A miner has died after he was pinned underground during a rockfall at the Ballarat Gold Mine as another man fights for life in hospital.
The body of the 37-year-old Bruthen man was recovered from the mine on Woolshed Gully Drive in Victoria’s Goldfields region overnight on Wednesday.
n Workers Union Victorian branch secretary Ronnie Hayden broke the news on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program on Thursday morning.
‘It’s no longer a rescue. It’s now recovery,’ Mr Hayden said.
‘We do know that the two workers were air legging, which is a type of manual mining, it appears under unsupported ground and there was a collapse.’
The union boss said the miner’s death ‘could have been avoided’ and that air-legging had been stopped by most mines over safety concerns.
‘It’s a more of a manual style of mining hasn’t been done on this mine for years, and most mines have stopped doing it,’ he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
‘We’ve raised issues several times in the past about workers working under unsupported ground. We certainly would be expecting our workplace manslaughter laws to take effect because of this.’
Mr Hayden claimed a senior safety manager at the Ballarat mine was never replaced after they were made redundant by new owners.
He said it was his expectation that Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws introduced in 2020 would ‘take effect’ in lieu of the miner’s death.
A 37-year-old man has died after he was pinned underground during a rockfall at the Ballarat Gold Mine at Mount Clear on Wednesday (pictured, emergency services at the scene)
Media is seen outside the Ballarat Gold Mine on Thursday
Victory Minerals operates the Ballarat Gold Mine, which is not open to public and is made up of tunnels and shafts that stretch underneath homes in Mount Clear.
‘It was with great sadness that we confirm one of our own has passed away,’ Victory Minerals partner Rebecca Harrison said.
‘Our deepest sympathies and thoughts are with his family and all our people right now. Our absolute priority is supporting the wellbeing of our team members and their families and loved ones, as we all come to terms with this tragic news.’
A frantic rescue mission to retrieve 30 miners who became trapped about 500m underground was launched at about 4.50pm on Wednesday.
Two workers, the Bruthen man and a 21-year-old man were pinned by rocks while 28 others took refuge in a ‘safety pod’ inside the mine.
The 21-year-old man was extracted from the mine at about 8.30pm suffering life-threatening injuries to his lower body.
He remains in Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital in a critical condition on Thursday.
Victoria Police said rescue teams had travelled 500m underground to reach the trapped miners, about 3km into the Ballarat Gold Mine.
More than 30 emergency service workers were deployed to the mine overnight with specialist extraction teams working to save the trapped man.
Ballarat City Mayor Des Hudson said news of the man’s death was ‘devastating’ and sent his thoughts to his loved ones.
‘Our hearts go out to the family of that miner who never came home from work but also to the other miner who is currently in the Alfred hospital with very significant injuries and has a battle in front of him,’ he told Sunrise.
‘And also to those rescuers who will be continuing to work hard to try and be able to recover the body of that miner and bring him to the surface.’
Cr Hudson said the incident was the latest in a series of tragedies that have rocked the local community in recent works following the death of mother-of-three Samantha Murphy in a national park in Mount Clear.
‘We are a resilient community, we look after one another, and we come together to support one another, and I have no doubt that our community will absolutely do the same while this issue at the gold mine is being worked through,’ he said.
Victory Minerals operates the Ballarat Gold Mine, which is not open to public and is made up of tunnels and shafts that stretch underneath homes in Mount Clea
The body of the 37-year-old Bruthen man was recovered from the mine on Woolshed Gully Drive in Mount Clear overnight, Victoria Police said on Thursday
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen said she was ‘thinking of every worker and every family who is impacted by the Ballarat mine incident’.
A convoy of emergency services vehicles were seen rushing to the site on Wednesday afternoon.
n Workers’ Union Victoria announced on X that it’s ‘State Secretary and two of our union officials are currently on-site, working closely with the members’.
‘We stand united in our commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of all workers,’ the social media post reads.
Victoria Police will prepare a report for the coroner while WorkSafe investigates.
Victoria Police said rescue teams had travelled 500m underground to reach the trapped miners, about 3km into the Ballarat Gold Mine
The network of mine shafts that make up the Ballarat Gold Mine have been operational since the 1850s, with some of the original shafts still in use.
A cave-in at the site in November 12, 2007, trapped 27 miners about a kilometre underground. All of the miners were safely retrieved after being winched to the surface through a ventilation shaft about 8am.
On Anzac Day the year prior, Tasmanian miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped in a small cage 925metres underground for two weeks after a rock-fall at the Beaconsfield gold mine, northwest of Launceston.
While Mr Russell and Mr Webb triumphantly walked free from the mine, their colleague Larry Knight had died during the initial collapse.
They were both able to join mourners at their Mr Knight’s funeral, which had been delayed until they were freed on May 9.
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