Miners Rescued

As Australians would almost certainly be aware, and people overseas probably aware of as well, trapped tasmanian miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell have been rescued. In total they spent 14 nights underground in a small cage, and remarkably were able to walk out of the mine, with beards being the only obvious sign of their time underground. Lawsie made the comment this morning that it looked like they had just done a normal day of work.

The amazing skills of the rescue team (which consisted partially of other miners) should be praised for the amazing work that they did. Certainly it took some time, but that was a minor concern after they managed to get a supply tube through to them. The supply tube gave them virtually as much time as they needed to safely get through the rock, without unduly risking the lives of Brant and Todd.

Brant and Todd were in high spirits when they left the mine, and even “clocked off” on the mine’s status board. They are expected to be able to attend the funeral of fellow miner Larry Knight later today.

I know the point I’m about to raise is a minor issue, which is why I have left it to the end of the article, but just as I said to Mike Jeffreys on-air at 8:07am, I would like to thank 2CC for delaying the 6am news so that they could continue their live coverage of Brant and Todd coming out of the mine. I was very pleased to hear this, and I think it shows a healthy committment providing news when it happens, regardless of what the schedule might say they are supposed to be doing.

Samuel