Injury highlights mine safety crisis
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — On January 20, mining apprentice Brant North had both legs amputated in a horrific accident at MIM's Oaky Creek mine, about 350 kilometres north-west of Rockhampton.
North is in a critical but stable condition in Rockhampton Hospital following the accident, in which he became entangled in conveyor machinery.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Queensland district union inspector Greg Dalliston said that 112 union members had voiced their fears on mine safety at a local meeting on January 16.
Members had raised concerns about poor air ventilation and "the number of contractors and inexperienced people working on site", Dalliston said.
CFMEU Queensland mining division president Andrew Vickers said on January 20 that the union held grave concerns about safety issues at "every single mine in Queensland", especially given the current slump in coal sales.
"The more cost pressures impact on the industry, the more potential there is for death and serious injury", he said.
Latest figures for 1996-97 show Queensland has Australia's highest mining death toll, with 12 fatalities — the worst since 1994-95, when 11 deaths at the Moura mine were part of a total of 17 fatalities.