NEED TO KNOW
- Brant Webb survived the Beaconsfield Mine Collapse in 2006 after being trapped underground for days.
- A rockfall caused by a small earthquake left him and fellow miner Todd Russell stranded deep inside the mine.
- The pair were rescued after a major operation that drew national and global attention.
Brant Webb laughs a lot, but his ready smile disguises the pain and nightmares he still suffers 20 years after spending 14 soul-crushing days and nights expecting he would never see his family again.
“The mind is a magnificent thing,” Brant tells New Idea in an exclusive interview from his seaside home in Tasmania.
“It makes you forget all the bad things and remember all the good things.”
“There are a lot of good things to remember, and there are a lot of bad things I try not to remember.”
“We were trapped for 321 hours, and I spent 321 hours thinking I wouldn’t survive.”
“It changes your forever.”
Brant was trapped with fellow miner Todd Russell almost a kilometre underground on April 25, 2006.
A small earthquake at 9.26pm triggered a rockfall that pinned them inside the basket of their work vehicle.
He was knocked unconscious, only to wake in a living nightmare.
Pitch black, not knowing what had happened or if help was on the way, he tried not to succumb to the terror and set about helping to dig Todd out of the rubble that had buried him.
He didn’t know at the time that his close mate, Larry Knight, 44, who was driving the telehandler that controlled the basket they were in, was already dead.
Or that 14 workmates had made it out safely.
“I went to work that day, thinking I was coming home, and I didn’t make it home for a couple of weeks,” he says.
“You just never know what’s going to happen – Larry never made it home.”
It taught me to live the best you can and experience whatever you can, because you might not be here tomorrow.”
While Brant and Todd lay trapped in the basket, which was about the size of a small dining table and had been partially crushed beneath millions of tonnes of unstable rock, an epic rescue mission was underway.
Todd wrote a goodbye letter on his clothes, and Todd wrote “I love youse all” on a packet of cigarettes as they drank groundwater collected in one of their miner’s helmets to survive.
A single muesli bar Brant had with him was their only food for six days.
Meanwhile, their rescuers were blasting a new tunnel to try to reach them.
And at 5.45pm on April 30, when they had almost lost all hope, Brant and Russell heard the faint voices of their rescuers.
A link was drilled to allow the rescuers to get food, water, magazines, a torch and telephones – and an iPod with Foo Fighters music on it, which the band later immortalised in the song, Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners.
But it would be another nine agonising days before the rescuers were able to reach the trapped miners and get Brant and Todd out of what they feared would be their tomb.
And the world was watching with millions of Aussies and well-wishers around the world glued to their TV sets, hoping to see a miracle.
“We do celebrate May 9 every year, and this year we will do the same family thing we do every year.”
“We will have friends and family over and rock on through the night,” laughs Brant, now 57.
“It’s a celebratory day. It’s a life day – the day I started my second life. Miracles really do happen!”
Brant gives thanks for that second chance every day, but he also still lives with terrible psychological and physical wounds.
He spent years battling anxiety and PTSD, and just four months ago had a back operation to repair injuries suffered in the collapse.
“I’ve just come out of getting a metal disc put in my spine,” he reveals, adding that doctors have told him he will eventually have to have another eight discs put into his spine.
“I got compressed two and a half inches (beneath the weight of the collapsed mine roof) and blew all my discs out. My hips are buggered, and my knees aren’t too good. But once again, I am still so grateful to the rescuers.”
“I thought it was dark in the mine, but when I got a mental illness, it was super dark. It was three and a half years I wasted because I couldn’t communicate.”
“They were really sad times. It made me appreciate the good times. My family have been such a support to me since I came out of that hole. Even when I had the anxiety, the only ones I could count on were my family. The ordeal will always be there, but to know they have my back is everything.”
Brant says without the incredible team of rescuers – including one who later committed suicide and inspired Brant to campaign for suicide prevention – he wouldn’t be here to enjoy life with his family.
These days, he spends every chance he gets with his wife Rachel, his son Zachary, 38, Zachary’s wife Cass, and their children, Jasper and Tilly.
He also spends time with Zachary’s twin sister Zoe, her partner Richard, and their daughter Rachael, 7.
“When I was trapped down there, I kept thinking I should have been telling Rachel this or I should have been telling her that,” he says.
“Now I tell my family everything.”
“I should have been communicating more often, especially with my kids, and now we’re on the phone with them every second day, and we catch up every second or third weekend.”
“They’ve been such a support to me since I came out of that hole. Even when I had the anxiety, the only ones I could count on were my family. The ordeal will always be there, but to know they have my back is everything.”
The same year he was rescued, Brant decided to tackle his phobia about being underground head-on.
He went caving near Albany in Western Australia and started racing superfast catamarans to rebuild his fitness.
“I went in every cave we could find,” he says.
Brant and Todd found their worlds had changed forever in the aftermath of their rescue.
Nine reportedly paid the pair $2.6m for exclusive interviews, and they were flown to New York to be interviewed by Diane Sawyer for ABC’s Good Morning America.
The two trapped men were never close friends, and Brant says that, despite living not far from each other, he chooses to have nothing whatsoever to do with Todd, after falling out soon after the rescue.
Nevertheless, they were both celebrated in a telemovie and books.
The Foo Fighters included Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners on their 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, and lead singer Dave Grohl still stays in touch with Brant.
When the band performed in Launceston in December, Brant, who now runs a handyman service from his Beauty Point home, got a rapturous reaction when he appeared on stage with the superstars.
“It was fantastic,” grins Brant, sheepishly admitting he may have over-indulged in the free drinks on offer backstage.
“I really am just so lucky to be here and enjoy life.”
I’ve got the best wife, two great kids and three beautiful grandkids.”
