Beaconsfield

It’s become almost a pilgrimage for visitors to make the journey to Beaconsfield, the site of a truly heroic mine rescue. The Beaconsfield Gold Mine was unknown to anyone on mainland Australia, unless you lived in Beaconsfield.

However that all changed on the 25th April 2006, when a small earthquake of approximately 2.3 on the Richter-scale caused a mine collapse that killed one miner, Larry Knight, and trapped Brant Webb and Todd Russell in the cage of a cherry-picker-like vehicle that had a floor area of just 1.5 cubic metres. Fourteen other miners who were underground at the time escaped unscathed. Following the collapse, the fate of the trapped pair remained unknown as the mine was secured and their families prepared themselves for the worst.

For my overseas readers and Aussies who’d like to re-visit this timeline, the documentary will show why this particular tragedy captured the hearts and minds of millions of people in Australia and around the world

We had a day up our sleeve and decided to do a run to Beaconsfield. First thing I noticed was how incongruous the mine was, set in the heart of suburbia. Clearly the town had grown up around the mine site. It’s mine is closed now, but the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre, adjacent to the mine provides a detailed mine history and even re-creates the diabolical entrapment of Brant and Todd.

It’s interesting how disaster draws us in to a place you wouldn’t even give a second glance to on a drive by.

And that my friends, brings my Tasmanian adventure to a close. We washed our cars and vans clean of seven weeks of excitement and (occasional) drama and the next day, drove back to Devonport where we spent our last night watching the city lights from our free camp overlooking the city.

Hope you enjoyed exploring Tasmania with me. I’ll be back in a few weeks with the start of my next expedition – North Queensland and the Gulf Country.