Tasmanian premier leads tributes for Russell, who earlier this month returned home to ‘see out his days’
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Beaconsfield mine collapse survivor Todd Russell has died aged 54 after recently announcing deteriorating health.
The Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, led the tributes on Tuesday morning, saying his thoughts were with Russell’s loved ones.
“Vale Todd Russell,” Rockliff wrote on social media.
“Thoughts this morning are with Todd’s loved ones and everyone who had the absolute pleasure of knowing him.”
The disaster sparked global headlines and became a rallying event for the nation in 2006 after a minor earthquake sparked a collapse at the Beaconsfield gold mine.
The event killed miner Larry Knight, with fears Russell and his co-worker, Brant Webb, were also entombed by thousands of tonnes of rock and debris.
But rescuers used thermal imaging cameras and found the pair alive five days later, trapped in a safety cage almost a kilometre .
The men had survived on a shared cereal bar and water that seeped through the rock, before meals were able to be passed down to them through a pipe.
A major technical rescue effort to free the pair was launched, and they ultimately walked free after two weeks underground, throwing their hands into the air before embracing their loved ones.
In 2025, Russell announced he had started treatment in hospital for an undisclosed illness.
Earlier in November, he announced he would return home to “see out his days” with friends and family.
“After years of pain, uncertainty, appointments, treatments, setbacks, and endless battles, plus the emotional exhaustion of having to pick myself up time and time again, have left me with nothing left to give,” he posted on social media.
‘Stopped a nation’
“It was two weeks that stopped a nation,” Rockliff wrote on social media on Tuesday. “But Todd didn’t let it define him. He continued to serve proudly at the Beaconsfield Fire Brigade until February this year, an exemplary 31-year career of community service.
Russell told the ABC’s I Was Actually There podcast in 2024 he struggled with his mental health and relationships after the disaster, saying he had developed PTSD.
“I needed a reality check, which [my then wife] Carolyn gave me, to go and seek the help that I needed from the right people [about] the PTSD and the depression,” he said at the time. “There are days that are good days, there’s days that are bad days and there’s days that trigger little things.
“I’m continuously trying to rebuild that relationship [with my kids]. I’ve got a one-year-old granddaughter. She’s absolutely beautiful, so I’ve got that to focus on now.”
Rockliff praised Russell for sharing his story on Tuesday.
“He told his story, and became an advocate for mental health,” the premier wrote. “And made the community around him a better place.”
