I Was Actually There: Aug 13

The final episode in I Was Actually There takes us to the small Tasmanian mining village of Beaconsfield to revisit the Beaconsfield mining disaster of 2006.

The town became the centre of a global media storm, when a mine collapse a kilometre underground killed Larry Knight and trapped two others, Todd Russell and Brant Webb, alive. It took six days to discover Russell and Webb hadn’t been killed in the rockfall. “We were pretty euphoric,” recalls Brant Webb, of the moment they were found alive.

“But it soon turned to a pretty low moment [when they said] ‘we actually don’t know how to get you out’.” As the town celebrated Todd and Brant’s miraculous survival, rescue teams were frantically figuring out how to get the men to the surface.

“Now they were alive – shit, what do we do now? There’s two hundred tonnes of rock sitting above them. To try and get them out, if it went bad, we kill them,” recalls Beaconsfield Mine General Manager, Matthew Gill. A range of new perspectives are unearthed, from those working to free the miners, locals and loved ones keeping vigil outside, and others tasked with covering the biggest news story in the world at the time.

“We got the feeling the town didn’t want us there,” then rookie news reporter Candice Wyatt recalls, “but we had to make a story”. Freed after an unimaginable 321 hours, celebrations for the mens’ survival were tempered by commiserations for their deceased co-worker Larry Knight. And nearly two decades later, the trauma of their ordeal lives on inside both men. “I’ve been down some very dark roads and the latest one eight or nine months ago, where I didn’t wanna be here,” admits Todd Russell.

Interviewees:

Brant Webb – one of the miners trapped underground when the Beaconsfield mine collapsed
Todd Russell – Brant Webb’s co-worker. The pair were trapped for 321 hours
Trent Russell – Todd Russell’s son, who was 12 years old at the time of the incident
Rex Johnson – Beaconsfield mine safety officer at the time of the collapse
Matthew Gill – Beaconsfield Mine general manager
Dean ‘Macka’ Mackrell – Miner and friend of the men trapped below whose job was to communicate with the boys
Zoe Webb – Brant Webb’s daughter who was 18 years old at the time
Peter ‘Hatsy’ Hatswell – Mines rescue specialist who oversaw much of the rescue plan
Victoria Kidd – Beaconsfield resident who appeared in media coverage at the time
Tony Wright – Journalist with The Bulletin, who eventually wrote a book about Beaconsfield
Candice Wyatt – Rookie news reporter for a local TV station at the time of the collapse
Darren Flanagan – low powered explosives specialist recruited for the rescue
Karen Pendrey – paramedic working with the men when they were below the surface

8pm Tuesday on ABC.