The Queenslander, Saturday 14 February 1880
(Brisbane, Queensland)

Gympie
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)
February 6
A frightful accident occurred on Tuesday morning, in the western shaft of No. 7 south Lady Mary mine, whereby a miner named James Vivian, aged 22 years, came by an untimely end. The deceased, in company with two others, was descending the shaft by the ladder-way, which follows the underlie of the reef, and when stepping from the latter to enter the drive at the 80 ft. level he overbalanced himself, or slipped off the prop on which he had placed his foot, and fell to the bottom of the shaft, a distance of 120 ft. His mates, on descending to the bottom of the shaft, found that life was extinct, the injuries sustained being of a terrible character, and such as would cause instant death, the skull being not simply fractured, but completely battered in, besides minor injuries. Deceased bore the character of a sober steady man, and was held in high esteem by his fellow workmen in the claim and others who were acquainted with him; he was a native of Cornwall, and landed in the colony some seven of eight months since. Work in the mine was suspended from the time of the accident until the funeral took place on the following day, when a very large cortege followed his remains from the hospital to their last resting place.

Contributed by Bob Bolitho