Goldminer Brant Webb probably survived the Beaconsfield rockfall on the toss of a coin, he revealed to the inquest into the death of workmate Larry Knight in Launceston today.
Mr Webb said that, as he started work on Anzac Day, 2006, he flipped with Mr Knight to either drive a telehandler machine or help fellow survivor Todd Russell to fix a mesh wall in the machine's work cage.
Mr Webb said he lost the toss and Mr Knight was given control of the telehandler, while Mr Webb and Mr Russell worked at fixing the steel mesh wall to the roof of the 925 level.
"And that's when it all let go," Mr Webb said.
Mr Knight died instantly, coroner Rod Chandler has been told. Tonnes of rock fell on the work cage, trapping Mr Webb and Mr Russell for 14 days.
Mr Russell said he remembered asking Mr Knight to pass up a water bottle and then saying: "Can you grab the mesh for us.
"He then walked away from the side of the basket. I leaned down to pick up the bottle. The next thing, it's black, it's dark, we're covered in rock," Mr Russell said. "It happened quicker than what you could blink."
Initially the two thought they had over-tensioned a steel wire and brought down a small section of rock from the roof above them.
"It wasn't until we got our bearings and were a little bit more comfortable that we realised it was a little bit more than that."
It took a fortnight to drill a tunnel to rescue the two men.
Despite the marathon length of the rescue, the much-anticipated evidence to the inquest from Mr Russell and Mr Webb was over in under two hours. It focused on safety measures taken at the mine, and the actual circumstances of the rockfall.
Following the Beaconsfield Gold mining company's decision to withdraw from the hearing on Tuesday, its cross-examination by counsel for the Australian Workers Union was brief.
The company's senior counsel, David Neal, said before withdrawing on Tuesday that its managers were heroes of the rescue, but some evidence would scandalously blame them for the accident.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Michael O'Farrell, replied today before taking evidence, saying no one would be critical of the heroism of the rescue.
"But what will become apparent is that this inquest is not about the rescue," O'Farrell said. "It's about the death of Mr Knight."
AAP reports: Mr Russell said everything had seemed normal during the underground shift that night.
"Never heard nothing, never seen nothing, it was probably the quietest I had ever heard it that night," he told the inquest.
"To me it was just normal."
Mr Russell took about an hour to give his evidence and he left the courtroom saying he was relieved that it was the end of his involvement with the disaster.
"That's the final chapter mate, everything's closed, closed for me now as far as I'm concerned, I can get on with me life and move on," he told reporters outside the inquest.
"It's all over. It's done and dusted."
Mr Russell said he was confident the inquest would find the truth and that all information about the collapse would be revealed.
He said he was satisfied he had done all he could today for the Knight family, including Mr Knight's widow Jacquie.
"I'm still here for Jacquie and the Knight family. Jacquie knows that she can contact me at any time, so as far as I'm concerned the final chapter in this book has been written for me now and I can now move on with my life and settle down and just get back to some normality."
Mr Russell said he did not know why he was not asked today about whether financial pressures on the mine had compromised safety.
"That's up to the solicitors to ask that and they did not ask it," he said.
Asked if he believed the mine had sometimes put profit before safety, he said "yes and no", but refused to elaborate.
Mr Russell was disappointed the mine's lawyers were not present today.
Company lawyers withdrew from most of the inquest on Tuesday, saying all the evidence had already been presented.
"They've done it for a reason and what their reason is I don't know and no one else knows," Mr Russell said.
Mr Russell said he had been dreading today, but he was satisfied he had said everything today to the inquest that he had wanted to say.
Mr Russell said during his evidence to the inquiry that he had had concerns on the night before the disaster about the area where the rockfall occurred.
The rock wall had sounded "drummy", or hollow, "so we pulled back from that area".
Just before that the collapse Mr Knight had delivered a water bottle to Mr Webb and had left to get materials to finish the job they were doing.
"Next thing we know it was black, dark, and we are covered in rock and ... it's just yeah ... yeah," he told the inquiry.
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