FORMER Minehead man Andrew Kendall's new life in Australia provided some unwanted drama this week after he was trapped underground in a collapsed mine for more than five hours. Andrew, who emigrated to Victoria with his wife Jo and three children just over a year ago, was one of 27 miners rescued uninjured from the Ballarat goldmine at Mount Clear shortly after midnight last Sunday. The 32-year-old - previously a keen member of the Minehead Barbarians rugby club - was one of the last to be lifted to freedom through a ventilation shaft one kilometre down. The men had been forced into a safety chamber following a cave-in sparked by a rock fall in an upper section of the access tunnel at the Woolshed Gully operation. And for Andrew's parents, David and Sandra Kendall from Allerford, news of the successful rescue was music to their ears. "Jo had rung us when she heard they were trapped and told us she was on her way over to the mine," said David. "So we spent an anxious few hours wondering whether everything was going to be all right. "When we got a call just after midnight and it was Andrew, we were just so relieved. "He didn't really talk much - he just said, don't panic, everything is all right. "He was going off to be checked out and then to have a beer. Jo said when he came to the surface he had a whacking grin on his face - she said she could have killed him because we had all been so worried. "By the time he finally got to bed he'd been up and without sleep for about 40 hours." David said that, although the miners had been moved to a safety chamber with a supply of 30 hours' oxygen, water in the shaft was rising, which would have caused problems within a few hours. The alarm was raised by one of the trapped miners who used his mobile phone to ring the emergency services. The mine is owned by Lihir Gold Ltd, which only took over the site in October last year, and is the only major gold mining operation in the historic Ballarat goldfields. The company has launched an investigation into the collapse which corporate affairs general manager Joe Dowling said would be both external and internal. He said there had been no blasting at the mine before the fall and he was unsure how much earth had caved in. But the tunnel had been blocked 700 metres from its main entrance. "Certainly the mine's been in operation for quite an extended period of time and we haven't had a collapse of this nature before," said Mr Dowling. The miners were said to have remained in good spirits during their ordeal. Andrew, who lived in Minehead for ten years before relocating to Australia, moved to the town with Jo and his parents when they retired from the Windsor area. He lived in Glenmore Road with daughters Brooke, aged 16, who was a student at the West Somerset Community College, 13-year-old Paige who attended Minehead Middle School and Harvey, five, a pupil at Minehead First School. Andrew and Jo decided to uproot the family because of the opportunities in Australia. "It's a wonderful lifestyle," said David, 67. "We visited them just after they moved out there and they have a lovely home and are very happy. "Andrew has worked at the mine since he arrived in Australia and I don't think this will have put him off."
