IT is 20 years since Damon Murray died in the Gretley coalmine as water rushed in from another old mine, and his sister Serin says she is coming to terms with her family’s tragedy.
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Damon was 19 on the morning of November 14, 1996 when he and three other Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company employees were killed in the Gretley Mine disaster.
Ms Murray, now 35, said she withdrew into herself so deeply after Damon’s death that she is only now able to process his loss.
“It’s really only been recently, the last couple of years, where I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve moved on from the tragedy and into the aspect of healing,” Ms Murray said.
“I’ve been able to think about what life and death really is. How the circle of life is a bit smaller for some.”
On the night of the disaster, Damon, 48-year-old mining deputy Edward Batterham, mechanical fitter Mark Kaiser, 30, and miner John Hunter, who was 36, were operating a mining machine.
Suddenly, water rushed through a hole the machine had made and into the section of the mine where the men were.
The machine, which weighed between 35 tonnes and 50 tonnes, was swept seventeen metres back down the mine heading where it jammed against the sides.
The men were engulfed by water, swept away and drowned. It was later found that the machine had dug into the old workings of the disused Young Wallsend Colliery, which was where the water came from.
Ms Murray was a gifted 15-year-old soccer player when her big brother died.
She has since become a world class fighter in the martial art of Muay Thai, and owns a gym at Bennetts Green, but the weeks and months following the disaster left her angry and grief-stricken.
“To be honest, I don’t even remember the first year. I was in shock, watching my parents suffer,” she said.
“But you come to a genuine forgiveness, of the individuals involved, the companies involved.”
A formal investigation into the Gretley disaster found the mine’s management had relied on maps of the disused mine provided by the NSW Department of Minerals Resources.
The maps showed the old mine in the wrong position by about 100 metres.
In 2000, the mine’s owner and managers were prosecuted under occupational health and safety laws, and they were convicted in 2005.
The company was fined $1.47 million and the mine managers a total of $102,000.
Wallsend Labor MP Sonia Hornery said she would introduce a notice of motion before NSW Parliament this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the Gretley disaster.
“Everyone deserves to be able to go home at the end of their shift, and families should never have to worry about their loved ones working in the mines or whether they will come home safe,” Ms Hornery said.
