The darkest day to occur on Australian soil was remembered in Mount Kembla on Sunday afternoon.
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A church service was held in memory of the 96 lives lost after a massive explosion at Mount Kembla mine on July 31,1902.
It is still regarded as the worst industrial disaster in Australia and occurred just 15 years after the Bulli colliery explosion which previously held the record when 81 men and boys died in 1887.
Between them the two mine explosions resulted in 177 deaths. And they both have the sad distinction for resulting in the largest loss of Australian lives outside of war. Despite ongoing improvements to safer mining practices the region did not escape further mining tragedies.
The service at Mount Kembla on Sunday came just days after another memorial service was held at Appin to mark the 40th anniversary of a methane gas explosion at Appin Colliery that killed 14 miners on July 24, 1979.
Soldiers and Miners Memorial Church Mt Kembla warden Russell Viles was involved in organising Sunday's service that started with him ringing the bell at 2pm. He said it was a traditional service conducted for each of the last 117 years. This Wednesday the annual 96 Candles Ceremony will be held at Windy Gully Cemetery on the actual date of the disaster. The explosion at Mount Kembla occurred at 2.03pm on July 31, 1902 on the same day an arbitration hearing into mine safety was being held at Wollongong Courthouse.
No other community in Australia has been forced to taste death to such a bitter degree. Mount Kembla community experienced suffering on a mass scale.
- Trevor Batson
It was so powerful it fell 11 kilometres away and eyewitnesses reported seeing a tongue of flame 12 metres long shooting out No 1 shaft. And buildings at the mine site were reduced to rubble.
While leading Sunday's service Trevor Batson said by the end of that tragic day 33 women were widows and 120 children were fatherless.
"This was the largest disaster ever to occur on Australian soil. No other community in Australia has been forced to taste death to such a bitter degree. Mount Kembla community experienced suffering on a mass scale," he said.
Mr Batson said hundreds of rescuers were headed by former Keira mine manager and former Wollongong mayor Major Henry MacCabe who also played a vital role in the rescue efforts at the Bulli mine disaster that killed 81 men and boys 15 years earlier..
Mr Batson noted how MacCabe and night shift deputy William McMurray were to lose their own lives during the rescue. That added two more to the toll of 94 deaths.
In 1903 the first official inquiry into the disaster concluded the men and boys died of carbon monoxide poisoning produced by an explosion ignited by naked lights. And that only the use of safety lamps could have prevented the tragedy.
Mr Batson said 119,000 words were despatched from Wollongong by telegraph describing the disaster and 24,000 words were received by Wollongong Telegraph from anxious relatives and friends.
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