Ammonium nitrate explosion site! Photo 1

I am currently still slowly uploading shots from our recent trip between the towns of Miles and Cunnamulla in Queensland and this may take quite a few more days, a few at a time. The set today is all at one geographic location and the remarkable incident is now just two shots (others deleted for latecomers!).

We are at the Angellala Creek crossing about 30 kilometres south of Charleville in western Queensland on the rather straight, 200 km stretch to Cunnamulla. It is paralleled by a now closed railway line.

Late at night on 5 September 2014, a truck carrying 44 bags of ammonium nitrate or 53 metric tonnes caught fire and crashed at the site of the bridge over the creek. Emergency services were summoned and arrived about 10.00pm. The fire seemed to have been almost out, but unexpectedly, an initial small explosion occurred and then at 10.12pm, a further massive explosion, said to have been the largest explosion in Australian transportation history (refer Cairns LPG blevee of several years earlier and Augathella ammonium nitrate explosion for other events) and perhaps the largest peacetime explosion in our history occurred. It was equivalent to 12-15 tonnes of TNT and registered 2.1 on the seismic Richter scale. Surprisingly, there were no fatalities but 8 people were significantly injured. The road bridge was blown out of existence and the middle of the rail bridge, all high steel plate girders was blown sideways, toppling some parts. Emergency vehicles already at the site including two fire appliances were destroyed.

In due course, the road bridge was rebuilt and named the “Heroes Bridge” in honour of those emergency workers who were at the site that night - refer to the two accompanying shots of the commemorating signs at the site. The steel girders of the rail bridge were dismantled and still sit beside the closed railway to this day.

The attached report from Wikipedia outlines the bare bones of the full investigation. Ammonium nitrate was traditionally used as a fertiliser but, mixed with fuel and suitable igniters, fire is one - (see Texas City, USA 1950’s) it forms an extremely powerful explosive and this load was heading south to a coal mine in New South Wales for such use.

www.dnrme.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1242445/...

Taken on: August 5, 2019

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Camera: Nikon D810, f/11.0, 1/320 sec, 62mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D810
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	62mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	+2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Snapseed 2.19.251832120
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