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MELBOURNE - All 27 miners trapped after a gold mine shaft collapsed near the central Victorian city of Ballarat have been rescued.
Authorities said the last of the men were safely brought to the surface just after 8am (10am NZT).
None of the trapped miners were injured, Ballarat Gold corporate affairs manager Joe Dowling said.
A crane was used to bring the men out through a ventilation shaft and the men had now been taken back to the mine site where their families had gathered and medical support was available.
"They're all in good spirits, all safe and happy," Mr Dowling told AAP.
"There are no injuries. I haven't spoken to them, but the indications I had as they were being driven away was they were all comfortable and happy and relieved to be out."
He did not believe the miners had any warning when the collapse occurred, but said all evacuation procedures had worked as planned, including the use of the ventilation shaft as an escape route.
"That's one of the procedures that we have in place, it (the ventilation shaft) is designed to cope with a situation such as this," he said.
"In the design of any underground mine you have to have various routes available for people to evacuate.
"Certainly we're very pleased, it showed those evacuation procedures worked well."
Police and emergency services assisted with the rescue.
About 150 people work at the gold mine and Mr Dowling said while some above ground work would continue, none would go back underground until the cause of the collapse was found.
"We need to carry out an investigation to identify the cause of the problem and until we are able to ensure the safety of the mine there won't be anybody going underground."
Mr Dowling said he did not know of any previous collapse in the mine's 150-year history.
He did not know how long the Woolshed Gully Decline, the scene of today's collapse, had been in operation.
"I think it's one of the older ones, it's been there for a very long time and there hasn't been a collapse at the mine that I'm aware of, but it's been in operation since the 1850s."
- AAP
