The movie Pike River is more than the story of the 2010 Pike River mining disaster in New Zealand that killed 29 men. It is everything that came after. The waiting. The unanswered questions. The mothers, wives, brothers and survivors who refused to stop fighting when the rest of the world expected them to move on.
The disaster at Pike River Mine on New Zealand’s South Island began on November 19, 2010, when a methane explosion ripped through the underground coal mine where 31 men were working. Only two survived.
Having watched the movie when it premiered at the Sydney Film Festival last year, I already knew Pike River was not simply a movie about a mining disaster. It is a story about love, grief, anger, survival and the long fight that followed.
Sitting down with Anna Osborne, Sonya Rockhouse and Daniel Rockhouse after the film premiered to Australian audiences in May, those emotions still sit just beneath the surface.
“We hung on every word that Peter Whittall had to say in the beginning,” Sonya said. “He was the only man giving us hope.
“He was telling us they were alive, they were in a rescue chamber, there was water, there was oxygen. And then to find out later the rescue chamber had been decommissioned months beforehand… that was just cruel.”
Daniel, whose brother Ben was one of the 29 men killed and who survived the explosion alongside fellow miner Russell Smith, said experienced coal miners understood very quickly what had likely happened underground.
“My dad knew. I knew. Any experienced coal miner knew those guys were gone. But nobody wanted to believe anything other than they were coming home.”
Anna remembers camping near the mine for four nights, clinging to the hope that her husband Milton would walk back over the hill.
“I genuinely thought if I stayed there long enough, I’d see him come out.
“They had maps, they were showing me where he was underground, feeding me all this information as if they were going in to get him. Not once did anyone in management say, ‘your husband will be dead’.”
What followed was years of investigations, inquiries, broken promises and a relentless fight for answers. The film captures only a fraction of that journey.
Sonya said condensing fifteen years of their lives into just over two hours was extremely difficult but she believes the film succeeded in showing people the emotional weight the families carried for years.
“People were blown away by some of the things that happened and we were thinking, you have no idea. You have no idea how hard it’s been trying to get justice for our men.”
Directed by Robert Sarkies and starring Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm as Anna and Sonya, the film has struck a deep chord with mining communities on both sides of the Tasman.
Watching it is difficult. Sitting with the real people behind it afterwards is harder still. There are moments where the conversation shifts from anger to heartbreak within seconds.
Sonya speaks about not having enough photographs of her son Ben as an adult.
“We were all photo-averse back then and now I’d give anything for more photos.”
Her voice softens when she talks about the last conversation they had.
“Every time we spoke, I always ended the conversation with ‘love you’ and he’d say it back. I’m so grateful for that now.”
Daniel nodded as she spoke.
“One of the rare photos I’ve got with Dad and Ben together was taken at Pike in our uniforms. It ended up being the last one.”
For Anna and Sonya, the fight for answers became all-consuming, turning two grieving women into the public faces of a movement that refused to be forgotten.
They led protests and political pressure campaigns through the well-known “Stand With Pike” movement, demanding re-entry into the mine and criminal accountability.
“We should never have had to fight this hard,” Sonya said.
“The government should have been falling over themselves trying to help us find the truth. Instead, we were obstructed.”
The women describe the years spent being told to remain quiet, stay dignified and trust the process.
“We were naïve. We thought if we stayed respectful and united, the right thing would happen. It was only when we started standing up and shouting that people finally started listening.”
The legal battle surrounding Pike River has stretched across nearly 16 years and become one of New Zealand’s most controversial industrial disasters.
A Royal Commission found the explosion was preventable and identified major failures in safety systems, ventilation, gas monitoring and oversight at the mine. Health and safety charges were later laid against former Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall before being dropped in 2013 as part of a controversial agreement involving a $3.41 million payment to families – a deal later ruled unlawful by New Zealand’s Supreme Court.
To many outside the disaster, it looked like compensation. To the families, it felt very different.
“We never wanted blood money, we wanted accountability,” Sonya said.
Anna added the deal left many families devastated.
“It felt like somebody had decided our men’s lives had a dollar value attached to them. That was never what we were fighting for.
“These were real people. Husbands, sons, fathers, brothers. They mattered.”
The anger around compensation was made worse by the reality that families were still fighting over unpaid wages and entitlements owed to the men who never came home.
“That night, all payments stopped. To this day there are families still owed money,” said Sonya.
Daniel said many of the miners were the main income earners for their families and, overnight, lives were turned upside down, with families left trying to navigate grief, financial uncertainty and life without the men they depended on.
“There were women at home that were heavily pregnant. Those kids grew up never getting to meet their fathers.”
Daniel’s own wife was pregnant at the time of the explosion and, like many other families, they suddenly found themselves trying to navigate an uncertain future. Much of the support that carried families through in those early years came not from the company or government, but from ordinary people and mining communities who rallied behind them.
Police have since carried out a lengthy criminal investigation involving borehole drilling, mine re-entry and forensic examination inside the drift. In February this year, New Zealand Police confirmed the investigation into the first explosion was entering its final stages, raising hopes that after nearly 16 years, answers may finally be coming.
“I want to sit in a courtroom and look him straight in the eye,” Sonya said of the family’s continuing push for criminal accountability for Peter Whittall.
“I want him to know we didn’t give up.”
For the families, part of the pain is that the men are still inside the mine. Although human remains have been located during the re-entry process, the men have never been recovered from the mine and returned to their families.
“There’s no grave to go to. No place where they are all together. We never got to bring them home,” Anna said quietly.
Daniel said the knowledge that some of the men had been located underground brought mixed emotions.
“You’re relieved they’ve finally been found but then comes the heartbreak that they still can’t be brought out. That’s hard to live with.”
“There is no neat ending here,” Sonya said.
“People talk about closure, but there’ll never be closure. How do you get closure when your loved one is still in the mine?”
One of the most powerful moments in the conversation comes when they speak about why they have never stopped and it’s not because they see themselves as heroes.
“We are not heroes,” Sonya said firmly. “I see myself as a mother doing what any mother would do. If it was your child, you would move heaven and earth.”
She said the real hero was Daniel, who helped fellow miner Russell Smith escape the mine after the explosion. Anna said she was not surprised when she learned Daniel had stayed behind to help Russell.
“That’s Daniel. He’s got the biggest heart.”
Daniel, however, brushed the praise aside, saying any of the other miners would have done the same thing in that situation.
Daniel still works in the mining industry and has spent the past nine years at Ensham Mine in Queensland. Nearly 16 years later, Pike River remains with him every day he goes underground.
“I still think about it constantly,” he admitted.
“You sit underground and you’ve got plenty of time to think. It still makes me angry. It’s bloody disgusting that it’s still ongoing and we’ve got no resolution.”
Again and again, the conversation returns to making sure no other families endure what they have lived through.
“People push the limits in mining all the time, but they need to remember there’s somebody at home waiting for them,” Sonya said.
“These weren’t just miners. They were sons, husbands, fathers, brothers. There were families attached to every one of those men.”
Daniel hopes the film forces people in the industry to think differently before taking shortcuts or accepting unsafe conditions.
“The recipe for disaster was there at the mine. The gas readings, the ventilation problems, all of it. They pushed the boundaries too far,” Daniel said.
“If something doesn’t feel right, say something. That’s how tragedies are prevented.”
During the years campaigning for justice, Anna underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy and stem cell treatment while Sonya was also caring for her partner as he battled cancer.
Yet despite everything they have endured, their determination has never wavered, strengthened by the people who stood beside them throughout the fight.
“The union stood by us the whole way. So did mining families and workers right across the world. People never stopped supporting us,” Sonya said.
Anna said much of that support came from people who understood what it meant to wait for someone working underground to come home safely.
“Mining communities get it. They understand the risks and they understood why we couldn’t just walk away from this.”
Pike River isn’t just a New Zealand story. Australian mines rescue personnel were involved in the disaster response and recovery efforts, while the Mining and Energy Union helped keep public attention on the families’ long fight for accountability and stronger mine safety laws.
For Anna and Sonya, the fight is far from over. They continue sharing their story through the “Stand With Pike” Facebook page, community events, safety talks and now movie screenings, hoping the movie keeps the conversation alive long after audiences leave the cinema.
“We’ve had people offering us money and asking what they can do to help,” Sonya said.
“But we don’t want money. Your support is what we need. Your voice.
“That support matters. Once people stand with you, politicians have to listen.”
Throughout the interview, there is enormous anger and grief, but underlying it all is a determination that Pike River must mean something beyond tragedy. More than anything, they hope people leave the film understanding the human cost when safety warnings are ignored and the responsibility everyone in mining carries to make sure another Pike River never happens again.
