TIME CAPSULE:

Stuart Diver’s miracle rescue at Thredbo AUGUST 1997

Stuart Diver’s Thredbo rescue

T he clock was approaching midnight on July 30, 1997, when an event that would captivate the nation began. More than 3500 tonnes of boulders, mud and rocks slid down the side of the ski resort of Thredbo, in NSW, crushing two lodges and burying 19 people inside. Among them were ski instructor Stuart Diver and his wife Sally, both 27, who had retired early for the night ahead of another big day on the slopes. As rescuers rushed to the site to attempt to excavate and rescue survivors, hope slowly dimmed as body after body was pulled from the rubble. Stuart, clutching the hand of his wife – who had, he later discovered, died almost instantly – was drifting in and out of consciousness. “In my more lucid moments, I could hear the work going on above me and I knew they were searching for people,” he told The Weekly in his first, emotional interview, after the event. “I could hear the machinery, the choppers, even conversations and, no matter how much I shouted or what noise I made, I couldn’t make them hear me.”

By August 1, officials had declared there was almost no chance of finding any survivors. The next day the dig officially ended, 60 hours after it had begun. Until, in a last-ditch effort, fireman and rescue expert Steve Hirst lowered a piece of sound equipment down one of the holes they had previously dug. “Is anyone there?” he called. “That was the moment I came back to life,” Stuart said. As TV cameras captured every moment, another 11-hour rescue operation kicked off. This time, they were successful – Stuart would be the sole survivor, his emergence from the rubble a now iconic image. In the days thereafter he vowed to return, saying he and Sally “had planned to build our own future in Thredbo.” He would make good on that word, going on to become an Operations Manager of the Thredbo Ski Resort. AWW