The Thredbo landslide was a catastrophic landslide that occurred at the village and ski resort of Thredbo, New South Wales, Australia, on 30 July 1997. Two ski lodges were destroyed and 18 people died. Stuart Diver was the only survivor.
Landslide
At 11:30 pm on Wednesday, 30 July 1997, a landslide destroyed the Bimbadeen and Carinya Lodges at the Thredbo Alpine Village in New South Wales. Thousands of tonnes of liquefied earth and debris slid down the slope above the town.
The four-storey Carinya Lodge (owned by the Brindabella Ski Club) was torn in two. The landslide destroyed the support for Alpine Way road, which then collapsed, and sheared the western half of Carinya from its foundations. The detached structure slid downhill and crossed Bobuck Lane before colliding with the Bimbadeen Ski Lodge at high speed, destroying both. The landslide and debris continued downhill to hit the Bimbadeen Staff Lodge, which also collapsed. Witnesses reported hearing "a whoosh of air, a crack and a sound like a freight train rushing down the hill". John Cameron, a member of Brindabella Ski Club, who was alone in Carinya, along with 17 residents in Bimbadeen, lost their lives.
Within 10-20 minutes of the landslide, New South Wales Fire Brigades Communication Centre at Wollongong received emergency calls from the lodge at Thredbo. The local fire brigades responded to reports of a 'small explosion' in the village. The first report to come through said that 100 people had been trapped.
Police arrived at 12:30 am and evacuated the area. A regional disaster was declared, with Goulburn established as the disaster coordination centre for the region, with Sydney also notified. Medical staff were sent from nearby areas Cooma to Thredbo, and also from Canberra to Jindabyne, which was a point for triage. Four specialists were flown from St George Hospital in Sydney to Thredbo. By 2:30 am, there were 100 professional services on the scene, and many volunteers from the Volunteer Rescue Association (VRA) of New South Wales, the State Emergency Service (SES) of New South Wales, the Australian Red Cross, and other rescue organizations.
Thursday, 31 July
At 7:30 am, a forward medical command post was established, set up in a lodge located from the site of the disaster.
Inspector Rory O'Driscoll of the NSW Police arrived at 8:15 am. At 10:00 am, geophysicists who had been flown to the area from Sydney declared that the site was safe enough to begin an excavation of the top layers. However, it was still very unstable with a now-exposed underground stream flowing through the debris at the rate of 6,120 litres per hour. At 10:30 am, a medical team inspected the disaster site. Many of the rescue workers themselves required treatment of minor injuries and the medical team realised they had to prepare to treat exhaustion and hypothermia among the workers.
The first body was found at 4:20 pm and pulled out at 8:50 pm. At 6:30 pm, a second specialist medical team arrived from the Royal North Shore Hospital. The State Emergency Service rotated amongst 1,350 rescue workers, with about 250 on the site at any one time. They worked in shifts of two hours, followed by four hours rest.
As they worked attempts were made to reinforce the area to prevent further landslides.
The slope of the hillside, which ranged from 22-40 degrees and the sub-zero Celsius temperatures made rescue efforts difficult. By midnight, 24 hours after the landslide had occurred, only the first body had been discovered. During the night, the temperature at Thredbo dropped to .yr5
Friday, 1 August
On 1 August, one more body was discovered in the early morning, and two more later during the day. However these bodies could not be retrieved at the time due to the instability of the rocks. A large slab of concrete which had been part of the Bimbadeen carpark made rescue efforts difficult. At 3:00 pm, doctors met the relatives of the missing.
During the day, several environmental issues were identified such as water and sewerage being cut off to the site, and some diesel fuel seeping into Thredbo Creek.
Rescue workers announced on Friday that there was little hope in finding any survivors. They had not completely given up hope, but Assistant Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told reporters; "I think at this stage the chances are quite remote."
At this time there were no signs of life from fiber optic cameras or thermal imaging.
Stuart Diver
At 5:37 am on 2 August, digging finished and rescue workers dropped sound equipment into a hole they had been digging, as was the standard procedure. This time, they detected some movement underneath the concrete slab.