An empty made in Australia dynamite box which once belonged to a man deeply involved in the making of the film Beneath Hill 60 - about Australian miners who tunnelled under German trenches in Word War l and set off what was said to have been the largest man-made explosion in history at the time - sold in Townsville recently .
On June 7 1917, at the Belgian village of Messines, in the Ypes salient , there were two massive explosions along nine kilometres of frontline , which killed as many as 10,000 Germans. The blast was heard in England and as far away as Dublin.
Our Shipping Reporter spotted the box at the Mundingburra monthly market and did some digging himself, resulting in an interesting follow up yarn .
It seems North Queensland mining engineer and mines inspector Ross J. Thomas , a history buff, had owned the reinforced box .
While working in North Queensland at Charters Towers in the l980s as inspector of mines , he heard about the diaries of Captain Oliver Woodward , who had attended the Charters Towers School of Mines before the war , and had led the Australian Tunnellers at Hill 60.
Captain Woodward's daughter, Barbara, gave Thomas her father's five war diaries .
Over 20 years he researched and publicised the epic story of the Australian Tunnelling Companies in the war.
Due to his extensive research and entrepreneurial skills , he helped secure the film, the first feature film ever shot in Townsville . He became its executive director and even helped construct tunnels for the movie shoots .
As part of the promotion for the 2010 Paramount film, based on the Will Davies book, Ross gave a talk in the Magnetic Island RSL Club on the technicalities of tunnelling under enemy lines .
The strong local support and involvement in the film production included a workshop by screen-writer David Roach , set up by Barbara Thomas in the School of Creative Arts, James Cook University.
The Brothers Rugby Union footbll club provided players for a match and thigh -slapping singing scene.
Captain Woodward was played by actor Brendan Cowell . Hugo Weaving had been offered the lead role, but declined because of claustrophobia, the tunnels not to his liking .
(War, Film,Townsville.)
