Mine ‘concerns’ before fatality

A miner who worked the night before a fatal mud rush at Tasmania’s Mount Lyell mine told an inquest he had concerns about the area.

Michael “Digger” Welsh, 53, was crushed by an inundation of mud at Queenstown’s Mount Lyell mine in January, 2014.

The incident came a month after Craig Gleeson, 45, and Alistair Lucas, 25, died at the same mine. A coronial inquest into the three deaths yesterday heard production shift boss Leigh Johnstone, who worked at the mine in the days before Welsh’s death, had concerns.

The inquest resumes today.