February 24, 2026 • 12 mins
When talking about how news of the Kaimai Tunnel collapse spread on 24 February 1970, Pat phoned with the most unique experience - he was digging the tunnel.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Marcus lash Night's podcast from News
Talks at Me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Your pettit's Marcus welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I agree. Then, Yeah, I was in the tunnel when
it collapsed. Yeah, well it's quite a few years ago.
The local paper in Madamat had done a story about
two years ago, done two pages of it.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh, look that up. So were you one of the
twelve that run their pet.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I was the first one they got out. They
dug me out or about eight or nine hours I
was trapped in there. Then I went to Poland Hospital
and I just opened, I believe, and I think I
was one of the first patients.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it wasn't It wasn't a I just saw that.
That's yeah, it's not important, but it's a meta meta
Poland hospit. Well that was. It's not a hospital I've
heard of, but that's the hospital there is it?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
The Poland Hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It's a private one, I understand.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I don't know whether it's still there now, but it
was brand new then there.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
He'd you come across pet you sound with an extent.
Had you come across from overseas as a tunneler?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
No, No, I was in the merchant navy, and I
met a madame, had a girl and picked and ended
up getting married and come and working as a tunnel
as a rigor. So how fun I was working with
you keep going? Yep. I was working with a guy
called Malcolm Clothier, and when the tunnel collapsed they run
(01:54):
out before he got blown out there to get help.
And while he was away the rest of the tunnel
came in and made of mine. Russell Ellicott who was
a truck driver there was part of the done all
the work with the rescue, you know, count and stuff
(02:16):
in and out.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
How far from the mouth of the tunnel was it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I was about, Oh, I don't know, a hundred feet in.
We were work. We were working. There's Malcolm and myself
were working on the bottom drive and we would pump
and ground through to try and stop the water coming
in on top of us. And I think the drought
(02:50):
caused it to overload on the top on the hill
and put too much weight up there, and then she
collapsed because only had wooden supports.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So when it collapsed there was you were. It wasn't
totally clapsed. There were the kevin that you were in.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah? There had two drives at the top drive and
a bottom drive. Sure, and Malcolm and herself were working
on the bottom drive, and there was tunnelers up on
the on the top level that were tunneling out the
stuff by hand because it was too loose to blow.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I just can't im just going to have the
headlines going to come back to you just told your horses.
So I've got some more questions to ask you, But
thanks so much for that. Just told there. So pet
with the with the boring from the side. They didn't
need to do that for you because you went out
through the portal.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
We were working on the bottom portal. There was two portals,
and we were about or probably about three hundred feet
inside the tunnel, and then the tunnel we noticed that
these little wagons were overflowing, so Malcolm went to shift
them and then he yelled out to me, run, she's
(04:13):
caving in. And I tried running towards the portal, but
I had their waiters on and were about or knee
deep in water and it was pretty hard to run
with waiters on. Then I got cut off in front
of me and there was one of the tunnelers were
(04:34):
sliding down, and he told me to run back to
the face. And I turned to run back and the
rest of it caved in, and I was standing there
and there was just a little gap down the side,
so I shot through there. Then that collapsed, and that
there was an electric locomotive there, And when it caved in,
(05:00):
the timber rested on the motors on the electric motors
and stopped it from crush me completely. Then it took them,
took them about nine hours or so to dig me out.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And did you have communication or any light for those
nine hours? Did you know that they were coming for you?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Malcolm? When he got out there, there was a couple
of tunnelers, a guy called Terry Jones, and a few
others that took turns in coming in. They couldn't see me,
but they could hear me, and they just kept me
talking all the time until it got me clear.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, where were the other people that were tricked for
the longer length of time? Were they close to you?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Were they they were on the top on the top level, Okay,
but they have no no that they didn't have any
communications for a couple of days because that put big
pipes and through the ground to put a phone in
the them and then they got one big enough to
get them out one by one. They took them about
(06:16):
or two weeks I think it was to get them out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And they got them out that they got them out
through the hole they drilled.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah. Yeah, they drilled the hole through the side. They
put pipes in and and blasted the way out with
small bits of genim And the guy would go into
the pipe and put the pull of grub rubble into
buckets and they would pull it out and then they
would bang it in a bit further. And the pipes
(06:47):
was about, oh, just over a meter in diameter, why,
the big steel pipes. And they put them in on
an angle, yeah, and until they got through to where
the guys were, and then then they got them out
one by one and.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
What just dragged them out on a rope that they
all pulled them out.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah. Yeah. And there was four four guys killed and
there was there was there a couple injured. And my
injuries weren't too bad, just bruising. I couldn't walk for
about two or three weeks because I had squashed my leg.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And they they handled well, they got your bet. You
went back to work.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
There there was no, Yeah, yeah, I was off work
for oh, I don't know that about two months. Yes,
and then I went back to work and worked there
for four four years, and I got a transfer to
(07:59):
the Antley Power Station and went there for a few
years and went down to Cromwell on the Clyde Dam.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Gee, you've had a good look round.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Wow, are you still in? Are you still in Cromwell.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Now I'm in Hamilton? Now you've worked around with it
A yeah, I'm retired.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
How many people worked on the Kaimi Tunnel at the
at the peak of.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
It, Oh, there must have been round about two hundred
and fifty.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And were they kiwi's or they'd get to go overseas
to get the tunnels?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh, there was mostly kiwi's. There was a few from
Ireland and Australia. There was a few guys from Australia
that they'd done Obal mining and yeah, but both of
them were from madaw Matta our support crew.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, it would have it would have been must have
been quite an a those projects must have been quite
apart from the collipse, must have been quite exciting things
to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
It wasn't at the time, but when I look back
at it. It's something you know, happened in my life
and I've got away with it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I met a lot of good people.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And I imagined with all those projects, ever reunions and
get togethers and stuff and tell the old stories, would you.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, we used to, but it dropped off over the years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well it's a long time ago that. I mean you
must be. You must have been in your seventies or
your eighties, because I mean it's fifty six years.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, I'm seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, so yea, yeah, okay, so you wouldn't have been Yeah.
Did you work on Manipuri as well? Or No?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
No, I didn't work there. It's worked on the att
Handley and Cromwell. Then I went up too on the
geothermal station. Yes, and then bat Coop made redundant had
come back to Hamilton. I was wash and business up.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And you wouldn't. You didn't have long you didn't have
repercussions or sustained long injuries from the collapse. You were
all right after that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Now, I was all right after a couple of months.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Did you give you ever go through it on a train?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No? I didn't, but I went back in there to
work a few times when I got when it's got
up and going again.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
But do they have you at the did they have that,
did they have those people that were trapped at the
opening of the tunnel? Were they something that they make
a Did they make compensations for you at that one
to acknowledge what you've been through?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, we got compensation and when the tunnel opened, not
when it opened a year later. We had a meeting
and went down to the tunnel because they've got a
little plaque. Plaque's the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh yes, I saw that year online with the people
that have dying and.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The lady I forget. It's the local press in Hamilton
in there in made matter sorry and they've got a museum.
But they're waiting for consent from the Cromwell from the
mad amount of press to get the what you call
(11:34):
it ownership of these railways, the railway lines that the
carriages are sitting on, and it's you know where Tower
Road where the tower is. They're just in there and
there's a lot of volunteers have done all the work
to get it ready and it's the way in the council.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It's a museum about the tunnel. Is is it what
it's a museum about.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, yeah, all about the tunnel. And there's articles about
the guys and then photographs and I'll.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
See if I can have a look about that. Look, Pat,
I really appreciate you coming through, So thank you so
much for that call. Yeah, amazing to talk to you,
so I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
For more from Marcus slash Nights, listen live to News
Talk Set B from eight pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Marcus lash Night's podcast from News
Talks at Me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Your pettit's Marcus welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I agree. Then, Yeah, I was in the tunnel when
it collapsed. Yeah, well it's quite a few years ago.
The local paper in Madamat had done a story about
two years ago, done two pages of it.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh, look that up. So were you one of the
twelve that run their pet.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I was the first one they got out. They
dug me out or about eight or nine hours I
was trapped in there. Then I went to Poland Hospital
and I just opened, I believe, and I think I
was one of the first patients.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it wasn't It wasn't a I just saw that.
That's yeah, it's not important, but it's a meta meta
Poland hospit. Well that was. It's not a hospital I've
heard of, but that's the hospital there is it?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
The Poland Hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It's a private one, I understand.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I don't know whether it's still there now, but it
was brand new then there.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
He'd you come across pet you sound with an extent.
Had you come across from overseas as a tunneler?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
No, No, I was in the merchant navy, and I
met a madame, had a girl and picked and ended
up getting married and come and working as a tunnel
as a rigor. So how fun I was working with
you keep going? Yep. I was working with a guy
called Malcolm Clothier, and when the tunnel collapsed they run
(01:54):
out before he got blown out there to get help.
And while he was away the rest of the tunnel
came in and made of mine. Russell Ellicott who was
a truck driver there was part of the done all
the work with the rescue, you know, count and stuff
(02:16):
in and out.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
How far from the mouth of the tunnel was it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I was about, Oh, I don't know, a hundred feet in.
We were work. We were working. There's Malcolm and myself
were working on the bottom drive and we would pump
and ground through to try and stop the water coming
in on top of us. And I think the drought
(02:50):
caused it to overload on the top on the hill
and put too much weight up there, and then she
collapsed because only had wooden supports.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So when it collapsed there was you were. It wasn't
totally clapsed. There were the kevin that you were in.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah? There had two drives at the top drive and
a bottom drive. Sure, and Malcolm and herself were working
on the bottom drive, and there was tunnelers up on
the on the top level that were tunneling out the
stuff by hand because it was too loose to blow.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I just can't im just going to have the
headlines going to come back to you just told your horses.
So I've got some more questions to ask you, But
thanks so much for that. Just told there. So pet
with the with the boring from the side. They didn't
need to do that for you because you went out
through the portal.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
We were working on the bottom portal. There was two portals,
and we were about or probably about three hundred feet
inside the tunnel, and then the tunnel we noticed that
these little wagons were overflowing, so Malcolm went to shift
them and then he yelled out to me, run, she's
(04:13):
caving in. And I tried running towards the portal, but
I had their waiters on and were about or knee
deep in water and it was pretty hard to run
with waiters on. Then I got cut off in front
of me and there was one of the tunnelers were
(04:34):
sliding down, and he told me to run back to
the face. And I turned to run back and the
rest of it caved in, and I was standing there
and there was just a little gap down the side,
so I shot through there. Then that collapsed, and that
there was an electric locomotive there, And when it caved in,
(05:00):
the timber rested on the motors on the electric motors
and stopped it from crush me completely. Then it took them,
took them about nine hours or so to dig me out.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And did you have communication or any light for those
nine hours? Did you know that they were coming for you?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Malcolm? When he got out there, there was a couple
of tunnelers, a guy called Terry Jones, and a few
others that took turns in coming in. They couldn't see me,
but they could hear me, and they just kept me
talking all the time until it got me clear.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, where were the other people that were tricked for
the longer length of time? Were they close to you?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Were they they were on the top on the top level, Okay,
but they have no no that they didn't have any
communications for a couple of days because that put big
pipes and through the ground to put a phone in
the them and then they got one big enough to
get them out one by one. They took them about
(06:16):
or two weeks I think it was to get them out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And they got them out that they got them out
through the hole they drilled.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah. Yeah, they drilled the hole through the side. They
put pipes in and and blasted the way out with
small bits of genim And the guy would go into
the pipe and put the pull of grub rubble into
buckets and they would pull it out and then they
would bang it in a bit further. And the pipes
(06:47):
was about, oh, just over a meter in diameter, why,
the big steel pipes. And they put them in on
an angle, yeah, and until they got through to where
the guys were, and then then they got them out
one by one and.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
What just dragged them out on a rope that they
all pulled them out.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah. Yeah. And there was four four guys killed and
there was there was there a couple injured. And my
injuries weren't too bad, just bruising. I couldn't walk for
about two or three weeks because I had squashed my leg.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And they they handled well, they got your bet. You
went back to work.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
There there was no, Yeah, yeah, I was off work
for oh, I don't know that about two months. Yes,
and then I went back to work and worked there
for four four years, and I got a transfer to
(07:59):
the Antley Power Station and went there for a few
years and went down to Cromwell on the Clyde Dam.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Gee, you've had a good look round.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Wow, are you still in? Are you still in Cromwell.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Now I'm in Hamilton? Now you've worked around with it
A yeah, I'm retired.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
How many people worked on the Kaimi Tunnel at the
at the peak of.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
It, Oh, there must have been round about two hundred
and fifty.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And were they kiwi's or they'd get to go overseas
to get the tunnels?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Oh, there was mostly kiwi's. There was a few from
Ireland and Australia. There was a few guys from Australia
that they'd done Obal mining and yeah, but both of
them were from madaw Matta our support crew.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, it would have it would have been must have
been quite an a those projects must have been quite
apart from the collipse, must have been quite exciting things
to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
It wasn't at the time, but when I look back
at it. It's something you know, happened in my life
and I've got away with it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I met a lot of good people.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And I imagined with all those projects, ever reunions and
get togethers and stuff and tell the old stories, would you.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, we used to, but it dropped off over the years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well it's a long time ago that. I mean you
must be. You must have been in your seventies or
your eighties, because I mean it's fifty six years.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, I'm seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, so yea, yeah, okay, so you wouldn't have been Yeah.
Did you work on Manipuri as well? Or No?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
No, I didn't work there. It's worked on the att
Handley and Cromwell. Then I went up too on the
geothermal station. Yes, and then bat Coop made redundant had
come back to Hamilton. I was wash and business up.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And you wouldn't. You didn't have long you didn't have
repercussions or sustained long injuries from the collapse. You were
all right after that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Now, I was all right after a couple of months.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Did you give you ever go through it on a train?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No? I didn't, but I went back in there to
work a few times when I got when it's got
up and going again.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
But do they have you at the did they have that,
did they have those people that were trapped at the
opening of the tunnel? Were they something that they make
a Did they make compensations for you at that one
to acknowledge what you've been through?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, we got compensation and when the tunnel opened, not
when it opened a year later. We had a meeting
and went down to the tunnel because they've got a
little plaque. Plaque's the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh yes, I saw that year online with the people
that have dying and.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
The lady I forget. It's the local press in Hamilton
in there in made matter sorry and they've got a museum.
But they're waiting for consent from the Cromwell from the
mad amount of press to get the what you call
(11:34):
it ownership of these railways, the railway lines that the
carriages are sitting on, and it's you know where Tower
Road where the tower is. They're just in there and
there's a lot of volunteers have done all the work
to get it ready and it's the way in the council.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
It's a museum about the tunnel. Is is it what
it's a museum about.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, yeah, all about the tunnel. And there's articles about
the guys and then photographs and I'll.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
See if I can have a look about that. Look, Pat,
I really appreciate you coming through, So thank you so
much for that call. Yeah, amazing to talk to you,
so I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
For more from Marcus slash Nights, listen live to News
Talk Set B from eight pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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