Poignant scenes as names of two men who died in accidents unveiled at Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial

There were poignant scenes at the Museum of the Goldfields on Saturday as the names of two men killed in mining site accidents in the past year were unveiled in front of family and colleagues at the Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial. Peter Groves died while working for Boulder firm Challenge Drilling on Saturn Metals’ Apollo Hill gold exploration site near Leonora in December, while contractor Eli Kelly died while working at Gold Fields’ St Ives mine near Kambalda last April. Families members and loved ones of the two men, including Mr Groves’ colleagues from Challenge Drilling, were at the Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial annual service to hear tributes and unveil the men’s names on the wall which sits in the forecourt of the museum. They laid wreaths, and placed sprigs of rosemary by the names of Mr Groves and Mr Kelly. Family members and loved ones touched the wall where their names were and comforted and consoled each other during the service. Memorial committee chairman John Bowler told the assembled audience the deaths of Mr Groves and Mr Kelly were “two deaths too many” in the past year. Mr Bowler said the purpose of the memorial was to encourage the mining industry to continue improving its safety record, with number of deaths being considerably reduced in recent times when compared to the early years in the Eastern Goldfields. However, he spoke out against the “worrying trend” of contractors “summarily dismissing” their workers from mine sites in the wake of deaths, saying “brushing the issue under the carpet” was not the way industry safety had achieved its improvements. Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor Glenn Wilson spoke of his personal family connections to the mining industry across five generations in the city and emphasised mining was not only about production but also about people. Mr Wilson said ounces of gold and tonnes of ore were “not worth a life”, and working in mining was about “coming home safely to our families”. The flag of the Great Boulder mine was flown at half-mast during the service. Historically, the flag was flown on the Golden Mile only on days there was a death underground and it was recovered when the mine closed and given to the Museum of the Goldfields for use at the annual service. Anglican Church Rev. Rob Day gave the prayer during the service, and Kalgoorlie-Boulder stonemason Ken Ball read out the poem I Chose To Look The Other Way by Don Merrell. Stuart Wilson played the bagpipes from atop the museum headframe, with the sounds echoing across the grounds as one minute of silence was observed.