One Dead, 29 Rescued After Ballarat Gold Mine Collapses in Australia

Victoria – One killed and 29 others were rescued after a gold mine collapsed near Ballarat on Wednesday. According to Australian news outlet, Nine News, the authorities confirmed the death of the 37-year-old worker from Bruthen. The police also mentioned that out of the 29 people who were rescued from the collapsed mine, one of the victims is currently in critical condition. The incident took place at 4:50 pm (local time) on Wednesday at Mount Clear. 

The police noted that the falling rocks pinned two men, including a  21-year-old man from Ballarat, who was airlifted to hospital after he suffered from life-threatening injuries. The rescue operation went on till Wednesday night with the crew still working safely to access the pinned workers who were stuck in the collapsed mine. The death of one of the victims was confirmed on Thursday morning by Australian Workers' Union Victoria state secretary Ronnie Hayden, Nine News reported. Victoria Police Acting Inspector Lisa McDougall told the media that uninjured workers were brought to the surface by 10:30 pm (local time). "There's a couple of phases that have been undertaken," she told reporters on Wednesday night. “That was the rescue of the patient that's been airlifted, the extraction of the other employees who were in the mine and then the third phase is accessing safely that other patient – until we can make an assessment of the medical condition of that person – but we can't put a timeline around that,” she furthered. 

Operations Victorian Gold Mine put on a pause

On Thursday, WorkSafe announced that operations at Victoria's Ballarat Gold Mine will halt while WorkSafe conducts a detailed investigation into the matter. The body also maintained the incident could “have been avoided”. “It will be a complex, detailed investigation. We’ll take some time, and we’re very keen to understand how we can ensure that a tragedy like this never occurs again,” WorkSafe executive director of health and safety, Dr Narelle Beer told local reporters on Thursday. Beer also maintained that as a part of the investigation, WorkSafe will “absolutely” be looking into anything that has occurred in the past “that could have predicted this or prevented this occurring”, The Guardian reported. The body also found that the workers had started their shift at 7 am (local time) and had just two hours before they were scheduled to clock out.