Bad Ground

At 9:26 pm on April 25 2006, a suspected seismic event triggered an underground rock fall at the Beaconsfield gold mine in northern Tasmania. Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped in the immediate aftermath of the collapse. One man, Larry Knight, was killed outright, and two others, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, were also believed to have perished. Five days after the mine collapse, however, the men were found alive - but trapped - nearly a mile below the surface. Following extraordinary efforts on the part on the rescue team, and a fortnight of heart-stopping drama played out in the full spotlight of the Australian media, Webb and Russell were finally freed on Tuesday 9 May, a full two weeks after being trapped. "Bad Ground" tells the amazing and inspiring story of their escape from a subterranean nightmare. But "Bad Ground" is not just a tale of two men's courage in adversity, it is also the story of those who worked desperately against the clock and against all odds to reach them, of those who kept vigil, of those who grieved and of those who never stopped believing in the possibility of their emerging alive.
Tony Wright has woven the events of the Beaconsfield mine collapse into a narrative that reads like a psychological thriller. No reader will remain unmoved as Russell and Webb reveal the thoughts, the fears, the courage and the humanity to be found in the hearts of men enduring the unendurable, down in the deepest dark.