Peabody’s Wambo Mine have taken out the highly contested 53rd Australian Underground Mines Rescue competition at Centennial Coal’s Newstan Colliery. It has been 24 years since a Hunter Valley team has claimed this title.

 

It is also the first time that New South Wales have beaten Queensland in this ‘State-of-Originstyle’ contest since 2010. Wambo were closely followed by Queensland team Oaky No.1 who claimed second place, with third place going to the Appin team from Wollongong.

 

Eight of the best underground mines rescue teams from across NSW and Queensland faced grueling challenges and extreme pressure throughout the eight hour competition. The event presented life-like emergency response situations including four surface exercises; firefighting; using compressed air breathing apparatus to locate two people in a low visibility area; looking after seven casualties following an explosion; as well as three underground search and rescue exercises. They also sat a theory exam and had to perform a virtual search and rescue activity on laptops, using Coal Services’ latest virtual reality technology.

 

The annual competition was co-hosted by NSW Mines Rescue and Queensland Mines Rescue and rotates between States each year. It brings together the winners of all district competitions across both States. Events such as these allow teams from all underground mines to come together to compete and hone their skills in life-like challenges as part of their emergency response training.

The Peabody team will represent Australia at the international competition in Canada next year.’