Thursday 7th August 2014 marked 20 years since the Moura No.2 Mine disaster that took the lives of 11 coal mine workers in Central Queensland. This was the third coal mining disaster to strike Moura in less than 20 years.

On the evening of 7th August 1994, 21 miners were working in No 2 Underground when the first of two explosions occurred. The cause of the first explosion is still not known, the most likely cause was identified as ‘a pocket of burning coal that came into contact with combustible methane gas in a section known as Panel 512’. Ten miners were able to apply their self-rescuers and make their way to the surface, sadly eleven lost their lives. Following a second explosion two days later, the mine was subsequently sealed and to date their bodies remain unrecovered. The effect of this disaster is still felt by the community of Moura.

The enquiry that followed revealed several instances where both monitoring and subsequent evaluation were completely inadequate, and further complicated through poor communication channels. One line of investigation revealed that whilst the gas monitoring equipment implemented by the mine at the time was described as industry best, the manner in which the devices were utilised was inconsistent and relevant standards not clearly understood nor communicated to all. It was not widely known by all that CO measurement was to be taken as ‘CO Make’ in lpm rather than the previous standard of CO in ppm. This oversight appears to have contributed to a gross misunderstanding of the severity of the panel heating that was developing over a period of weeks. It was also found that there was no method implemented that would have allowed the Deputy reports citing heating concerns to be widely circulated to management.

The Warden’s Inquiry also made many recommendations in the areas of Mine Safety Management Plans, Gas Monitoring, Spontaneous Combustion Management, Ventilation and a change to Self-Rescuers to name a few. It is very unfortunate that disasters of this magnitude need to occur in order to make the mining industry (and our jobs) safer.

Knowledge Management is the key to averting disasters such as Moura No 2. In this case, whilst there was an extremely high focus placed on ventilation and gas monitoring, the communication of up to date information, observations, and concerns was sadly lacking. Although it may not have prevented an explosion, perhaps the implementation of a structured reporting process may have averted loss of life. Today, 20 years ago I lost my best friend, my next door neighbour, friends lost their fathers/brothers/husbands/uncles, and very nearly lost my father who was assisting with the rescue attempt at the time of the second explosion 2 days later.

Please be safe, today and every day – the families of your workmates will thank you forever.

Helen Coles

Helen is a Brisbane based geologist who was living in Moura at the time of the No 2 mine disaster.