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MOURA No 4 Public Secret Disaster Investigation Report. Why Does It Matter?

MOURA No 4 Public Secret Disaster Investigation Report. Why does it Matter?

MOURA No 4 Public Secret Disaster Investigation Report. Why does it Matter?

As the methane explosion at Grosvenor Mine last year showed, if Mine Management and Government Mines Inspectors continually allow explosive concentration of methane to occur in and around the active coal face; at some point an ignition source will occur simutaneously with devastating if not deadly effects to Coal Mine Workers.

After Moura No 4 Disaster in 1986, the Industry and Government would have Mineworkers and their families believe that after banning the use of the Flame Safety Lamp in Coal Mines that the “likely” source of ignition would not occur again in Queensland.

Then the Moura No 2 disaster showed that newly sealed waste workings with active spontaneous combustion and methane concentrations at explosive limits will result in large violent and deadly explosions.

Not telling the workers on shift about the true situation was unforgivable and thoroughly deserved to people facing criminal negligence.

No need for such drastic action the Industry and Governmen declared.

“We know a lot more now and everyone is truly sorry, it will never happen again.”

“If it happens again those responsible will be prosecuted.”

North Goonyella in September 2018 showed the Industry and Inspectorate have remembered nothing and the Inspectorate’s  continued silence about the matter and allowing the time frame for prosecutions to seemingly deliberately expire shows that no one will be held to account.

Particularly if the role of the Mines Inspectorate and its Inspectors are themselves in question.

Of one thing I have no doubt of.

If all the evidence of possible/probable causes of methane ignition are denied, discounted and discredited by those in positions of Authority mineworkers will continue to be gravely injured and killed by methane explosions.

In May to August 1990 the Government and Mines Department faced a dilemma and at least 3 choices

  1. Publish the Report that cost the Taxpayers of Queensland nearly $500,000. face the inevitable backlash and disruption of Underground Coal production; or
  2.  Revise/change and Editorialise the Report then Publish it; face maybe a slightly lower scale backlash and disruption of Underground Coal production; or
  3. Revise/change and Editorialise the report, sign the authors to 30 year confidentiality agreements, take the Ministerial Report to Cabinet and hide from the public under 30 year long Cabinet in Confidence.

The Minister and Government at the time took option 3.

Well the 30 year time frame has expired and now at least some of the documents have been located.

The Ministerial Version taken to Cabinet and hidden for 30 years has already been posted to the Qld Mining Crisis Website as individual Chapters.

The whole report is linked to this post for ease of reference.

Future posts will compare the Initial Report from May 1990 to the sanitised Ministerial Version that has been kept concealed under Cabinet in Confidence for 30 long years

1-contents 2-execitive summary (1) 3-Foreward (1) 3-Foreward (1) 4 recommendations (1) 5 Review of project (1) 6 Chapter 01 (1) 7 Chapter 02 (1) 8 Chapter 03 (1) 8 Chapter 03 (1) 9 Chapter 04 (1) 10 Chapter 05 (1) 11 Chapter 06 (1) 12 Chapter 07 (1) 13 Chapter 08 (1) 14 App H (1) 15 App J (1) 16 App K (1) 17 App L (1) 17 App L 18App M,N 19 App O,P

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