Bad Ground is the exclusive, authorised story of the 14-day entombment and rescue of Beaconsfield miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell and the fascinating aftermath. The blast and rock fall which occurred one kilometre underground on Anzac Day, 25 April 2006 killed their fellow worker, Larry Knight and left their shift manager in no doubt they were also dead.
Tony Wright's enthralling, often spine-chilling narrative begins with a masterfully rendered portrait of the small Tasmanian mining township in which the drama unfolded, a township that revealed to him its deepest secrets. Allegorical and full of portent, Bad Ground reads like a psychological thriller as it follows the many intriguing and moving developments surrounding its central characters and their families, above ground and deep down below.
Russell and Webb, who were wary colleagues before becoming trapped in a cramped and crushed cage, share explicit details of their 14-day ordeal with Wright. They give an uncensored account of the darkest first five days during which little hope was held of ever finding them, dead or alive, and the profoundly changed world they re-joined when rescued via the tunnel that also served as their lifeline for the following nine days.
Bad Ground sets a new standard for this genre. It's beautifully crafted, complex and, in parts explosive. In the finest Australian storytelling tradition, Tony Wright has written a compelling yarn that will transfix you from page one and stay with you long after the event itself has been forgotten.
