Beaconsfield Telemovie: Coming up for air

For 15 days in 2006, the world watched the Beaconsfield mine disaster unfold in the media. This time, the team behind Beaconsfield: The Telemovie go 925 metres below the surface to truly reveal the claustrophobic terror. Colin Delaney goes on location, to the coalface.

Entering the site, it’s pitch black and damp. Small white spotlights illuminate the darkness but only so far. Moving closer to the source it’s clear – the lights are headlamps on the workers, also dressed in day-glo vests. It’s ‘safety first’ down here and just as a mine should feel, but Encore is on a film set.

In a large abandoned warehouse in Yarraville, Melbourne all the light has been shut out. Once the eyes adjust it’s evident it’s no longer a factory. In the centre of the shed is a long and high timber framework with scaffold and black fabric draped around it to cut the chances of light leakage to inside the framework.

This is the Beaconsfield mineshaft – ‘the 925’ (925 metres below ground) where Todd Russell, Brant Webb and Larry Knight became trapped on ANZAC Day 2006.

Lachy Hulme (Offspring) plays Todd Russell. “My first question to Glendyn Ivin (director – Offspring, Last Ride) was why are we telling this story, because it’s otherwise just ‘the boy stuck down the well’? [But] the way that the script has been put together, and Glendyn understands narrative so well, it’s a fucking horror story. It gets so dark and scary.”

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