2011 Grasstree Inrush
It is understood three miners were forced to climb onto machinery to get out of the path of the water as it gushed through the underground mine, flowing from a nearby open-cut pit that had filled with water during the floods.
The Mines Inspectorate is still investigating the incident, which the CFMEU described as a “near fatal disaster” similar to the NSW's Gretley mine tragedy in 1996 where four miners died when water inundated the mine.
The potentially fatal disaster at Grasstree Mine, in Middlemount, on January 21 came after two other serious incidents at the mine in November 2010.