Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb has expressed deep regret after revealing his strained relationship with fellow trapped miner Todd Russell just two days after Russell died from cancer. Webb also admitted he was drunk when he made the explosive comments.
In 2006, Russell and Webb spent 14 days buried alive after a 2.2-magnitude earthquake triggered a rockfall inside Tasmania’s Beaconsfield mine, leaving them trapped 900 metres underground.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail on Friday night, Webb said he was grieving and had consumed “half a bottle of rum” when he appeared on the McKnight Tonight podcast and discussed his relationship with Russell.
Journalist Robert McKnight asked Webb whether he liked Russell. The former miner replied: “No, not really… We didn’t have anything in common at all. The only thing we had in common was we stayed in the hole for two weeks together.”
After the interview, Webb sent a message to the podcast claiming he felt relieved to have finally disclosed his true feelings about Russell.
“I feel a weight has lifted, a 20 years of keeping a secret for a bloke that didn’t respect me,” he wrote.
Because Russell had died aged 54 after a battle with leukaemia, the remarks prompted an immediate backlash.
A remorseful Webb told the Mail: “It was a bit of a f***ing c**k up. I am grieving… the fallout was pretty heavy, to tell you the truth.”
Beaconsfield mine survivor Todd Russell, pictured with his second wife Donna, died on Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer
Fellow survivor Brant Webb says he regrets discussing his relationship with Russell so soon after his death
Less than a week before his death, Russell wrote on social media that doctors had exhausted his treatment options
“I am going to try to make it nice for his kids. They’re beautiful kids, they’re magnificent. So is his ex-wife [Carolyn Rundle], and so is his wife [Donna Russell].”
Webb, who has endured severe anxiety since the Beaconsfield disaster, said he “drinks to forget” and had been drinking on the night of his podcast appearance.
“I’d forgotten the interview was on, and I’d had half a bottle of rum and gone to sleep,” he said.
“[My wife] Rachel woke me up saying my phone was going off. I was like, ‘Oh f***’, so I rolled out of bed and did the interview.”
Webb did not retract his assessment of his relationship with Russell, but acknowledged that speaking publicly so soon after Russell’s death was insensitive.
“I probably said too much, too soon, too quickly,” Webb said.
“I do regret it a bit. I love his kids, they’re good kids. I’m just a loose cannon with full-blown anxiety.”
Russell’s daughter Maddison declined to comment on Webb’s remarks, saying: “It’s a very personal and private time.”
Russell and Webb survived 14 days underground in 2006 after a 2.2-magnitude tremor caused a rockfall in the Tasmanian mine, trapping them 900 metres below the surface
Russell’s daughter Maddison chose not to comment on Webb’s statements
Webb is due to publish a book about his ordeal later this year. He said his feelings about Russell, which were already widely known in the close-knit town of Beaconsfield, population 1,200, would eventually have become public.
“All that s***’s going to be in it, so I probably jumped the gun [in sharing his thoughts on Todd], but most people knew we didn’t get along. My problem is that I’m too honest,” he said.
A source close to Webb told the Daily Mail on Friday that the main source of tension was Russell’s admission that he had cheated on his first wife, Carolyn. Russell acknowledged the affair during a 2017 interview with A Current Affair.
“Brant was extremely offended when it came out that Todd cheated on his first wife [Carolyn],” the family insider said.
“Brant is a devoted family man, and he is friends with Carolyn to this day.”
Webb declined to confirm or deny the claim on the record.
Both Russell and Webb faced significant mental health struggles in the years following the Beaconsfield disaster.
“My wife Rachel and I went to the shrink’s a while ago, and she came out crying,” Webb said on Friday.
“I asked her why, and she said the shrink told her that I was the most screwed up person he’d seen in 15 years in his office.”
Russell and his first wife Carolyn confirmed in 2009 that they had separated after his infidelity
Russell’s funeral is scheduled for Monday afternoon near Launceston. His attendance became a subject of speculation after Webb’s unexpected comments on McKnight Tonight.
“I think I’m going to log in [to the livestream] and watch it from there,” Webb told the Mail.
“I’ve been to a few funerals where I’ve taken the limelight, and I don’t want to take the limelight from Todd.”
Webb spoke to the Mail while travelling to a Foo Fighters concert in Melbourne, a poignant detail given the pair’s shared connection to the band.
While trapped beneath the rockfall and unsure whether they would survive, the miners famously requested an iPod loaded with Foo Fighters songs.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl later learned of their ordeal and wrote the instrumental song “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners” in their honour. He performed it at the band’s Sydney show earlier this week as a tribute to Russell.
The two survivors met Grohl at the Sydney Opera House in 2006, shortly after their dramatic rescue.
Although the differences between Webb and Russell have now been aired publicly, Webb said he remained determined to honour his former fellow survivor.
Webb appeared jubilant after being rescued from the mine in 2006
“I need to make it right,” he said. Webb added that he was preparing to launch a Great Escape beer with Miners Gold Brewery on December 9 in Russell’s memory, with proceeds going towards supporting homeless children.
“I want to keep Toddy’s name alive, and it’s something for his kids, too,” he said.
During the McKnight Tonight interview, Webb said: “We didn’t hate each other, we just had different views on life and what we were doing and where we were going.”
He said they also “had a few blues [arguments]. We had blues in the cage. We were trapped together, we couldn’t get away [from] each other.
“You sort of get the s***s with each other, but that’s life.”
Webb said he ultimately developed a closer relationship with Russell’s family than he had with his former workmate.
Less than a week before his death, Russell revealed on social media that his doctors had no further treatments to offer.
“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, [they] have left me with nothing left to give,” he wrote.
“The time has come, medically and [physically], where there are no further options on either front for me and there is no more fight left in me.
Russell was surrounded by his loved ones at his Beaconsfield home when he died on Monday
“I will leave hospital tomorrow after eight and a half months for the last time to see out my days in my own home surrounded by my wife, kids, loved ones and friends.”
Russell and Webb were working inside a steel cage attached to the end of a teleloader at the Beaconsfield mine in north-east Tasmania on the night of April 25, 2006.
Shortly before 9.30pm, a 2.2-magnitude tremor caused an underground rockfall that trapped the pair 900 metres below ground.
The men were initially presumed dead after rescuers found the body of Larry Knight, a third miner who had been operating the work vehicle, in the rubble two days after the earthquake.
As hope of finding them alive faded, the pair were located four days after the collapse. They had survived on a single muesli bar and groundwater.
Following a painstaking two-week rescue operation, Russell and Webb emerged from the mine to worldwide attention and were reunited with their families.
Webb paid tribute to Russell on Tuesday, telling ABC NewsRadio that the pair had remained “always bumping into each other”.
“I’m very sorry to hear the news about Todd. My thoughts are with his kids and loved ones at this difficult time,” he said.