Fourteen Days Down Under: The Beaconsfield Mine Rescue That Captivated the World | E222
Fourteen Days Down Under: The Beaconsfield Mine Rescue That Captivated the World | E222  
Podcast: The CRUX: True Survival Stories
Published On: Mon Mar 16 2026
Description: When a 2.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania on ANZAC Day 2006, seventeen miners were underground. Fourteen walked out. One didn't survive. And two men — Todd Russell and Brant Webb — simply disappeared into the rock. In this episode, Julie and Kaycee go deep into the fourteen days that followed: the silence, the injuries, the moment rescuers heard something unexpected, and the painstaking engineering effort to bring them home — plus the part of the story that rarely gets told, what survival cost them long after they walked back into the light. 00:00 Patreon 00:34 Podcast Intro And Setup 01:09 Mine Collapse Strikes 03:46 Meet Todd And Brant 05:42 Trapped In Darkness 08:44 Rescue Plan And Bad Ground 11:07 Singing Confirms Life 12:28 Borehole Lifeline Supplies 14:00 Injuries And Long Wait 16:05 Grief And Gallows Humor 17:57 Music And Foo Fighters Note 19:57 Drilling The Escape Tunnel 21:58 World Watches The Rescue 22:46 Day 14 Breakthrough 24:50 Aftermath PTSD And Community Cost 28:05 Why They Survived 30:22 Legacy And Closing Thanks 32:19 Reviews And Listener Outreach   Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreaon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast Email us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/ Get schooled by Julie in outdoor wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/ REFERENCES: Beaconsfield Mine Collapse, Wikipedia Bad Ground: Inside the Beaconsfield Mine Rescue — Tony Wright, Todd Russell & Brant Webb The Examiner, Launceston — "Rescuers Real Heroes," April 2016 Australian Geographic — "On This Day: Beaconsfield Miners Rescued," November 2013 SBS News — "Beaconsfield Miners Speak of Lasting Scars," April 2016 Raisebore Australia — Beaconsfield Rescue Case Study, raisebore.com.au Monument Australia — Beaconsfield Mine Rescue Plaque Record Celebrity Speakers Australia — Todd Russell Speaker Profile World Socialist Web Site — "The Australian Media and the Beaconsfield Mine Rescue," May 2006 Geoscience Australia — Seismic Event Records, April 2006 Channel 9 — Todd Russell and Brant Webb exclusive interview, May 21, 2006 60 Minutes Australia — Todd Russell interview on PTSD The Sydney Morning Herald — Beaconsfield Mine rescue coverage, May 2006 Prime Minister John Howard — Parliamentary Reception Statement, May 29, 2006 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.