Australia’s Worst Alpine Disaster Remembered: The Thredbo Landslide

Shortly before midnight on July 30, 1997, a landslide in the ski resort of Thredbo caused Australia’s worst alpine disaster. Approximately 2,000 cubic metres (2,600 cubic yards) of earth and rock collapsed onto Carinya Lodge, tearing it in half, before continuing into Bimbadeen Lodge below.

In the bright daylight of the next morning, emergency responders faced a site of sheer devastation. They had a difficult and heartbreaking task at hand. The ground was unstable and an underground stream gushing thousands of liters every hour further eroded the soil. The site was not safe for rescue staff to excavate and specialists had to be consulted. The total number of missing fluctuated heavily as the number of guests and staff in the lodges was unclear. It took until that evening for the first body to be found.

1,350 rescue workers tirelessly searched in freezing conditions in two-hour shifts, risking their own lives on the precarious debris, but hoping against hope to find someone alive. Unfortunately, the next find was not until the next morning, August 1, and it was another body. Then two more bodies were found in the afternoon. Chances of finding anyone alive at this point had dwindled to near zero.

On the morning of August 2, against all odds, sound equipment detected movement below a concrete slab. Rescue firefighter Steve Hirst called out “Can anyone hear me?” To his surprise, a faint voice called back “I can hear you!” 27-year-old ski instructor Stuart Diver had survived for 54 hours under the pocket created by two concrete slabs. Dressed in only his underwear, he had survived the landslide and the freezing cold next to his wife Sally, a reservations manager at Thredbo, who had tragically passed away the very first night. He had held her hand the entire time.

It took another 11 hours for Stuart Diver to be freed. A cheer went not just through Thredbo, but all of Australia, when Stuart surfaced after 65 hours from under the wreckage of the lodge. Everyone held hope that more survivors might be found, but Stuart remained the sole survivor of the Thredbo landslide. Stuart Diver went on to become a symbol for resilience in Australia. He still lives in Thredbo and has worked in several roles in the resort. Currently, Stuart is the general manager of Thredbo.

A total of 18 lives were lost during the disaster: Mary Frances Phillips, Michael Sodegren, Mariam Sodegren, Werner Jecklin, Oskar Luhn, Aino Senbruns, Andrew McArthur, Steve Moss, Wendy O’Donohue, Steven Urosovic, Barry Decker, Colin Warren, Dianne Hoffman, Dianne Aisnworth, John Cameron, David Glenn Watson, Anthony Weaver and Sally Diver. All working on and off the slopes at the resort.

Although heavy rain in the days leading up to the collapse helped trigger the slide, a subsequent coronial inquest found the tragedy was primarily the result of human and engineering failures. A leaking water main saturated an already marginally stable road embankment above the village, causing it to collapse. NSW State Coroner Derrick Hand concluded in 2000, that the landslide was not simply the result of extreme weather. His report found the primary causes included decades of government failure to address the instability of the Alpine Way embankment, the installation of a water main that could not tolerate ongoing ground movement, and leakage from that water main, which saturated the already unstable fill. Evidence presented during the inquest showed authorities had been aware of instability along the embankment for decades before the disaster.

The Thredbo disaster fundamentally changed landslide risk management in Australia. The coronial inquest resulted in sweeping recommendations covering geotechnical monitoring, road maintenance, planning approvals, building standards, and emergency management to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy.