1997 Thredbo landslide: Difference between revisions

The Thredbo landslide was a catastrophic landslide that occurred at the village and ski resort of Thredbo, New South Wales, Australia.

Eighteen people died when the Bimbadene and Carinya Lodges collapsed at Thredbo Alpine Village at 11.35pm on Wednesday 30 July 1997. About 3500 tonnes of debris came down the slope. John Cameron, a member of Brindabella Ski Club, and 17 residents of Bimbadeen Ski Lodge lost their lives when Carinya (owned by the Brindabella Ski Club) and Bimbadeen Lodges collapsed when the slope under the four storey Carinya Lodge slipped downhill. Bimbadeen Staff Lodge was then hit, and it too collapsed. Witnesses reported hearing "a whoosh of air, a crack and a sound like a freight train rushing the hill".

At 11.37pm, New South Wales Fire Brigades Communication Centre at Wollongong received emergency calls from the lodge at Thredbo. The local fire brigades had responded to reports of a 'small explosion' in the village. The first report to come through said that 100 people had been trapped.

Police arrived at 12.30pm, and evacuated the area. A regional disaster was declared, with Goulburn established as the disaster coordination centre for the region, with Sydney also notified. Medical staff were sent from Cooma to Thredbo, and also from Canberra to Jindabyne, which was a point for triage. Four specialists were flown from St George Hospital in Sydney to Thredbo. By 2.30am, there were 100 professional services on the scene, and many volunteers such as from the Volunteer Rescue Association of New South Wales and the Australian Red Cross.

At 7.30am, a forward medical command post was established, set up in a lodge located 50 metres (164 feet) from the site of the disaster.

Inspector Gary Smith of the NSW Police arrived at 8.15am the next morning. At 10.00am, geophysicists who had been flown to the area from Sydney declared that the site was safe enough to begin an excavation of the top layers, but was still very unstable. At 10.30am, a medical team inspected the disaster site. Many of the rescue workers themselves required treatment of minor injuries and the medical team realised they had to be prepared to treat exhaustion and hyporthermia among the workers.

The first body was recovered at 4.20pm. At 6.30pm, a second specialist medical team arrived from the Royal North Shore Hospital.

The steep slope of the cliff, and the sub-zero temperatures made rescue efforts difficult. By midnight, 24 hours after the landslide had occurred, just one body had been discovered. During the night, the temperature at Thredbo dropped to -14 °C (7 °F).

On Friday, one more body was discovered in the early morning, and two more later during the day. A large slab of concrete made rescue efforts difficult, which had been part of the carpark between both lodges. At 3.00pm, doctors met the relatives of the missing.

During the day, several environmental issues were identified such as water and sewerage being cut off to the site, and some diesel fuel seeping into Thredbo Creek.

Rescue workers announced on Friday that there was little hope in finding any survivors. They had not completely given up hope, but Assistant Commissioner Ken Moroney told reporters; "I think at this stage the chances are quite remote." [1]

At 5.37am on the Saturday, digging finished and rescue workers dropped sound equipment into a hole they had been digging, as was the standard procedure. This time, they detected some movement underneath the concrete slab.

Five minutes later rescue expert Steve Hirst, who used monitoring equipment to confirm the movement, yelled out "Rescue team working overhead, can anyone hear me?" to which a voice called back "I can hear you." When asked if there was anyone else injured, he replied "None, but my feet are bloody cold!"

He was identified as ski instructor Stuart Diver. A pipe was then passed down the gap to provide warmer air which would increase his low body temperature. Another tube was put down which carried fluids which he could have two sips from every 20 minutes.

Steve Hirst explained to the press that Diver said he was uninjured, just extremely cold. Listen.WAV Police Superintendent Charlie Sanderson explained to the press the difficulty of extracting Diver because they could not risk the concrete slab falling on top of him. Listen.WAV

His position was two metres below where rescuers were, beneath two concrete slabs. Five hours later, rescuers had removed enough of the rubble for them to be able to touch Diver.

Stuart Diver was pulled from the wreckage later in the evening. He had lain trapped for 65 hours in a small space between two concrete slabs beside the body of his wife, Sally, who had been killed by a concrete beam that had collapsed across their bed.

The rescue effort continued after Diver had been found, now that rescue workers had hope that there would be more survivors. They did not find any, and the last body was recovered on the following Thursday.

Brindabella Ski Club opened its new lodge on 5 June 2004.

The Coroner's report released on 29 June 2000 said that the landslide was caused by water from a leaking water main. The landslide hit an eastern wing of one of the lodges first, which caused the nearby land to collapse onto lodges below.

The State Government of New South Wales spent $40 million in out-of-court settlements with 91 businesses and individuals after the incident.

On 3 December 2004, the Supreme Court judgement blamed the leaking water main pipe and the Alpine Way road which was built on a road full of debris as the cause of the disaster. [2]

• List of disasters in Australia by death toll

• Thredbo Landslide by Jeremy Zakis
• NSW fire brigades
• Thredbo landslide a disaster waiting to happen
• CNN - 'Miracle rescue' in Australian landslide - includes video and sound files

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