By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
Family feels led down by authorities after ground collapse drops woman into disused well…
SINKHOLE victim Christina Beaumont and her family want answers into how a disused well that swallowed her under a Springvale South clothesline last week was previously undetected.
The 53-year-old was hospitalised for heart-block after the ground opened up under her and she desperately tried to stay afloat for at least 20 minutes in the well’s murky, freezing waters in Olympic Drive on Tuesday morning.
Hours after she was hauled from the pit seemingly unscathed, Ms Beaumont collapsed at her Noble Park home.
Rebecca Beaumont said her mother’s heart-block – which describes a dysfunctional electric conduction system in the heart – was caused by hypothermia and “shock to the heart”.
Ms Beaumont was expected to remain in hospital until at least the weekend.
“She doesn’t remember falling,” Rebecca told the Journal last week.
“All of a sudden she was under water. She actually went down and came back up with dirt and mud in her mouth.
“Her instinct was to climb and hold on to whatever pieces of timber there were. But she was terrified that if she moved, the dirt and mud would collapse on her.”
Ms Beaumont trod water, calling for help for what would have felt an eternity.
She doubted whether the 85-year-old resident in the house would hear her cries over the washing machine’s noise.
“It just so happened that the guy living behind them went out into his backyard and heard her,” Rebecca said.
Though grateful for Ms Beaumont’s good fortune, the family wonder how no one knew of the hidden well, including the elderly couple who had lived at the house for the past 50 years.
“All they know is this area was farmland sold off around World War II. The well was obviously there and covered up really badly.”
Rebecca accused Greater Dandenong Council of “brushing their hands” by asserting it was the owner’s responsibility.
“How many other wells are there in the area? Does every single person have to dig up their back yard to check if there’s a well?”
The council’s engineering services director Julie Reid last week said the council was “unable to find any reference to a well on the property, nor does it appear on property maps”.
The Australian Institute of Conveyancing and the Law Institute of Victoria told the Journal they’d never heard of a well being reported on land title records.
Rebecca was unwilling to blame paramedics for not taking her mother straight to hospital after her rescue.
“It’s another sign that resources were stretched.”
Ambulance Victoria has launched a clinical review of the case.
