A man has died and another is fighting for his life in hospital after a mine collapse in Victoria’s Goldfields region.
Thirty people were working about 3km from the entrance of the Ballarat Gold Mine at Mount Clear when the incident occurred about 4.50pm on Wednesday.
While 28 miners made it to a “safety pod” inside the mine and were eventually brought to the surface uninjured, two workers were pinned by fallen rocks about 500 metres underground.
One of the men, a 21-year-old from Ballarat, was freed on Wednesday night and flown to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne, where he remained in a critical condition on Thursday.
The other man, a 37-year-old from Bruthen in the state’s East Gippsland region, died.
Acting Insp Lisa MacDougall confirmed police had recovered his body at 5.20am on Thursday and would prepare a report for the coroner.
WorkSafe confirmed it would be investigating the death.
“It will be a complex, detailed investigation,” WorkSafe’s director of health and safety, Dr Narelle Beer, said on Thursday.
“We’ll take some time, and we’re very keen to understand how we can ensure that a tragedy like this never occurs again.”
According to the Australian Workers Union Victorian branch secretary, Ronnie Hayden, the man’s death “should have been avoided”.
Hayden told reporters the workers were performing a manual type of mining called “air-legging” on “unsupported ground” at the time of the accident.
The method involves the use of a handheld drill operated by two miners. He said the ground gave way, trapping both miners and killing one.
“This form of air-legging shouldn’t be used to do this type of work. This form of air-legging should be used, if it’s ever used at all, to investigate the ground,” he said.
Hayden said concerns had been raised about the use of air-legging at the mine for some time.
He said it was his expectation Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws would “take effect”. According to Hayden, since the laws were introduced in 2020, 169 Victorians had been killed on the job but there had only been one prosecution of workplace manslaughter.
Ben Wright, the manager of the earth resources section of WorkSafe, said air-legging was “less common than mechanised mining” and should not occur on unsupported ground.
“All mining does inherently carry a risk and it’s the mine operator’s duty to ensure those risks are managed appropriately,” he said.
“Without commenting specifically about this incident, there’s a general position in the entire mining sector that [the] ground should always be supported.”
In a statement, Victory Minerals said the “tragic incident” was being independently investigated by WorkSafe.
“Given this, it’s not appropriate for us to comment further right now, other than to confirm we are cooperating fully with this investigation, and undertaking our own,” it said.
“The safety of our people on site is our first priority.”
Victory Minerals bought the mine network, including the mill and equipment, from Lihir Gold in March 2010.
In November 2007, three years prior to that sale, 27 miners were trapped when a cave-in occurred while they were working a kilometre underground.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said her thoughts were with the man’s family, as well as the other miners involved in the accident.
“This would have been a terrifying ordeal for those miners and certainly too our thoughts should be with them as well,” she told reporters on Thursday.
The federal member for Ballarat, Catherine King, also extended her condolences to the family of the miner who died, saying she was “deeply saddened”.
Ballarat’s mayor, Des Hudson, said news of the man’s death was “devastating” for the tight-knit community, which has also grappled with the alleged murder of local woman Samantha Murphy.
“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,” Hudson told Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
