Documenting Mt Mulligan Mine Disaster 1921 for Aus Geographic …

How do you illustrate, in the middle of a pandemic, a story of a tragedy that happened one hundred years ago in a remote part of Australia ? That was the delightful challenge that I was set by Australian Geographic for their story in the just published March/April ’22 edition on the September 1921 Mt Mulligan mine disaster on Cape York Peninsula that took the lives of seventy five miners. 

Journalist Denise Cullen initially came up with the names of several people who had strong connections to Mt Mulligan both before and after Australia’s second largest mine tragedy in 1921. A couple were in then Covid Delta locked in New South Wales so ‘out of bounds’. 

However, most were fortunately in Queensland and so began a several weeks quest around the Sunshine State to find and photograph these fascinating individuals. I found and made portraits … and listened fascinated … as they sat and told me their stories in Cairns, Mackay and the Atherton Tablelands.

Ken Best worked in the mine up until it’s final closure in 1957 and told of older miners stories of ‘ghosts’ in the mine. Pam Millett’s grandfather had a contract to cart logs to the mine to shore up the ceilings and roof, and he was delivering logs at the time of the deadly explosion. Helen Scott and her family were the last to leave the mine settlement when it was finally closed and  ‘removed’. Desley Brkic’s grandfather was the first to witness the smoke from the mine explosion. 

Arguably, though, the most emotional image for me was found at the end of a journey to Mackay to photograph an object.

Stephen Smyth of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is the ‘keeper’ of an inanimate object that, for me, summed up the story of the disaster perfectly in a simple single frame … a battered ‘Waltham’ pocket watch that was on the person of miner George Doran James when he was killed in the explosion. The watch ‘stopped’ at the moment George, along with his son and seventy three others died at nine twenty five that morning. 

It was a pleasure to be afforded the time to portray and meet these fascinating people over a time frame that is rare these days … (Thanks AG and Editor Chrissie Goldrick) and to be involved in this story that is a part of Australia’s history.

Check out Denise’s story and my images (including two whole page pics) spanning ten pages of Australian Geographic print journal 167 March/April edition … on sale now.

Images – top – Desley Brkic reflects on the disaster at her home in Tinaroo, centre – the ‘Waltham’ watch, worn by a blast victim, that stopped at the moment of the explosion, bottom – ex miner Ken Best of Mackay.   © Brian Cassey, Magazine © Australian Geographic

Adani and the Gond …

Great, at last, to see images and words I put together during late last years journey to India published for the first time.

The Guardian UK have published my work on their ‘The Age of Extinction’ feature page under the head “India’s Ancient Tribes Battle to Save their Forest Home from Mining”.

The ‘ancient tribe’ is the ancient Gond people, their ‘forest home’ is the Hasdeo Arand forest in Chhattisgarh … and they are battling (amongst others) the massive Indian conglomerate that is also planning to mine in central Queensland Australia … Adani.

The Hasdeo Arand forest is the largest continuous stretch of dense forest in central India, covering about 170,000 hectares of the state of Chhattisgarh – the coal mining powerhouse of the country. 

One of the last remaining remnants of the massive deciduous forests that once covered much of India, it is rich in biodiversity, contains many threatened species including elephants, leopards and sloth.  It is also home to the Gond – one of India’s original indigenous peoples or Adivasis. The tribe take their name from the mythical Gondwanaland that gave birth to India and they have a deep spiritual connection to the forest. To the Gond the forest is life itself. Every forest feature has a spiritual significance  – they see spirits in every leaf, tree, stream, river and hill. They also rely on products collected there to sustain life – flowers, fruits, grains, seeds, tubers and roots for food and medicines – and timber, leaves and grasses for ropes, mats, brooms, baskets, fires and building purposes. 

Sadly for the Gond people and other Adivasis forest dwellers, the Hasdeo Arand sits atop over a billion metric tonnes of proven quality coal reserves. 

In 2006 the Hasdeo Arand was legally declared off limits from exploitation, followed by a more explicit declaration by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2009 that the area was a ‘no-go’ area for mining.

That all changed in 2011 when the government changed tack, the community forest rights were revoked and forest clearance and mining permissions was granted for three coal blocks in the Hasdeo Arand …  including the Parsa East and Kante Basan mine managed by Adani. The pace of new mines in the forest has escalated … thirty more newly surveyed open cut mine sites are due to go online in the Hasdeo Arand which threatens to destroy approximately eighty percent of the entire forest … and the lives of the forest dweller Gond people.

I thought that might make a decent story !!!! It is little known in Australia where passions for and against the Adani owned Carmichael mine in central Queensland are running high.

So, with friend and former pic editor Srienivas Akella in tow we travelled Mumbai to Raipur and into Chhattisgarh. We spent a total of a whole day driving over the four days covering the story. We met many Gond, documented their protests, lifestyle and the effects that the mines were having on their well being and that of the forest, resident elephants and other occupants … and saw the massive operating Adani Parsa East and Kante Basan open cut coal mine.

Pleased that The Guardian have seen the importance of this story, not only to Australians and Indians, but also to the planet in general.

Special Thanks to Srienivas and local Raipur contact Bipasha Paul.

My ‘The Guardian’ story and images may be found at … https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/10/indias-ancient-tribes-battle-to-save-their-forest-home-from-mining

Below are just a small percentage of the images (© Brian Cassey) from the project … some that didn’t make the published story. Pics of the Adani operations at their PEKB mine, Gond protests, the threatened Hasdeo Arand forest and Chhattisgarh.

STOP PRESS … seventeen of my images from this story are now published as a ‘special feature’ over a week on the planet wide instagram feed … https://www.instagram.com/everydayclimatechange/ … devoted to bringing attention to climate change issues.

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey

Gond tribal people of India battle coal mining giant Adani to save their forest home. Words and Image © by Brian Cassey