The Appin coal mine disaster was a coal mine disaster in New South Wales that killed fourteen people: Alexander Lawson, Alwyn Brewin, Francis Garrity, Garry Woods, Geoffrey Johnson, Ian Giffard, James Oldcorn, John Stonham, Jurgen Lauterbach, Karl Staats, Peter Peck, Robert Rawcliffe, Roy Rawlings, and Roy Williams in 1979, where a group of 46 workers were working the 3-11 pm shift and eating in the crib room, approximately 600 metres underground.
The sculpture was commissioned South32 a year ago on the 40th anniversary from sculptor Paul Johnson and designer Gail Mason.
An explosion that was caused by sparks from a fan control box which ignited a buildup of flammable and poisonous methane gas ripped apart the busiest pit, late on the night of Tuesday, 24 July 1979, and caused a series of fires in the mine's damaged ventilation system.
81 miners working on the same seam of coal were killed under similar circumstances nearly 100 years earlier.
The men responsible for carrying out safety checks before the explosion had noted the gas build-up and the ventilation problem, but did not warn anyone of the potential danger.