The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-02-10 00:00:00

A MINING DISASTER IN VICTORIA.

A most appalling accident took place at the New
Australasian mine at Creswick, Victoria, on morn-
ing of the 12th of December last. The Melbourne
Correspondent of The Times gives the following in-
teresting account of the disaster
As the particulars must have a special interest for
millers and for ell persons interested in mines, whether
in England or elsewhere, I du not think any apology
necessary for asking apace in the columns of The
Times for the following condensed account of a disaster
which has excited the most profound sensation through-
out Australia. No fewer than twenty-two men most
of them in the prime of life, married, and with
families, have perished under circumstances which
harrow the imagination much more than where an
equal number meet a sudden death by sea or land on
occasions with which unhappy experience has made
many of us more or less familiar.
The Mildness of mining is now carried on in Vic-
toria mostly by large companies; and as their works,
in the shape of shafts and drives, and galleries, and -
successive levels of varying depth, extend generally to
many hundreds of feet below the surface, it becomes
necessary in every case to keep the labour going night
and day if only to prevent a disturbing influx of water
into the mine. The New Australasian Company is one
of the oldest in this neighbourhood, and their mine
has been worked with more or lees success for many
years. Old works have been abandoned and newer
works, following wherever the prospects of gold looked
most promising, have been commenced. Three
" shifts " of eight hours each are arranged, so that, for
the night labour underground, there must always be
for that period a certain number of men told off. On
the night preceding the morning of the accident this
occurred as usual ; and it was only just before the con-
clusion of their working hours that the disaster
happened which has terminated so fatally. The few
survivors, intelligent men, afford us the following
account of the origin and particulars of the situation
_h which they alone were ultimately rescued.
Two men who were contractors in "a new reef
drive" were working away in "the face" when one of
them broke through into what he considered were old
workings. Immediately a rush of water came through
the hole upon them and they had to take to flight,
giving the alarm as they ran for their lives. Every
one within hearing, of course, made for the shaft.
Some gained it and got to the surface safe. Others,
less fortunate, were left struggling with the rapidly
rising water, and at last took refuge in an upper part
of the mine, described by Maloney, one of the sur-
vivors, as a sort of "cock-loft."
As may be supposed, the news spread by those who
had saved themselves, produced' the wildest excite-
ment in the neighbourhood, the wives and families of
the men rushing from their cottages to inquire after
the fate of their relatives. They could only learn
that nearly 30 men were below; that the water had
risen to some 20f t. up the shaft, and that there was
very little, if any, hope of the men still in the mine
being rescued. The steana-engine attached to the
mine was set to work at full power to reduce the
water, and gradually, but slowly, it was brought suf-
ficiently low to admit of people descending the shaft in
search of the entombed men. Divers were telegraphed
for from Melbourne, and were promptly sent up by
rail, but were of no use when they arrived.
Meanwhile, as night and day the pumping went on,
the wives and children of the men were grouped
around the works, some in despair, some hoping
against hope, and striving to extract whatever com-
fort they could from the kindly assurances of the
workers that "all would be well," and that the men
in the mine must have had time enough to seek safety
in the upper levels. At last, when the water was
reduced to a point which enabled people to get below,
several men descended, carefully exploring as they
went, for the air had become so bad as to be scarcely
respirable. They called aloud to the men, and after a
few moments a pitman named Clarke received the
cheering response from one voice, "We are all
right." He passed the words upwards, "They are
all right ; " and instantaneously the scene above was
as described by an eye-witness whose narrative ap-
pears in the Argus :
" A wild, joyous, exultant cheer echoed the cry,
and then it was taken up in excited chorus in the
assemblage. Men jumped frantically about hugging
and kissing each other, moved with the ecstasy of the
good news. The acute suspense of the two days cul-
minated in the joy and frenzied outburst of that
supreme moment. Women who had borne and
suffered in silence and Spartan fortitude for two
whole days gave way with the sudden revulsion of
feeling from all but hopeless despair to an assured con-
viction of seeing their husbands or brothers come back
from the very jaws of death. They found relief in hys-
terical tears.',

I from

No particulars were asked for. The fact was sufficient
for the moment. The news was passed with electric
rapidity to the township and throughout the colony.
Newspaper " extraordinaries" gave it the seeming
authority of print. Ambulances had been kept in
readiness at the mouth of the shaft of the mine to re-
ceive any of the men who might be got up alive.
On Clarke's announcement that the men "were
all right, volunteers innumerable bestirred them-
selves to render assistance. Five poor men, named
respectively Manley, Corbett, Bowen, Maloney,
and Kirk, were brought up swathed in blankets,
the first four exhemeted elmust to the point of
death, the fifth so little affected by what he had
undergone that, when he reached the surface, amid
cheers, he good•humouredly declined the assistance
offered hira,,and walked off towards his home as if
nothing very extraordinary had happened. But where
were the twenty•two? Already it had become known
who and how many were the widows and orphans
among those unhappy people who congregated about
the mine; and in one moment joy was turned into
wild grief among many poor suffering souls. For,
"huddled together," says one of the spectators, "in
the ooze of No. 11 shaft lay a heap of corpses, in all
positions, a ghastly monument above the now fast.
receding water. Some of those who had succumbed
first were found at the bottom of the shapeless
mass, which it took some. time to disentangle. The
space was so confined and the victims so numerous
that the little ark of supposed refuge had proved a
treacherous snare, and the miners who sought shelter
in it had been strangled literally like rats in a trap.
To bring them to the surface one after another different
gangs of men were appointed, the duty of one of them
being reverently to stitch each corpse in a blanket,
entirely enveloping it beyond the power of recognition
by the anxious spectators above."
And, now the worst was known, those less imme-
diately interested in this calamity could collect further
particulars from such of the survivors as were in a
condition to give any account of themselves. Maloney,
as I have said, was so little affected that he could
endure patiently the usual " interviewing " which
takes place for the gratification of newspaper
readers. As, perhaps' never before have 27
poor fellows been entombed alive in a dark
nob o for some 48 hours up to their chins
in water and expecting death every moment, to my
mind the speech and behaviour of the sufferers have
an intensity of interest beyond anything the most
vivid work of mere imagination can afford. The
simple words of poor Maloney will find their way to
many hearts. After taking a long and deep sleep—all
the medicine he required—his account of himself and
his mates was 113 follows. It must, in its simple
earnestness, speak for itself :

"I feel better now than I did onDlonday night when
I went to work. I was working the farthest man in the
mine from the shaft, when I got the alarm. I don't know
who gave it. I did not hurry, for I did not expect water,
and thought it was a fall of ground. I came away from
my face leisurely, and' soon as I went down and met
water coming up the level I knew what was up, and I said
I would travel for it. I believe all of us would have got
on comfortably to No. 5 rise the first time we rushed down
if we had tried to, but they all ran back, and I went with
them. They could have got through the first time, but
when they tried the second they could not. We went back
to the little cockloft where they found us to-day. I do
not know what number it is. The water was pretty quick
for a little, and then stood. Afterwards it went higher. I
stood on a sandbank in the rise, and water at highest was
only up to my breast. We were all in this little cocklof t—
that's the best name you can give it—l think, and I then
made an attempt to count them. but they were all jab.
bering so I could not. I was jabbering myself to try and
cheer them up. I was always telling them that the water
would never get up to the roof of the rise, and so I tried
to keep their pluck up. I was quite contented, and certain
I would get out alive. My mate, Minihan, was next to
me. I would as soon have gone myself as seen him go, for
he was a man with a large family. I saw that one five
minutes might save a man's life in this small place. I
thought I noticed a little higher place on one side of me,
and I said to Minihan, 'I think that is the highest place
In this hole, and it is the place for you." He said, It is.' •
Then he went there. We were without lights, but I cheered
the men up as well as I could, saying they would be sure to
come in for us soon. I was sensible all the time, and felt
confident that I would get out. During the time the water
was high, I stood up, with one hand over an iron bar which
was placed over the caps. I intended to swing by this bar in
case of a rush of water. While there I heard first one and then
another of my companions drop of and fall plump into the
water, and during this time I suppose about 12 of them, not
more, fell off into the water. This, as nearly as I can judge, up
to about II o'clock on Tuesday morning. These deaths did not
frighten me. I felt certain of rescue, and knew that all of
us could not live in the little air there wee. I knew if
all lived for any time in that air we would all drop off at
about one time. All the men who were alive could be
heard saying such short sentences as, 'The Lord bless my
wife and family ' ; Lord pity us' ; ' God bless my wife
and little ones. I said three or four prayers myself. We
had some singing, too, in the drive, some three or four
hymns, and I did all I could to keep them in good heart. I
They all thought it was a hopeless task, but I never did. I '
could note the water going down, and I knew after they
started the engine that it I lived I would be out in less
than a week. I could feel the water going down, and I
knew she was a good engine, and that she would be able
to clear the mine in a fee, days. I put heart in them by
showing them this, and then went to sleep I lay down
on some sand. I heard Carmody, who was. an old man,
moaning very soon after we got into the rise, and he fell
back from his hold to die about twelve or fourteen boars
after we got in. I did not notice when Jim Minihan fell
down. He held on nearly to the last, and It must have been
last night that he went. I know he was found in the drive.
I believe the two Bellinghams died together. None of the
men that I know of tied themselves to each other by the
legs. I heard the relief before I saw it, but I oould not
answer back—my throat was so sore at first from the bad
e out o
withtt e a
p little air—though I tried to. I was very thirsty, and my skin
telit to as-
leep as hot as if I was in front of a fire. The air was
dreadfully bad at flret, but as one after another dropped
,way it got somewhat better. Minihan and I
ttwoaaldkteieerd..
Dargon did Dot go soon. too!'
n Into t o going
h e
her several times. He never mentioned his wife or
family, 61d, certainlytieheavtertehofugeuhtdhuwe w
lie could not be long dead when
the relief party game.
ous
y cparmevei.ll
y uget
out, but could not find my
way becausea o candle.
If I had had a candle you better believe I I h
would n
have been
mraamdeblesde;
along that drive very sooia after the water went down.
week without food in the air there, and that they would
I was very contested, however. knee, I could live a
'A get the waeter down and be in to me in less than that. If I
had a candle I would soon have got some drinking water—
we could' not drink the water in the drive—for I knew where
the keg with the drinking water was to be found. I felt the
air lu the rise much dearer and my throat wider before
the relief party came, and I knew by that they had got the
ale-pipes in. I heard the men at work, but they did not
hoar me, so I went to sleep again. It was I who answered
when the party was singing out. I did not go into the No.
9 rise because in the rush back out of the way of the water
we went past it."
This wane from midcricround life will chow readers

the miner at his best. You must not judge him by
his thick moleskins, hobnailed boots, and rought sur-
roundings, for miners cannot be dandies, but must
dress to their calling. As you are aware, the miners
of Cornwall thousands ot whom are here
are almost all of them Methodists or Nonoonfor-
mists of some kind. Perhaps, a philosopher or a
metaphysician—had he been one of this sorely•
bestead little congregation below—might not have
felt himself in voiee or tune to join these poor
fellows in their "three or four hymns," yet even a
metaphysician—Edmund Burke's most hard-hearted
of human creatures—must admire and sympathize
with one who, with death staring him in the face
and in a last struggle for life, could say to
"his mate," the fellow-sufferer, with the large
family, " I think that is the highest place in this
hole, and that is the place for you." How infinite
in number are the heroisme which never find, or
dream of finding, a place in history ! A large public
meetirg, presided over by the Governor, was held in
Melbourne last Saturday to concert measures for the
relief of the families of the victims, and thousands of
pounds for the same pnrpose are pouring in from all
sides throughout this and the neighbouring colonies.