SES and Country Fire Authority units from Stawell, Ararat and Ballarat responded to the call just before 10am.

A family had been walking in the Deep Lead Nature Conservation Reserve when their 12-month-old female black Staffordshire Terrier fell 10 to 15 meters into a mine shaft.

Luckily for the dog and its owners, Stawell SES volunteers were in Ararat training for steep angle rescues at the time.

SES and CFA volunteers were able to set up a rig and lower a confined area specialist rescue worker from Ballarat into the shaft.

Stawell SES controller Alan Blight said the puppy was returned to its owners after two hours stuck down the shaft and appeared to be unharmed.

“It was just before 10am that we were called to an animal incident. It was on the Poverty Hill Track,” he said.

“When we arrived there was a few people there. A young family who were quite distraught that their dog was down a mine shaft.

“The had just been out giving their dogs a run and one of them disappeared down a shaft. There are quite a lot of open shafts in that area.”

Mr Blight said the dog was stuck about 10-15 metres beneath the ground.

“I made some phone calls trying to organise some other responders to come out. SES was having a training weekend for steep angle rescues in Ararat so we brought them up,” he said.

“We had local CFA come up and confined space CFA members come from Ballarat City.

“It took about two to two-and-a-half hours. The dog came up quite healthy. It didn’t seem to be perturbed at all being down in the ground. It shook its tail and ran back to its owners.”

Mr Blight said emergency services could see the dog from the surface during the rescue,

“It seemed to be moving around OK, making a bit of noise and barking when it could hear its owner’s voice,” he said.

Mr Blight did not get a chance to ask where the family were from but he said they could have been from the region as they knew Deep Lead fairly well.

Emergency services ended up using a similar technique for rescuing people from cliffs in the Grampians, setting up a Larkin Lifting Frame to raise and lower a rescuer by rope without touching the sides of the shaft.

“With the frame, there’s no walking on the edges and knocking things off that could fall below,” Mr Blight said.

The dog was calm enough for a rescue worker to clip a leash to its collar and carry it out in his arms.

“We had a bag that we could have put it in. The dog was very friendly. If it had been bit savage we would have tried to put in in the bag for sure,” Mr Blight said.

Mr Blight said the incident served as a good training scenario for rescuing a person from a mine shaft.

“The rigging that we set up was certainly the exact same as for a person,” he said.

“It was interesting. It’s not something we haven’t done before but the safety responsibility has to be shifted to CFA in a confined space,” he said.

“We can set up the rigging for the gas monitors to be sent down to make sure it’s safe.”