Entombed Miner, The: : A True Account of an Astonishing Rescue

x, 214 p. : ill., map, ports. ; 23 cm. First Edition. #0921 Western Australia
Varischetti, Modesto;
Bonnievale (W.A.) – Biography;
Gold mines and mining – Western Australia – Coolgardie;
Italians – Western Australia – History;

ONE of the most remarkable rescue stories in Australian history took place in the Goldfields over 100 years ago.

The world was captivated as underwater divers and a future president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, worked for nine days to rescue entombed miner Modesto “Charlie” Varischetti in March 1907.

The 32-year-old Italian immigrant was one of 160 men initially trapped when a thunderstorm flooded the Westralia mine at Bonnievale, north of Coolgardie.

All the men were evacuated, but somehow Varischetti, a widowed father of five whose children were back home in Giorno, was left behind.

Mine management had given him up for dead until miners on the surface heard tapping in miners’ code from underground. They then realised he was still alive and trapped in an air pocket near the bottom of the deep gold mine, 300m below the surface.

There was now real hope he could be rescued but there remained an overwhelming problem that even with the fastest pumps it would take 10 days to clear the massive volume of water.

A steam pump was brought to the mine, but after much pumping the water level had only dropped a few centimetres by nightfall.
Josiah Crabb, the local mining inspector, told reporters there was no hope of rescue and the story made international headlines with daily bulletins about “the entombed man” and his plight.

Crabb’s seven-year-old son made a chance remark — “Why don’t you use a diver, Dad?” — so Crabb sent for two divers visiting from Broome, Frank Hughes and Thomas Hearn.

He also sent for Hoover, who had been working at Kanowna and was the highest-qualified mining engineer on the Goldfields.

The WA Government had to organise for an air hose long enough to reach Varischetti to be sent from Fremantle. A special train was sent from Perth with the hose, which took only 10 hours to arrive, shaving two hours off the normal time and setting a new world record for the distance.

On a first dive, they established Varischetti was alive; then on a second dive Hughes broke the surface just metres away from where the Italian was huddled.

Unable to speak because of his helmet and its attached airline, Hughes used sign language to beckon Varischetti to collect the supplies he had brought in a sealed bundle, including candles and food, but not able to stay longer, left a stunned but hopeful young miner.

The news of the rescue was being relayed throughout Australia and hundreds of men and women gathered at the mine hoping to witness a triumph against all odds.

That moment was not to come for another five agonising days as they had to wait for the water to subside enough to walk him out and even then he almost drowned.

He was successfully rescued on March 28 after more than 200 hours in dark, dirty and wet conditions.

The Sunday Times was the first first newspaper to interview Varishchetti in the days after his rescue.

“I wait and hope. I take little sleep now and again — not want to sleep too long in there,” he said in broken English.

“Only when the boys knocked signals to me I took courage for help to come. Sometimes, I tell you, I was near to desperate.

“The knock signed it came again. I say I stay till help come. God I thank, it did come.”

Varischetti, who had migrated to Australia after his wife died during the birth of their fifth child, recovered from the near-fatal entrapment and continued to work as a miner underground.