Tragedy at Pike River Mine: 2025 Edition: How and Why 29 Men Died - Paperback

by Rebecca Macfie (Author)

Winner: Post Book Award, Best First Book, Non-fiction. On a sunny afternoon in November 2010, a massive explosion rocked the underground Pike River coal mine, deep in a mountain range in New Zealand's South Island. More than an hour and a half later, two ashen men stumbled from the mine's entrance to report that 29 men remained trapped inside. Samples revealed extremely high levels of carbon monoxide in the mine and the presence of fire. For five agonizing days the men's families and friends waited and prayed until, after a second violent blast, all hope was extinguished. Tragedy at Pike River Mine is a dramatic, suspenseful account of a disaster that shook the nation--and the world. Pike River was no ordinary mine. It had been touted by the company and by government ministers as a showcase of modern mining. Shares in the company had been rapidly taken up by investors, swept away by predictions of extraordinary returns. Beneath the hype, though, lay mismanagement, mistakes, and willful blindness that would cost men their lives. Based on extensive research and more than a hundred interviews, this powerful book provides chilling insights into the causes of the tragedy and puts a human face on the people who suffered.

Author Biography

Rebecca Macfie is a journalist and recipient of more than 20 awards, including the Wolfson Press Fellowship. Her book Tragedy at Pike River Mine was a finalist for the New Zealand Post Book Award for Non-fiction, and won the Best First Book of Non-fiction Award and the Bert Roth Award for Excellence in Labour History. Helen Kelly: Her Life, her biography of the first woman to lead Aotearoa New Zealand's labour movement, published in 2021, was acclaimed as a searing modern history. In 2024 Rebecca was the JD Stout Fellow at the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University/Te Herenga Waka.