Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten wanted to focus on his union's support for families and victims of the Beaconsfield mine disaster yesterday.
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The head of the nation's most powerful union cut short a trip to the US to be on site at Beaconsfield yesterday.
Ten minutes earlier, Mr Shorten had followed three members of the Russell family into the West Tamar Council park.
"You've heard Noel Russell's brave statement. It's a very tough time for the family," he said.
Mr Shorten thanked all the support service workers for their part in the rescue-recovery effort.
"Workers and miners have come from around Tasmania to help. I've had offers from Queensland Premier Peter Beattie.
"There is one man dead and two others missing. This is a massive tragedy. Everyone wants to help make sense of this tragedy."
He said that safety and mine practices were secondary to the rescue effort.
"But you go to work - you die at work and you never come home - all deaths at work are a tragedy," Mr Shorten said.
The area where the remaining two miners were trapped would be hot and humid ... up to 45deg.
"There will be six men working in each recovery shift and the coroner is still in control," he said.
If the missing men are found dead, rescue teams who were not workmates will be sent into the mine for their retrieval, mining official Ian Wakefield said.
Very clearly, and long after he had offered his union's support to the families of the victims, Mr Shorten said the word "plenty".
"We will have plenty to say to the company, but let's keep the sequence in a dignified order," Mr Shorten said.
A "dignified sequence" meant not looking to blame but looking for survivors and caring for their families and workmates, he said.
"There was something done here that has gone disastrously wrong ... you cannot rush and compromise. There will be plenty to say about what may or may not have happened here," he said.
Mr Shorten moved up the hill to the mine office car park, where he addressed a closed meeting of some 20 miners.
No resolution came from the sombre meeting.
TIMELINE OF A MINING TRAGEDY
Tuesday, April 25
9.30pm: An earthquake measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale was recorded. Shortly afterwards, an underground rockfall occurred at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine. Fourteen miners escaped unharmed, while Brant Webb, Larry Knight and Todd Russell were trapped 925m below the surface.
10pm: Three ambulance crews were sent to the site.
Wednesday, April 26
4.45pm: A remote-controlled heavy earth-moving loader, equipped with two cameras, was ready for testing.
7.40pm: Testing of loader completed.
9.15pm: Loader started accessing the first rockfall area at the 925m level.
Thursday, April 27
1.50am: Loader removed an unmanned Nissan Patrol that was blocking access.
2.30am Loader started removing the first of two known rockfalls.
7am: Loader started removing rock from the second rockfall area where the three men were last seen.
7:22am: A body was found, the identity of which was not yet confirmed.
8:32pm: A coronial wagon was seen entering near the mine shaft. It left soon afterwards.
11pm: Police issued a statement identifying the body retrieved from the mine as that of 44-year-old Larry Paul Knight, of Launceston.
