Beaconsfield mine survivor regrets voicing dislike of Todd Russell

Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb has expressed deep regret over publicly revealing his strained relationship with fellow trapped miner Todd Russell just two days after Russell died from cancer. Webb also acknowledged that he was drunk when he made the comments.

In 2006, Russell and Webb spent 14 days trapped underground after a 2.2-magnitude earthquake triggered a rockfall at Tasmania’s Beaconsfield mine, leaving them buried about 900m below the surface.

Speaking exclusively to Our News Outlet on Friday night, Webb said he had been 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 had 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 contacted the program and said he felt relieved to have finally spoken openly about his feelings towards Russell.

“I feel a weight has lifted, a 20 years of keeping a secret for a bloke that didn’t respect me,” he wrote.

Russell had died aged 54 after a battle with leukaemia, and the reaction to Webb’s remarks was immediate.

Webb later told the Mail he deeply regretted the timing of the comments.

“It was a bit of a f***ing c**k up. I am grieving… the fallout was pretty heavy, to tell you the truth,” he said.

Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Todd Russell, pictured with his second wife Donna, died on Monday after a long 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 said on social media that doctors had no further treatment options available to him

“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 experienced severe anxiety since the Beaconsfield mine disaster, said he drinks to cope and had been drinking before his appearance on the podcast.

“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.”

Although Webb did not retract his comments about disliking Russell, he accepted that making them 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 respond to 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 at the Tasmanian mine

Russell’s daughter Maddison chose not to comment on Webb’s remarks

Webb is due to publish a book about the ordeal later this year. He said his feelings about Russell, which were widely known in the close-knit town of Beaconsfield, population 1,200, would have eventually been revealed.

“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 Our News Outlet on Friday that one of the main causes of tension was Russell’s admission that he had cheated on his first wife, Carolyn. Russell discussed the affair during a 2017 interview on 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 after surviving the Beaconsfield mine disaster.

“My wife Rachel and I went to the shrink’s a while ago, and she came out crying,” Webb said on Friday.

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“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 was scheduled for Monday afternoon near Launceston, prompting questions about whether Webb would attend after his 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.

While trapped beneath the rockfall and unsure whether they would survive, the two men famously requested an iPod loaded with Foo Fighters songs.

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl learned of their ordeal and wrote the instrumental track “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.

Russell and Webb met Grohl at the Sydney Opera House in 2006, following their remarkable rescue.

Despite their differences now being made public, Webb said he remained determined to honour Russell’s memory.

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 release a Great Escape beer with Miners Gold Brewery on December 9 in Russell’s memory, with proceeds to support homeless children.

“I want to keep Toddy’s name alive, and it’s something for his kids, too,” he said.

During his McKnight Tonight appearance, 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 the pair had “a few blues [arguments]” while trapped underground, adding: “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 with his former mining colleague.

Less than a week before his death, Russell wrote on social media that his doctors had no further treatment options to offer him.

“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 wife, children, family and friends 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 in a steel cage attached to 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 900m below the surface.

The men were initially feared dead after rescuers found the body of a third miner, Larry Knight, who had been operating the work vehicle, in the rubble two days after the earthquake.

As hopes of finding them alive faded, Russell and Webb were discovered four days after the collapse. They had survived on a single muesli bar and groundwater.

After a painstaking two-week rescue operation, the pair emerged from the mine and attracted worldwide attention before being reunited with their families.

On Tuesday, Webb paid tribute to Russell, telling ABC NewsRadio that the two men were “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.