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A WOMAN HAS been pulled alive from an abandoned Australian mine shaft where she was trapped in searing heat for two days until a drone found her.
The 26-year-old vanished from her home in Lightning Ridge on Friday after going for a walk, sparking a large-scale search and rescue operation.
She apparently tripped and fell down the eight-metre (26-foot) deep shaft, police said, surviving despite daytime temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius.
“The woman is lucky to be alive after police rescued her from a mine shaft in the state’s north-west,” New South Wales police said.
“She was brought to the surface with the assistance of an officer using a pulley and harness, and provided water.”
The woman, who was found yesterday, was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
Lightning Ridge, some 770 kilometres (477 miles) northwest of Sydney, is a world-renowned black opal mining centre, attracting hundreds of fossickers looking to hit the jackpot.
Small-time miners have dug countless vertical shafts in the area, with some dating back decades.
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Where’s Skippy when you need him?
@Sean: in a sandwich. Yum
@Sean: it’s the patriarchy
@Misanthrope: ….and here is me thinking there are no feminists down mine shafts :)
@David Patrick Cahill: there aren’t, no shrieking outrage about gender quotas there just that everything unfortunate that happens to women is somehow men’s fault. According to our resident expert Veronica anyway lol
She struck it lucky to be found…
@David Dineen: So it would seam.
@Col de Gal: that’s one shaft that will stay in her memory for a very long time.
lucky Sheila in Straya, she’ll be right, sweet as, ripper.
Dangerous place to wander on your own.
At least she some coal to keep warm.
have your say