Annoying:
hearing that the rock is 5 times harder than concrete - like it’s new news.Dumbest question:
reporter: “How do the miners feel about the delays?”
Bill Shorten: “I’m sure they are aware that they are still trapped.”Recapping:
A mining expertBill Shorten is interviewed after being briefed by mine company officials. Then reporters, in their own words (or made up stuff), recap what he’s said. “small charges, like gunpowder” becomes “small charges like gun shot”.Poor bastards in the mine. Time must be dragging for them.
*Will they be out before the Logies? (Australian Television Awards)
What is the brief for reporting these days? Gee, nothing is happening. Put the camera on the reporter at the site and let him/her dribble any shit that comes into their head.
We need pictures (of anything) to justify sending such a large team to the site.
Live from the local hospital: “These are the beds that Brent and Todd will be in when they are removed from the mine and they will have two teams of so many medical people looking after each of them… blah, blah, blah.”
Little Sophie Delezio (hasn’t that little girl and her family been through enough?) has been in a car accident again. In last night’s news they tried the “this is the hospital bed where Sophie lay…”.
Give it a rest. We don’t need pictures to fill in space. Tell us what’s new.
I’m hoping like everything that your next post on the subject will be that they’re free. I can only imagine how maddening the wait must be for the families and for the miners themselves.
I hope they get money out of it. And I hope the aftermath (especially the silence when their fifteen minutes of fame is up) won’t be too tough.
I remember Little Jessica in the Well, the story that showed the world that people will watch soap news TV endlessly, back when, in the 80s?
That started it all off.
A series of Jessica news items continues to this day, with different Jessicas. Now there is the trapped-underground genre as well.
No part of the original Jessica story is wasted. It’s like parts of a pig.
Good luck to them is right. Five minutes in the media feeding frenzy and they’ll be wishing they were back underground.
The news about Sophie is terrible. I wouldn’t wish that amount of misfortune on my worst enemies.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 05 06 at 07:37 PM • permalinkThey are still stuck down there!! 10am on Sunday morning!!! FFS
I’ll be the first person to say it ! this has dragged on an extra week because of one thing
SAFETY NERDS!!!
after all of these precautions they are now having to BLAST OUT the final metres that were going to be by hand as the rocks are still hard!
what a Fuck up!
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 05 06 at 07:55 PM • permalinkwhen your in a life and death situation the last thing you want is a
SAFETY NERD
around
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 05 06 at 07:59 PM • permalinkAs I watched the future Prime Minister of Australia emerge, gasping, hammer and bolster in hand, to give his 666th press conference, a thought came to mind. What a shame we gave up the British honours and awards system all those years ago. I have no doubt BS will receive at least an AM, more likely an AC, but William, Lord Shorten of Beaconsfield would represent his achievements in Tasmania so much better.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 05 06 at 08:49 PM • permalinklol at 9
you can bet that the media advisors / consultants of “future Prime Minister of Australia, William, Lord Shorten of Beaconsfield”
are spewing!
with every passing 1/2 day its been
message of frustration delivered by Lord Shorten
message of frustration delivered by Lord Shorten
message of frustration delivered by Lord Shortenover and over again.
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 05 06 at 09:41 PM • permalinkMaybe Lord Shorten should fly to Ercildoune (I wonder why he hasn’t
Level crossing ‘was accident waiting to happen’
Rest of article removed for copyright violation. The Management.
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2006 05 06 at 10:01 PM • permalink#5 rhardin;
Before little Jessica, there was Floyd Collins back in 1925 in Kentucky. Still milking the story after 81 years…
Wasn’t there a movie made about someone who was stuck in a cave or something, and ended up dead because he agreed to stay down so the news people could milk the event, even though he had been freed much earlier? I know that’s a lousy synopsis, but it’s all I can remember about it. I think it was based on what happened to that guy in Kentucky.
Whatever.
My best wishes for a happy reunion of miners and family.
F* them Conservative, you posted an entire article without using quotation marks or blockquotes, and without an attribution or a link to where you obtained it from. That’s why I deleted it. If you like, you may repost only the link. Use the “link” button at the top of the comment box, paste the url into the field of the first box that pops up, then type in your linking word or phrase into the second box that pops up, then submit.
People, please don’t copy and paste entire articles in here, especially without providing a link or citing a source. And don’t do it anyway—just put in a sample quote. And CITE.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 05 06 at 11:13 PM • permalinkThe slow progress is frustrating but right now the greatest danger to the trapped men is the rescue team making a blunder. They have adequate food and air and are in a fair state of mind even though the poor beggars have been stuck in a small hole for almost 2 weeks. Also no more large scale blasting is taking place in the mine so the danger of another mine induced seismic event is small although not altogether zero. You can be assured that if there were any time contraints they would have got them out there ages ago but at a much greater risk.
So right now there is no justification for upping the risk factor just so the media can get their photo opportunities on time. Suck it up and deal with it please with some of the patience and presence of mind being demonstrated 1 km below ground.
I have worked in many mines (on the surface processing plants) around the place and I have always had great respect for the poor buggers who go down the hole. Even in this day and age no mine is 100% safe, rock falls happen, meshing gives way, unknown fault lines can be present and the ground conditions can always be touch and go in new areas.
I look forward to the home coming and if that is not tonight then so be it.
#12 geoff.It appears that Lord Shorten is indeed set to follow in the illustrious footsteps of that other great protector of the poor and underprivileged,The Silver Bodgie.It’s essential for such representatives of the proletariat to have a billionare as a friend,the Bodge had Ables and now it seems Lord Shorten has Pratt,not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.
Q&A session this morning by Mine Manager; usual questions about delay, methods used, how various people feel etc etc. All answered with weary patience by the Mine Manager.
THEN! Richard Carleton - scion of dickhead reporters worldwide (and he of the pate in picnic hamper taken ‘on assignment’ to Bosnia) weighs in with the TOUGH QUESTION -‘Why send miners into danger, why were they working there only X metres from some-thing-or-other….’
Mine Manger deflects with aplomb - ‘focussing on rescue mission, not other stuff right now…’
Lord Shorten, Hero of Beaconsfield still making vacuous second and third hand comments to any camera that points his way. Wait for Lord Shorten to become Shorten the Savage when the rescue is over and its time to excoriate the ‘guilty’.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 12:19 AM • permalinkCarleton ‘collapsed’ during the Mine Manager presser (you could see people being diverted from the scrum around the manager).
Taken by ambulance to Launceston Hospital, apparently in a bad way.
I think he made a 60 Minutes program about his heart surgery a year or so ago?
Don’t like to see anyone keel over, but if one were unkind, one would ask why Channel 9 management put him in harm’s way KNOWING he had a ?heart problem?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 12:32 AM • permalinkYes, Carleton dead. Also on Channel 9 just now.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 12:48 AM • permalinkAlmost limitless oportunity for nasty, tacky jibes and back-handers.
The least offensive one I can come up with is I wonder if the Mine Management will be held responsible for conducting unsafe press conferences?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 05 07 at 12:54 AM • permalink“Woo hoo! Fuck off and rot in hell you slimey smug piece of sh*t! “
So we’ll put you down as ‘undecided’ on Richard Carlton shall we Murph?
Posted by Harry Buttle on 2006 05 07 at 01:11 AM • permalinkI’ve just heard on the 1pm news that Carleton keeled over at Beaconsfield. Five minutes earlier I was laughing at a parody of Death Of A Salesman: “Good morning, madam, I represent the Acme Brush Company - urrrgh…”
If that’s not a brush with the Twilight Zone, I don’t know what is.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 05 07 at 01:12 AM • permalinkOn 26th October last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rock fall. Why is it, is it the strength of the seam, or the wealth of the seam, that you continue to send men into work in such a dangerous environment…eerch…
Richard Carleton, in 1988 you had a heart attack, and have had many cardiac related problems since. Why is it that you continue to be a king piss cutter, let alone a perenially outraged smug arrogant know all f*ckwit…
Too much pate and caviar methinks
Posted by The (WHMECDM) President on 2006 05 07 at 01:17 AM • permalinkYes my favourite Carlton moment was during the East Timor independence vote when he walked up to a crowd of people and asked who they were voting for. Many said they were voting for independence but then the pro-Jakarta mob started getting stuck into them, he single handily started a riot. The UN evacuated him but those left behind were killed. The man who created so many headlines is now the headline, ironic huh?
The joyful mood turned somber but determined Sunday. Mine manager Matthew Gill said it was possible the men could be freed Monday but he was not more specific, cautioning that the rescue effort remained difficult and dangerous.
“Miners report that we are dealing with some of the hardest rock they have ever worked with, up to five times harder than concrete,” he added, no longer laughing and joking with reporters as he has done in earlier news conferences.
I’d provide a link, but it’s an aol news site.
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