Tuesday Day 17

The Bendigo Mining company are closing a shaft and wanted la Trobe to document the diggings before they are allowed to flood. I wangled a place on the team, so laden with cameras cycled to Kangaroo flat to tog up for a descent into the mine, which extends 14 kilometres under the heart of Bendigo. This is gold mining on a grand scale and the tunnel winds down to the face on a ramp that two trucks can negotiate. The mine is 1 kilometre deep at its nadir-and most of it is bare slate and sandstone reinforced with wire. Safety is paramount and we carry breathing apparatus in case of fire .

We spend several claustraphobic minutes checking out an airtight rescue station where you can survive in a pod. As we go deeper the air gets hotter and fouler until at the face we are breathing an acrid soup of exhaust fumes and residual ammonia from the recent blasting.

You can see the quartz reef spangled with Iron Pyrites and hopefully flecks of gold. The whole operation is huge with giant dumper trcks grinding up and down, and at the face exploratory diamond drilling machines looking like something out of Alien. Quite an experience. After six hours underground he relief at being back above ground is huge and the light is blinding. Having a kilometre of rock above you is an odd feeling.