Caterpillar Inc Heavy Equipment CSR by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine November 2016 | Page 76

OLD COUPLE WOKE UP TO
SINKHOLE CAUSED BY OLD
MINING SHAFT
What if you wake up one day to find
out that your simple garden had a
huge sinkhole on it?
That is exactly what happened to
a retired couple’s backyard one
Monday where a sinkhole suddenly
appeared and grew to a diameter
of 15 meters on Tuesday night. This
was the result of an old mining
shaft which wasn’t used for decades
already.
Lynnette McKay and her husband
had people from the mines
department review the sinkhole to
find out who should be responsible
in repairing the hole. According to
McKay, people were bringing in
pumps and other things to check
the situation. She adds, “ “We were
seriously shocked. It was 1885
apparently all the mining started out
around these areas. I just got that
bit of information from a person
[whose] father worked in the mines.”
While the sinkhole happened
because of a shaft used for mining
below the ground, this isn’t the first
time that sinkholes and collapsed
surfaces have occurred in Ipswich.
The place used to be known for its
underground mines but has been a
residential suburbs for some time
already.
According to Jim Leggate, a former
mines department environmental
officer, “The engineering of those
mines was pretty good but part of
their operations was the collaptive
roof supports [timber pillars and
beams that inevitably rot] and in
certain locations that would cause
surface subsidence. And it was an
inevitability that was conveniently
ignored in the [mining leases].The
problem is a lot of those underground
mines there were operated under
mining leases that didn’t extend to
the surface.”
These days, Ipswich no longer has
a mining industry. But it definitely
shows everyone that the past finds a
way to haunt us.
76
NOVEMBER 2016
Mining Engineering and Its Importance
Photo by QuietCorner
Photo by BrisbaneTimes