This weekend past, we travelled to Cobar for the Miners’ Ghost Festival — a gathering that remembers the lives lost in the mines that built this proud community. It’s a weekend held in honour, reflection and resilience. Families come together. Stories are shared. And the past is never forgotten.
But today, we learned that Cobar is once again in mourning.
Two miners have tragically lost their lives underground. Another has been seriously injured.
Right now, details are limited. All that matters is that families are shattered. Friends are waiting by phones. A town that has endured too much loss is carrying a fresh weight of grief.
Mining communities know danger intimately. It is the kind of work where courage walks hand-in-hand with risk every single day. The copper, gold and zinc that power our nation come at a steep human cost — a cost borne not by corporations or markets, but by people. Mothers. Fathers. Partners. Sons and daughters.
Cobar has paid that cost many times before.
This tragedy reminds us that the danger is not history — it is present.
It lives beneath the ground, where miners show up to provide for their families and sustain an industry Australia relies on. They deserve to return home safely. Every shift. No exceptions.
Our hearts are with the families who have been shattered by today’s news and with every colleague whose shift ended with trauma no one should ever have to endure.
We honour the miners whose bravery built Cobar. And we mourn the miners whose bravery cost them everything.
Tonight, the ghost of every loss feels closer.
We stand with Cobar. We grieve with Cobar.
This news has jolted us deeply and reminds us that workplace safety is never negotiable.
We travelled to Cobar because this community has worked so hard to honour its mining heritage and we believed that story deserved dignity, space, and respect.
And yet, like the rest of Australia tonight, we are reminded just how fragile life is, and how dangerous work remains.
Dedicated to the workers, the families, and the entire Cobar community carrying this grief tonight. May comfort find every home touched by this tragedy.
Below we share a glimpse into the town's haunting Cobar Miner's Memorial. Sadly now in 2025, two tags will be added to the tag board of those who didn't return home.
