THIS weekend, 50-years will have passed since 17 men died following an explosion at Box Flat Colliery at Swanbank.
Residents reported that the noise of the explosion was so loud they were woken from sleep as windows shook and the ground rumbled in the early hours of July 31, 1972. It was described in the Mining Warden’s Court Inquiry that followed as being ‘an explosion of considerable magnitude’.
The explosion occurred around 2.47am on a Monday. The mine was fully operational and was opened three years earlier in 1969.
The men who perished were miners and members of a rescue team.
One of the men had been hospitalised but died two years later due to injuries caused in the explosion.
After the blast, further rescue operations were suspended due to the belief no one underground could have survived. That afternoon the mine was sealed off permanently leaving all miners below, where they remain to this day.
The death of these 17 men led to inquiries into mine safety and procedure. It marked the beginning of new systems being put in place in the hope of preventing the re-occurrence of this type of disaster.
As the 50th anniversary approaches, those who lost fathers, brothers, sons and friends gather and provide solace to one another, bonded by tragedy and determined to ensure their loved one’s deaths and final resting place are remembered.