FATAL ACCIDENT IN A GOLD MINE.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7358, 10 July 1889, Page 3

FATAL ACCIDENT IN A GOLD MINE.

MELBOURNE, July 2.

A shocking fatality occurred in the Crown Cross goldmine at Eushworth on Tuesday night last at eleven o'clock. It appears that Andrew Fyfe, a married man, aged thirty-two years, who had worked in the mine between six and seven years, the last three as underground manager, was being lowered down the shaft (270 ft deep) on the boatswain's chair, which is composed of a rope loop. After giving the word to lower his mate James Hall, from below, heard Fyfe call out directly afterwards, but before Hall had time to turn round he heard a thud beside him. His light had been put out, but on striking a match expecting: to see the bucket, which he thought had fallen, he was horrified to find his unfortunate mate, Fyfe, lying horribly mangled at his feet. Fyfe's neck was broken, and his legs, arms, and chest were fearfully injured, but his face was not disfigured. Death must have been instantaneous. This was the first time the contrivance had been used. It was made out of an old whip rope, and it had come asunder where the splice had been. Pyfe preferred using the chair to going down the ladders, by which two miners on the same shift were on their way down. Hall's escape was miraculous, the shaft being very narrow.