Unanswered Letter sent To Resources Minister Stewart 8th February Re 1990 Coal Mine Explosion Research Project 1990. Grosvenor Board of Inquiry

I sent the following emailed Correspondence on the 8th of February.

Despite sending numerous follow up emails the most response so far has been 1 read receipt.

To

Minister Scott Stewart, Queensland Resources Council, Resources Safety Health Qld, SIMTARS, Grosvenor Mine Ministerial Board of Inquiry,

To Whom it May Concern

On the 16th of July 1986, the Moura 4 explosion resulted in the deaths of 12 miners. Another 8 miners were only able to escape from different sections of the mine following the explosion, when the explosion was miraculously extinguished by a large puddle of water.

The Mining Warden’s Inquiry was conducted within its powers under the former Coal Mining Act 1925 and produced a Report with findings and recommendations. Subsequent expert reviews were undertaken with alternative hypothesis offered, differing from the Warden’s Inquiry Findings.

This non-consensus was to be addressed in a further research project commissioned by the then Minister – The Coal Mine Explosion Research Project. The project completed in 1990 was not widely communicated to the industry.

This is illustrated by the absence of any record of the report from the current RSHQ and QRC.

Of current industry personnel, only Dr. Cliff was aware of at least one version of the report which he read while working at SIMTARS in the early 1990’s, as there was a Version kept in the SIMTARS Library.

SIMTARS have not been able to locate the document Dr Cliff read.

The existence of the report was only known by legend and rumour and believed to be under Cabinet Protection for 30 years until 2021. The release of the Cabinet documents from 1990 included a reference to the report but not the actual report.

Extensive searches for the report since the 1st of January 2021 were not able to locate a copy of the report in RSHQ or the QRC. This is of course through no fault of current personnel but is direct evidence of the seemingly deliberate loss of such valuable information from a past disaster.

It was only with the expiry of the 30-year Cabinet in Confidence and associated 30-year Confidentiality agreements with the Report Authors that I was able to obtain a copy of the report. I was provided with a copy of the original May 1990 Report and what I will call the Ministerial Version.

There are substantial changes from the May 1990 to the July 1990 Ministerial Version, particularly in the Findings.

An electronic copy of the report is attached.

Given the valuable and unactioned recommendations included in the report and the recent mine explosions in New Zealand (2010), NSW (2011) and Queensland 2018 and 2020, I believe it would be of extreme value to establish an industry Task Group to review the recommendations from the 1990 Coal Mine Explosion Research Report and assess the implementation and effectiveness of the recommendations from the report and their application to underground coal mines today.

I am proposing that a meeting be convened that includes representatives of the Queensland Resources Council, Resources Safety Health Qld, SIMTARS, Current Ministerial Board of Inquiry, Mineworkers, Survivors and next of kin from Moura.

Logically this should occur in the last 2 weeks of February well before the Grosvenor Mine Ministerial Board of Inquiry recommences in March 2021..

 

I sent the following email today

Minister Stewart.