|
It's like New York after 9/11," said an emotional reporter. "On a larger scale." In Beaconsfield, northern Tasmania, where media and medics now outnumber locals, the discovery alive of two gold miners, who had been presumed dead for five days, has brought the whole community onto the streets.
In the initial euphoria, people sank to their knees, speaking of miracles, and the pub stayed open till 6am.
It is hard to underplay the impact on Australians of Sunday evening's discovery. Australia needed some good news after a week that saw three generations of a family die in a fishing accident off Port Arthur. Then today the body of Private Jake Kovco was buried, with controversy still clouding his death in Iraq ("shot while cleaning his service pistol"), and not before a fiasco in which the wrong body was sent home.
|
|
|
  |
 |
|
The discovery alive of two hungry gold miners has been hailed as a miracle
|
|
|
Already, flags in Beaconsfield were at half mast for miner Larry Knight, crushed by an earth tremor last Tuesday. Then a microphone picked up the voices of Todd Russell and Brant Webb. Their first words: "Get us the Hell out of here." Their next: a request for eggs and bacon, plus the local footie scores. They had survived on rancid water.
Relief has now yielded to frustration as the drill inches with excruciating slowness towards them. The fear of triggering another rockfall means that it may be 48 hours before rescuers reach them.
Meanwhile, they remain cramped in a hot, dark metal cage 1.2 metres square. They may not yet have had bacon and eggs, but the probe that located them has been widened to 10cm, enough to squeeze through water and crushed biscuits. 
FIRST POSTED MAY 2, 2006
 Last week: Anzac day
|
