COLLIERY DISASTER IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9991, 22 March 1898, Page 5

COLLIERY DISASTER IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

FOURTEEN MEN ENTOMBED.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright. Received March 21st, 8.30 p.m.

Sydney, March 21. News has just reached Newcastle from Charleston, a mining township eight miles away, that an explosion has occurred in the Dudley Colliery. Fourteen men are imprisoned in the mine.

The explosion wrecked the main shaft, and nothing can be done in the way of rescue work until this has been repaired.

Received March 21st, 10 p.m. The chance of rescuing the entombed men is very remote.

So great was the force of the explosion that all the machinery at the pit mouth was destroyed.

Some hours must elapse before the collapsed shaft can be sufficiently secured to permit of assistance being sent below.

Hundreds of men, women and children flocked to the pit mouth when the explosion occurred, and many piteous scenes were witnessed.

The names of those imprisoned are :—Hindmarsh, Young, Cook, Humphreys, Haddon, who are married men; Jones, Budge, Hefcherington, Green, Menson, Dorrity, Price, Durham and Mowbray, all single men. Beceirea March 22nd, 12.<\5 a.m. Sydney, March 21. The Dudley pit is situated near Bed Head, on the coast south of Newcastle. Although credited with being one of the most- gaseous mines, it was also one of the best ventilated in the district. The shaft is 650 ft deep. Fully three hundred men are usually employed in this mine, but owing to the slackness of trade the miners just now are taking a couple of days' holiday. Otherwise, a great number of lives must have been lost.

The members of the first exploring party which managed to get below found a scene of devastation. The ventilation was good, however, and they explored for about fifty yards but found no bodies.