The New South Wales government has unveiled
a radical solution to the water crisis.
It plans to tap into an abandoned reservoir
under the city.
95 million dollars will be spent
on a state of the art water recycling
facility in the heart of Sydney.
My name is Natasha Warner
and I've worked in news and
current affairs for well over 10 years.
I knew that I wanted to tell stories. I
knew I wanted to communicate to the public
and, um, that looked like the
perfect place for me.
The New South Wales Minister for
Water and the Environment
has been under sustained fire
for twelve months now.
Sydney's water reserves are at
an all-time low.
We are a progressive government and
in the face of climate change
we need to look at all possibilities,
and recycling water
is definitely the way of the future.
I first came across a story which was
focusing on the government
that had just announced some water
recycling plans
and they wanted to use abandoned
underground tunnels
in one of our biggest rail systems.
Thousands of people pass
through here each day
not realising the State Government's solution
to the water crisis is beneath their feet.
The plan is to build recycling infrastructure
to make use of millions of litres of water
trapped in disused train tunnels.
I didn't realise how vast they were.
There's virtually a whole other city
underneath us.
But welfare groups say the tunnels are
a refuge for Sydney's homeless
building underground water recycling infrastructure
would leave them with nowhere to go.
The new homeless concerns are likely to
cause another road block
for the Government's water crisis solution.
In a similar scenario in the U.S.,
hundreds of homeless were recently
evicted from underground tunnels.
It caused a public relations nightmare.
You can quickly see why the government's
having so much trouble evicting the homeless
I mean, trying to navigate through this
maze of dark tunnels is hard
trying to find people hiding in here
is virtually impossible.
The water and enviroment minister says there is
no evidence of anyone living in Sydney's tunnels.
He says if Labour wins the election,
the water solution will precede.
After the initial fanfare
the story dried up,
it was like the whole thing never happened.
That's when alarm bells went off in
my head, things just don't disappear.
Whenever something's not spoken about,
I've got to ask why.
It?s my job as a journalist.
October 7th
Cheers John, happy birthday.
- My birthday...
- What's your birthday message?
- What do you have to say?
- John-
Actually I can tell you a story about John,
you guys may not know this
one, it was way back in 1991.
My name's Steve Miller,
I'm a TV camera man.
I've been working in news and current
affairs since the mid-eighties.
He'd just started, and they
sent us to the first Gulf w*r
so we had to phone home to the office to
John, who was the news director at the time
and said send us more cash, we need to get
some gas masks and chemical suits and stuff,
so they sent us like $10,000.
We thought we've got this cash in our hand,
we thought f*ck it, let's spend it on piss!
Right, and the air raid sirens, everyone
else is f*cking pulling on their masks,
and we're just going, ah f*ck it.
You kind of get married to the job,
so the people you work with
they end up becoming like family members.
You've met Tangles, our our sound man, he's a handsome
young man, but he's not very good at his job.
- Come here Tangles.
- What're you talking about?
- I'm talking about the time in the States,
when we went two weeks,
and you went without headphones.
Remember that?
- And did anyone notice?
- No one noticed.
He's a genius.
That's how good I am. I don't even need
to hear it, just feel it on the knobs.
When you get that g*ng on the road,
when you get Steve and Tangles out
on a sh**t they're just...
they're professional
but they're also kids.
At the end of the day they like to
muck around and have a bit of a laugh.
I remember Natasha, she
was at another network
and then a couple of years later
they brought her across to us.
First impression? Just another
young person coming in
getting paid too much money,
hadn't really proved herself.
But, you know, she was
the next 'big thing'.
Oi, hey Pete... Pete!
...Business meeting...
...Production meeting...
production meeting...
- Talking about producing... uh... some uh...
- Well...
- Just producing.
- Sea-man.
Well yeah... produ-
How's that? You'd better
turn that off soon.
Hey! The one that got away.
- I'm not away, I'm here.
- Oh haven't we done that story before?
Come in here mate.
What's going on down there-
He and I, we had an interesting
working relationship.
He was very determined,
in the way he would do his job
and I was very determined
in the way I would do mine.
Sometimes that would work well together,
and sometimes it would sort
of cause a bit of friction.
Whenever her name came up,
the subject was changed pretty quickly
and when you think back
on it now you sort of go,
oh yeah, there was
something going on there.
October 10th
I came across a YouTube video
which showed some youths
defacing and vandalising
areas around the tunnels.
- Did you do this?
- You are f*cking kidding me!
f*cking teach them a lesson then eh?
I f*cking will
This is what I think of your sh*t 'MK'.
Within that clip itself there
was something unknown,
quite clearly though there was
something there in the tunnel.
What was that?
- What the hell was that man?
- Shh... Shh...
- What was that?
- Shut up...
Oh f*ck, what the f*ck was that?
They're still here.
- C'mon show yourself you dickhead.
- Shut up man.
- Look just give me the torch...
- Sef come on let get out of here
- Just f*cking give me the torch you b*tch!
- No don't... don't be hero, come on!
It?s cool, it's f*cking cool. Oi!
- Don't...
- Shut up.
- Think you can tag...
- f*ck Sef come on, we've go to f*cking-
- Don't go in there...
- f*ck.
- Just stay here!
- Sef!
Torch drops.
- Sef?
- Sef?
What the hell Sef, come on!
- Hold on... SEF ANSWER ME!... Sef!
- f*ck this I'm out of here.
- Jess c'mon I'm out of here.
- Dez hold on don't go anywhere, wait.
- J let's get the f*ck out of here!
- Def stop... Def f*ck stop-
C'mon!
Sef?... Sef no f*cking...
Dez don't leave me down...
Once I saw that clip I thought this
is a story I can go to John with.
You know, finally it's got some strength.
Since when does a decent journalist
use YouTube as reserch?
It was a good clip, but at the time
I thought 'she's crazy'.
When I pitched the story to John,
he put Pete on this.
What that meant was,
Pete had an upcoming job and story in China
which he was very, very passionate about.
And I had to give him the news
that he was taken off the story.
October 12th
I first heard about the Tunnels
being a potential story for us
just as we were prepping up
actually to go to China, with Pete.
- Hey mate there's a focus chart there somewhere...
- Oh yeah.
- Can you just hold that up for us?
- Yeah, yeah no worries.
Beauty.
He'd been working on this
thing for a long time
and he was pretty pumped to
get over there and get stuck into it.
I think he had some pretty good leads,
which could have blown his
career wide open, it was great.
- How's look mate?
- Mate it looks pretty good. It oughta the amount the repairs cost.
- Thanks Tangles, nice one.
- No more throwing cameras around stairwells.
Yeah look I told you guys
it's not my fault alright?
Hey, um, you happy to go hand held?
The lighter we go the quicker we move.
Absolutely mate, we're
going to China after all,
more room for cheap
DVD's, pirate software...
You're all class mate.
It was purely John's decision
to put Pete on this story.
While I was a little uncomfortable
with having Pete there to start with,
like I said before we weren't
exactly always gelling.
I was really nervous about talking to Pete,
I didn't want to tell him.
It?s not that exciting, when you're building
your hopes up for this great big story
and then you sort of
get given a sh*t sandwich.
I thought at that point I
was doing the right thing.
I thought that Pete having to postpone
what he had planned was worth it
in the end for the story.
He did say he went in to see John.
I don't know what happened in that room,
and the contents of that conversation
but, yeah, he had spoken to John about it,
and I think it was from that point on it
was clear he wasn't going to China and
Nat had won the day.
Why did John go the other way?
C'mon. We all know why
John was favouring Nat.
October 14th
Once Peter was on the story we started
attending the daily presses
to try and find out what happened
to the water recycling plans.
Pete was pissed off,
but you know Pete's a pro.
Took him a day or two, then he came round
just like the guy he is.
He started to do his own searching around,
he had contacts in the council
who he spoke to, and some
rumours started to surface
that not only were there
homeless living in the tunnels,
but there were homeless
that were going missing.
You know at that point we slowly started
to think there may be something in this.
So we just started by chasing
the, then, water minister.
The main thing that was apparent that
he was staying quiet on the topic.
He wouldn't talk to us,
no one would talk to us so
at that point we were
just getting stonewalled.
If it was true that
homeless were going missing
this was a big story.
And it was a really important one.
Where is he?
Minister... Minister have you seen the report
about the homeless people in the tunnels?
Nothing to say at the moment.
Have you scrapped your plans because
people are going missing in the tunnels?
No comment... no comment.
Minister, should people be worried? Is
there a threat in the underground tunnels?
I have nothing to say.
Well?
- Alright... that was alright.
- You reckon?
I knew we wouldn't get anything.
I think that definitely
on quite a large scale
there was a lot of people in the government
that knew what was going on.
They knew what was going on down there.
You know, with everything thats
happened subsequently,
they were hiding stuff.
October 18th
I started getting in contact with
a few of the shelters around the city,
and eventually I came across
one particular homeless man
who I had believed had been
living in the tunnels.
So this was... I mean this was fantastic,
we had finally someone to speak to.
Right Trevor, just one second I've got to
fix you mic, if that's okay.
I'm not sure how she found Trevor,
but Natasha found Trevor.
We went down to this home,
and we sat him down for the interview
Alright mate, this will be
fun, you'll be on telly.
Alright guys, I'm sweet.
Trevor if you don't feel
comfortable with anything
you let me know at any time.
And, um, I'm going to be
asking you the questions
if you're not quite... if you're not quite
sure of an answer that's okay
we can fix that up later
so don't worry about that.
- Good.
- Yeah? Thank you.
Well the interview with
Trevor was a tricky one
but something that I am, I guess,
always quite custom to dealing with.
- Trevor I understand that you've been living it rough-
- Call me Trev.
Trev? Okay.
Trev I understand you've been living it
rough for quite some time now,
what circumstances took you
to living in the tunnels?
Uh... Well it kept me and my mates
warm in the winter... yeah.
It all started out great,
chatting away to him.
He started to tell me a little bit about,
you know, his circumstances,
what led him to live in the tunnels.
He started to really paint a picture
of what it was like there.
And amongst your friends,
Alfie and Johnny and Harry
and some of the others, do they
still live down there... now?
No.
Trev?
- Hm?
- Are you okay? You comfortable?
Hm. Yeah.
At that point in the
interview I asked Trevor
what he perhaps had been
through in the tunnels.
I asked Trevor what he had seen.
Clearly something had happened to him.
Trevor did you know someone
who went missing?
Trevor did anything happen
to you down there?
Trevor...
...are you alright?
NO!
sh*t
- Did you get that before?
- Yeah, Yeah I got it.
Oh... my god
- He is crazy.
- I know.
After Trevor's interview, it was clear
we were on to something.
All the pieces of the puzzle were symptoms of
something deeper, I just didn't know what.
I needed more.
We needed to get down there.
October 19th
Your call may be recorded
for training purposes.
Please advise the operator if you do not
wish for your call to be recorded.
Hi, can I speak to Pam in the
media department please?
- Hello, this is Pam.
- Oh hi Pam, it's Natasha Warner here. How are you?
- I'm well Nat, and you?
- Ah good, good, thanks.
Look I'm just wondering
if you can help me out,
I'm working on a story and I need
to get in the Tunnels under the CBD,
who do I need to talk to
to make that happen?
Right... what's the story?
Ah, look I just need half an hour.
Um... just hang on a sec...
Nat sorry I can't help you this time.
- What?
- Apparently no one's getting in there,
and I don't think you'll be getting
any special treatment.
- C'mon Pam, it's me.
- Exaclty. And people got burnt last time. I can't do it.
I really need this. Look Pam,
can you help me out?
- I'm sorry Nat. Bye.
- Look I just need half-
I guess it's easier to look at it now and say
that I was perhaps under a lot of pressure
to get this story.
At the time I just... I
felt I was doing my job
I was so focused on just doing my job.
There was a lot of rumours kicking around
she was in big trouble, and she
kind of really needed to lift her game
otherwise she was gone.
Well I think that I'd put
a lot of work into my career
and I think it was all basically
hanging on this one... one story.
You know, I didn't really have a choice.
Hey, Tangles, how's your head mate?
Pete, I'm like a f*cking shark,
as long as I keep moving I'll be okay.
Here we go this is what you looked like
after Steve pulled you
out of the loo last night.
Oh Steve, new toy.
- Mate, waterproof baby, ATG.
- All the gear, yeah.
Good at spending the network's money.
- It?s not just water resistant, it's fully waterproof.
- Yeah waterproof mate.
Yeah can you roll up for me? I'll, uh, give
them a bit of sound, uh, there it is.
- Get that.
- Sure mate.
- Sweet
- Rolling?
- Uh, great.
- One minute, Pete I'll just get you to say some sh*t.
Get your sh*t together mate.
- ...There. Hang on...
- One, Two.
- Y'right just say some sh*t to that.
- Some sh*t to that.
Um, yes very, uh, excited to be going
in some smelly sewers...
Yes hello, how did you go?
Haven't got all the permits sorted but,
um, John's got us covered, okay?
When Natasha said that
John was covering us
and we didn't have permits.
That's kind of a pretty loose arrangement,
you know, you just sort of sit there
and go ah well we must be fine.
- You sure?
- Yeah.
- When?
- We're on for tonight.
- Tonight? Okay
- Yeah.
- So we are up?
- Yeah mate.
- We're good to go.
- Yeah, you good?
- You guys sweet?
- Yeah, um, I'm good man
- Alright.
- The sooner we go the better hey.
Yep.
As a crew, it's... it's our job
to film it and get coverage.
It?s really not our job to question it.
October 20st - 10:34pm
Hey Pete just hang back, I'm just going
to get a shot of Nat walking in.
- Yeah? Okay.
- Cool.
Excuse me guys? Guys...
Hold up, restricted area.
Oh sorry mate, maybe no one told you,
we're just going to be filming
for about half an hour,
we'll be out of your hair.
- Just grabbing a few shots...
- I'll need to see a permit.
- Permit?
- Yeah, uh...
- You got a permit?
- I've got a driver's license.
...Not restricted to her.
Pete... how much have
you got in your wallet?
You're kidding me aren't you?
- We're not third world here, it's not going to work.
- Maybe it will-
Guys? Everyone, time to leave please.
- Told you.
- f*cking hell.
Let's go, come on.
I was that far in to it,
I couldn't go back, at that point.
We decided to find another way in,
with or without official... assistance.
We found some access round the other side,
um, and yeah it looked like
a maintenance access.
- You're sure John's got this sorted?
- Grow some ba*ls Pete.
I, at that point, was starting to feel
as though there was
something not quite right.
Um, so I thought to cover myself
and to cover Tangles,
and really to cover all of us
I'd just film pretty much everything
that was happening there.
You know, I thought we had to have some
sort of way of protecting ourselves,
should something go wrong.
You know, if we got busted and fined
or whatever, arrested,
um, you know, I had some
evidence it wasn't me
trying to push us down there,
and it wasn't Tangles,
but it was Natasha.
Here take this.
Here we go.
Okay, let's go.
- Take this?
- Yep.
We were just kind of covering
our tracks as we went down,
you know, we didn't want
to get discovered.
Looking back on that...
...that was probably a mistake.
Eh?
- We okay to be down here?
- That's what she said, she said John's got it.
When we start filming a story, when we actually
start 'okay let's get it', 'lets roll'
Pete and Natasha they
look after the editorial content,
and, you know, it's kind of
my job to take over there
and look after the pictures.
Okay turn around and come back,
I'll just get you walking past this grill.
You guys just hang back there for a second.
Tangles and I would go off
and we'd just start
getting stuck in to it,
filming like we always would.
You know, don't really need direction,
we'd just get in to it.
Once we got in sort of a little bit further,
there were whole sections of tunnel
that were absolutely,
absolutely pitch black.
It is completely black down there.
You know you could go in there,
turn the light off,
spin around and you wouldn't
know where you were.
Cause there's just junctions,
tunnels going off everywhere
so I kind of thought,
the first time I turned off the light
and stood there, I just thought
we're going to have to keep the light on
and stay across where we are
cause otherwise it's going to be
pretty easy to get lost down there.
- Hey Tanlges?
- Er yeah?
- Just come here mate, there's something wrong
with the light, can you just check it out?
Er yeah. What do you mean?
Where's the connection?
Yeah if can you look in real close
is there something stuck on it?
Ah sh*t!
How did I not see that coming?
Thanks for that Steve, my eyes are stuffed.
- Great.
- It's good let's go.
Pete had sourced a map of the tunnels,
but the further we got in, the more we
realised it wasn't exactly accurate.
There were whole sections of tunnels
that weren't even on the map.
Just give us the light here Steve.
Okay. This is the entrance,
thats where we came down before...
There's that way, that's not here...
I don't know why that is.
Okay, through here.
- Though there?
- Yep.
- That must be the way.
- There's a lock up here.
Once we got through,
and past the maintenance areas
and we'd got in to a little bit more
of the guts of the tunnels,
my impressions were
that... that it was amazing,
it was vast, this place was huge.
- That's awesome.
- Alright.
sh*t that sounds great.
Pete? Uh, can I have ten minutes
to get some overlay here?
I'll give you five.
- Five?
- Yep.
We were very close
to the station there so, um,
you know, Pete was trying
to make us pretty low key.
I was blown away by the size of it,
it was massive,
and just eerie.
You know, I think we were all in awe of it.
It wasn't really difficult to get
great looking shots down there,
you know, cause you're really just
painting stuff with your light
and whatever you saw was just...
it looked really cool.
Hey guys just hush for a sec.
- Let's go?
- That's good. Yeah sweet.
The history to these tunnels, the ones
in particular that we were looking at,
was just incredible,
and it dates back pre World w*r ll
they... they were to be used as an
underground rail system.
Then in World w*r ll they were
used as air raid shelters.
Guys look at this.
The current New South Wales government is
not the first to use these
tunnels for another purpose.
I'm standing in a section
of tunnel that was converted
into an air raid shelter
during World w*r ll.
It?s complete with all the amenities that
enabled soldiers to stay for extended periods.
Various rooms were then, um,
reused in fashion for training, for the SAS
so time and time again they've,
I guess, been reinvented for their use,
and even to this day with the
water recycling plans that were announced.
I was fortunate enough to
come across an area where
it was evident there was definitely,
you know, homeless
or, you know, people living down there.
- Am I good to go?
- We, uh, hang on a sec.
Go when you're ready
We've been walking in the
tunnel for less than an hour,
and already we've come
across somebody's home.
Here you can see their makeshift bed,
blanket, and empty tins of food.
Coming across the belongings
was very important,
it was vital to the story,
it was absolute proof
that there was life down here.
While there is no sign of
an occupant at the moment,
it is clear the minister's assertions
of abandoned tunnels are incorrect.
This was something that
the government were denying,
This is something that
we could now prove.
Hey Nat, I'll get a shot of you
going down there actually.
Yeah cool.
Oh hang on, Pete, light.
Cheers.
Mate what's up?
What? Nothing.
It?s a bit tight down there tubby,
you reckon you're going to make it?
He mustn't like working on the show...
sh*t...
- Nat are you all right?
- Nat you all right? You okay?
- Yeah I'm all right.
- Do you need a hand?
No I'm fine.
Nat? Look we've already
got the sleeping bags and stuff,
we don't really need to get the lake.
- We could probably do the rest up here.
- Pete... Pete I'm alright.
- I just feel it's a little-
- I'm alright okay? I'm fine.
Just let's keep going.
- Alright, you take that.
- Yeah.
- What's up with Nat?
- Oh she just really needs the story.
After what happened last time,
she's treading on thin ice.
- Yeah I reckon.
- That's why John put me on to this,
make sure she doesn't f*ck up again.
If she's not up to it,
why doesn't he give her the a*s?
Ah mate, I think John wanted to give
her a little more than just that.
Well he'd have to get in line
behind you wouldn't he?
Hey guys, you might want to know
for future reference,
that these tunnels carry
sound pretty well.
And as far as I can hear,
you're all assholes.
f*ck off...
- Yeah give me the torch.
- Right, yeah, hang on.
There you go mate.
- Get down there you as*h*le.
-
Pete can you just lift
that headlight for me?
Get a bit of sound.
Where to? Just...
- That's pretty cool.
- Yeah, give it a kick.
- Yeah, give it a kick.
- Yeah?
- Steve you jump in.
- Let's send it on it's way.
- What are we doing?
- Just... just give it a kick.
- You can... drag it for sound.
- You call it.
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro.
Rattling of cart.
That sound alright?
Thanks guys.
The lake was just... so... vast,
I mean this thing runs
a kilometre long.
It?s bigger than I thought.
Yeah, I get that a lot.
Dickhead.
Me and Tangles were
mucking around a bit
and we like to play jokes
on each other, and
you know, if I didn't do it
he would have done it.
So I just grabbed him
and sort of went...
you know, at the edge of the lake,
went to push him in, and
you know, how you go up,
sort of hold on their shoulders
and then pull them back again.
Which I did, and then I let go of him,
and went to walk back to the camera,
In he went.
- sh*t
- Tangles are you alright?
- Yeah just... yeah.
- There's your dip mate.
Steve you... prick.
Oi, this is not funny. f*cking hell.
Are you going to give him a hand?
You can stop laughing, okay?
How long are we going to be
down here, alright? Can I go home?
Tangles, as much as we used to joke around,
and muck around together,
when it came time to work it was very
you know, he was very serious,
and it wasn't time for joking
- Creative department's ready.
- Yep alright.
Okay
Nat just come forward a fraction.
So, you know, when he's sort
of giving me the impression
that there were problems,
I was believing him.
I'm standing directly below one
of Sydney's busiest train stations.
Behind me is the forgotten water resource
that's causing all the controversy.
Earlier this year the government-
Nat sorry, Pete are you making noise?
No.
You weren't whispering?
No.
Alright, sorry Nat can we go from the top?
Everyone just keep it quiet.
- Okay let's go from the top again. Let's move.
- When you're ready Nat.
I'm standing directly below one of
Sydney's busiest train stations.
Behind me is the forgotten water resource-
Nat, sorry, are you guys f*cking
with me? What's the noise?
What are you hearing mate?
It?s... hang on I'll just check my battery.
Sweet, um, I don't know.
Maybe it's your cables.
Yeah cables don't f*cking talk Steve,
uh, alright sorry Nat...
- I'll see what I can do.
- Just go straight through, if you can
if Tangles says he heard something,
I do believe he felt he heard something.
I can't describe how
silent the place was so
at the time I didn't feel that... he could
have been hearing anything.
It... it was strange.
I was just thinking, you know,
it could have been a technical problem,
could have been anything, some RF
interference, anything like that.
But, you know, Tangles was adamant
there was something going on,
and uh, when he's serious about
something, you know, you believe him.
Earlier this year the government
announced, then quietly
abandoned plans to recycle
water from this lake.
The minister for water has
yet to give a reason why.
- Beautiful. Pete, happy?
- I'm happy. How are you Tangles?
- You good?
- Oh. . Yeah, yeah sweet, yeah
Alright, lets go. Let's
move, grab your sticks.
- Alright, let's go.
- Let's get out of here.
After we finished our
piece at the lake, um,
we decided to head for the bell room.
Basically the bell room was built as like
a air raid sort of alert back in the w*r.
They would use it to warn people of danger.
When we rang the bell,
it... it was deafening,
it rattled your ribs.
This bell is a relic of World w*r ll,
it remains here in the
confines of an air raid shelter,
as a reminder of what
imminent danger sounds like.
sh*t, that blew my levels right
off the meter, sorry, um...
hang on, Nat can you just
hit the bell once more?
- Yep. Ready to go?
- Yep.
- How's that?
- Nah, look if you want me to get that
it's probably best I boom it
from down the hall.
- Yeah okay, well we need it.
- Okay cool, two seconds.
Tangles decided to, um, go
in to the adjoining room
off the bell room and boom it from there
just to basically k*ll the sound
of the level of the bell, um,
which was just making his levels peak out.
I don't really know much
about recording sound,
um, but I did at the time remember
thinking 'ah that's a bit weird',
you know, why would you do that?
Just turn it down a little bit,
surely it's that simple?
Alright Steve can you do me a favour,
can you just listen on
the cans just a little for me?
Why don't you get Pete to do it? He can
do camera, he must be able to do sound.
Nah mate, I've done
enough hard work today.
That's good Nat, yeah.
Sorry guys, just wait till we're...
He asked me to listen
to the audio for him,
which was fine, it's just put on the headphones
and listen to it as it's being recorded.
- Oh here, just hang on, take that.
- Thanks very much.
And then so Nat just went
ahead and did it again,
and, uh... thats... that's when uh...
...that's when I heard it.
Bell atmos.
Jesus.
Yo Tangles!
- sh*t. sh*t.
- Tangles! Tangles!
Pete we need some light
down here mate. Tangles!
- Quick, light.
- sh*t. Steve where are you?
Down here. Straight, straight, straight.
- What was that mate?
- Just give me the camera mate, he's... he's gone.
- Where'd he go?
- I don't know. Tangles!
- Tangles! Tangles!
- What did you hear in the headphones?
- What did you hear in your headphones?
- f*ck.
- sh*t.
- Tangles!
- Tangles!
- Tangles, come on mate!
Steve through here.
' Tangles!
' Tangles!
- Yo Tangles!
- Here I'll do down here.
Yeah I knew there was
something was wrong.
I knew he wasn't mucking around.
My initial thought
was just to get to him.
It wasn't unlike them...
so I guess my first instinct was
that they were having a joke.
What, Nat thought we were
playing a prank, did she?
You've spoken to her?
She thought we were f*cking around?
Natsha is listening to the bell room audio recorded
from Tangles' microphone for the first time.
Okay Tangles, you good?
Yep. Ready to go.
Bell atmos.
Tangles!
- Maybe through here... no that's a dead end.
- Tangles!
- f*ck.
- Tangles!
- Ah sh*t.
- What happened?
- Battery.
- You alright?
It?s alright.
- Need the light? You got a spare?
- Yeah.
- Yeah it's in here, hang on.
- Okay.
It became pretty evident, quite quickly
that we weren't going to be able to
find anyone, or anything without light.
Got it.
- Okay let's go.
- We'll get him mate, we'll find him, we'll find him alright?
Tangles!
Now I had my camera
light and I knew I had
about two, maye three
hours tops worth of light.
- Steve, Steve-
- Tangles!
- Steve, Steve where's your key mate?
- Yeah, what?
- Where's your key?
- It's back in the bell room.
Okay well... all the torches are
back there aren't they?
This is the only light you've
got and it's f*cking around
We need the torches mate,
we've got to go back to the bell room.
- But Tangles... - It's alright we'll
get him, we'll find him. C'mon.
- f*ck.
- C'mon.
Walked back in to the bell room
and there was nothing.
There was nothing there.
All the stuff had disappeared.
Now that was only in the matter of,
I don't know, couldn't have been too long.
sh*t everything's gone.
What!
What the hell's going on?
It certainly raised some
concerns because I didn't feel
it was something that
Tangles couldn't do by himself.
f*ck!
Alright we're wasting
time guys, let's go!
- Just wait.
- C'mon!
- Pete...
- Here take this, just give me some light Steve.
Okay... Okay, Tangles went through here
if we follow that all the way round,
it brings us back to this room,
we can scan the whole area.
Okay. So we split up and
meet back here yeah?
No. We stick together, that's
the only light we've got.
How many batteries
have we got left?
- I've got two in my pouch mate.
- Okay, let's go.
- Steve... Steve!
- Oh f*ck.
It won't do Tangles any good if we
run round like headless chickens,
we stick together, alright?
You'd better keep up then.
- Tangles!
- Steve wait!
- Tangles!
- sh*t!
Yeah, I panicked.
You know, it wasn't like I'm
trying to be a hero or anything.
You know, the smarter thing might
have been to do something else
but it was just instinct,
just kicking in.
- Tangles!
- sh*t.
- So what do you think?
- Think of what?
You know, Tangles, is he dicking around?
No, he wouldn't d*ck around for this long.
What happened to all our stuff then?
Who took it? I don't know.
Could have been the
homeless, junkies...
- I heard it Pete.
- You heard what?
Whatever it was mate,
I f*cking heard it.
Well what was it mate?
- Steve?
- Look lets just get going, okay?
Steve? Steve? What was that?
- sh*t.
- Watch your step.
What's in here?
- You alright?
- Yeah.
Nope, nothing.
Pete, we've been here
twice before mate.
The only other place,
it's got to be the lake.
Maybe he went back
from where we came.
Maybe he's waiting for us.
Oh yeah sure mate, he's f*cking
walked out in the pitch black,
- He's at f*cking Harry's scoffing a pie.
- No I don't mean that,
I mean he can't contact us,
maybe he's waiting for us.
No, come on Steve's right,
Tangles is down here.
He's got to be at the lake.
Well how much light have you got?
I've got enough.
Alright then.
- Do you hear that?
- Shh.
Let's go!
Tangles!
Tangles!
This way! Tangles!
I heard him through here, Tangles!
Tangles!
I'm coming mate!
In here!
Take that there quick...
Get down and grab it at the bottom.
f*ck
Take it easy, take it easy.
Oh sh*t, Steve, help.
Jesus.
- Steve, light.
- Right.
Oh Jesus Christ.
- Steve...
- Yeah?
- His torch.
- Ah f*ck.
It?s his torch, but it
doesn't mean it's him mate.
I can't really describe it,
it was just...
there was blood and...
over in the corner
was... Tangles torch.
I... I sort of thought of myself
as his older brother.
You know, that was the kind
of relationship we had.
And, uh, he was sort of
entrusted to me,
that's the way I felt about it.
Let's go.
C'mon. We've got to move.
She's right, he could be close mate.
And whatever that f*cking thing is,
it could be nearby.
Come on.
- It?s Tangles.
- Come on. Tash.
Let's go.
- Wait.
- What?
Wait, where's my camera?
Just over there.
It?s not where I left it.
What?
It?s not where I left it.
What do you mean?
Before we entered the room
Nat put the camera,
the night vision camera on the ground
just outside the door.
Um... and then we went in the room
we wouldn't have been in there for
more than two or three minutes,
and then she came out,
we all came out together,
and she noticed that the
camera had been moved.
My instinct was to check and see
if it had recorded something.
Play it back.
Tangles!
Tangles!
Get down and grab it at the bottom.
f*ck
Take it easy, take it easy.
- Steve, light.
- Right.
Oh f*ck.
Oh Jesus Christ.
We played back the footage and, uh,
someone had picked up the camera,
it had come off the ground,
and there were shots of us in the room.
It?s his torch but doesn't
mean it's him mate.
Let's go.
C'mon. We've got to move.
She's right. He could be close mate.
And whatever that f*cking this is,
it could be nearby
- it's Tangles.
- Come on. Tash.
And then we turn to come out
and... the camera goes down
and we just catch a glimpse,
it was just like one frame.
It happened in a split second
I didn't know what it was mate,
but it was quick
and it was f*cking frightening.
f*ck.
Oi!
Oh my god... it's us.
This isn't good.
We've got to get out of here.
We've got to get out of here.
Mate I am not f*cking leaving him down here
with whatever the f*ck that was right?
- Steve listen, listen to me.
- I'm not f*cking leaving him.
Look right now my priority
is with you and Nat
I'm not going to let what happened to
Tangles, happen to both of you alright?
We have to get out of here,
we have to get to the top. Come on.
No you go, go on your own,
leave me here, I don't give a sh*t.
Steve we need your light, come on.
- You've got your own f*cking light mate, take off!
- Listen Steve, listen to me-
- Listen to me!
- f*ck off!
- I'm not done, don't f*cking touch me man!
- Listen, Listen!
Listen, listen, listen to me.
Whatever that f*cking thing is
it's going to have a harder time
taking us out if we stick together.
That's bullshit.
Listen. We need to get to the top.
We need to get help.
If we get more help down here, the better
chance we're going to find Tangles.
f*cking Tangles man.
I know mate.
Hey mate, I'm with you.
I'm with you.
Come on.
Come on.
Pete made sense, but I couldn't help but
feel like I was leaving Tangles behind.
It was the hardest thing
I've ever had to do.
- Is he okay?
- Just give him a few minutes.
So what's the plan?
We get the f*ck out of here,
is the plan.
Get back to the top.
What?
I think we should stay
and look for Tangles.
You're not here for Tangles.
You're not here for Tangles.
- Jesus Christ.
- f*ck!
Just through here.
Get back, hit the light.
k*ll the light.
- What is it mate?
- I'm not sure, shh.
Anyone down there?
It?s the guard.
sh*t it's the guard.
Who's there?
Hey mate, it's us, it's the film crew.
I told you guys not to come down here.
Yeah look, I know, we're sorry.
It?s just our friend, he's gone missing,
someone... something's taken him.
Right. I want all of you
to come with me now.
- Hey, come on!
- Mate, what's happening in here?
- Mate, mate tell us what's happening in here!
- Nat, give it a break Nat.
- We're leaving. LET'S GO!
- Is he going to help us?
Go! Go! Run!
Keep moving!
- Oh sh*t, oh sh*t...
- Nat, Nat, Nat, here, through here.
Through here.
Your light.
Oi Steve k*ll the light.
- Where are we?
- Shh.
What was that?
I don't know.
Just keep it down,
it could be close.
Did you see it?
No.
Whatever it was,
it was f*cking huge.
Nat... turn it off.
Everybody alright?
Mate, mate I'm alright.
How about your arm?
Give me the camera, let me see.
I, uh, I hit something when
we were running, it's fine.
sh*t Steve, it looks bad.
- Nah.
- Here Pete I need to see.
- Here, show me.
- It doesn't look good.
I can't see.
There it is.
Just there yeah.
Sorry, you alright?
- I'll be fine, yeah.
- Really?
Thanks though. Thanks.
We're going to make it mate...
we're going to make it.
Guys we've got to move soon,
we can't stay.
Alright, I just need a minute.
Hang on.
What... what if that
thing comes back?
I don't know.
Could we take it?
I doubt it.
Only thing we've got to worry
about now is getting out of here.
Hey, guys, I think it's gone.
Right, let's get moving.
- Steve?
- Yeah?
- You alright?
- Yeah mate, I'm good.
Alright, let's go.
Just keep it quiet.
Hand me the cam.
Just keep it quiet okay?
Let's go.
Stay close.
Through here.
Okay.
Okay.
Ah f*ck...
Pete... Pete what's wrong?
Pete?
What are you doing?
It?s not on the map.
What do you mean
it's not on the map?
It?s only got one way,
this has got two.
Pete you've got to
figure it out okay?
- Just chill the f*ck out okay?
- You've got to figure it out, you've got to.
You've got to fix this.
Just shut the f*ck up
and let me get through it.
It?s through here, we came back
through there, it's through here.
Okay, what if it's not
the right way mate?
Well then... we find
the safest room
and we wait it out.
Oh yeah, that's a good plan.
John will figure out
that we haven't called
and he'll send someone
down to find us.
John knows we're here right?
Nat...
f*cking tell me John
knows we're here.
Oh you're f*cking kidding me.
I can't... are you f*cking serious?
Ah this is beautiful.
- I needed you guys okay?
- I knew it!
I needed you guys in this.
- You need us?
- Yeah.
We just lost a friend.
You still need your f*cking story?
- No...
- Huh?
f*ck you.
- f*ck you.
- Keep you voice down.
- You think you're a f*cking journalist.
- Shh!
Well we came down here
to get a story didn't we?
And now we've got
an important one,
and you're f*cking
running scared!
Shhh!
Here's your f*cking story.
Here, you want your
piece to camera?
Come on. Let's go.
What's your piece to
camera for this one huh?
Do you want to tell us how...
how you lost a friend?
Because of your f*cking stupidity?
Come on... waiting...
- f*ck you.
- Come on man.
Come on. The best journalist
can work under any pressure,
and sort of circumstance, come on.
Ah see, you can't say sh*t can you?
You know why?
Because you're not there Nat.
You're just not there.
You're f*cking pathetic.
- Go through here?
- Yeah, yeah sure.
f*ck, sh*t.
sh*t.
What the f*ck.
- What?
- Shh.
What is it?
Hear that?
Through here.
k*ll the light.
Guys, the lake's just here.
- f*ck.
- Shhhh.
- Here, let me see. Show me.
- Shh.
- Is it Tangles mate?
- Keep it down, shh.
- What is it?
- It's not Tangles.
What's happened to his face?
It?s his eyes.
Oh Jesus.
What's happening?
We've got to help him.
Let me see.
Shh.
It?s seen us.
We got to go, come on, come on!
Come on, let's go!
Steve!
Go, go, Go!
Just move it!
Jesus. Which way. . Which way?
sh*t. Go! Go now!
- Where? Where?
- Through here!
- Steve?
- Go!
Come on! Keep moving!
Is he still behind us?
I think we lost it!
I think we lost it!
I don't... I don't think it's following us.
There's a light in here.
Here, here.
- What's that?
- I think it's the Cross City Tunnel.
Oh... this is a bad place to stop
No, no, no.
Oi!
- Hello! Hello!
- Shh.
- Hello! Hello!
- Shh, shh Nat.
Pete! Shut her up!
You've got to keep it down.
- There's no one there, there's no one there.
- Please, someone...
Help, hello...
Shh, shh.
Hello!
Help!
- Help!
- Nat, be quiet, shh!
Shh, shh.
Please.
f*ck.
Shh.
Shh.
Can you see anything?
Chuck the light, chuck the light.
Nat...
- it's alright.
- I'm sorry.
- Hey?
- I'm sorry.
It?s alright, don't be sorry.
It?s not your fault, it's alright.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
it's okay, shh.
Everything was unravelling,
it... it was because of me.
I never meant for things
to get so out of hand.
I didn't mean to let
Pete down, I mean I...
I had thought I'd made the
right choice at the time
and I didn't mean to let him down.
Steve, through here,
quick, quick, come on move.
Up here.
Nat...
Up.
Come on.
Here Nat, take this.
Come on.
You know, my natural instinct
was to turn around with the light,
to see what was going on,
we'd just heard this sound,
Pete yelling out, and, uh,
as soon as it sort of
fell in to the pool of light
the thing just... disappeared.
Upped and left.
And that just sort of
dawned on me then that
the light...
was our way
of keeping it away from us.
Pete you okay?
You okay?
f*ck did you see that?
It f*cking...
it took off...
let's get out of here.
- Ah f*ck.
- Let's go.
Did you see that?
It didn't like the light.
Well keep it on then.
Hold on.
What?
Nat!
Ah f*ck.
- No-
- Come on, come on!
- Come on you f*ck!
- Steve, no! Steve!
- Come on! Come on!
- Steve, come on!
It was almost like it was
trying to get us in a position
where it could get to us as well.
It reminded me of a lion
trying to cut one
animal out of a pack,
a herd.
You know, get the weak one out,
easy to attack.
- Ah f*ck, f*ck.
- sh*t.
We're losing the light!
Oh f*ck!
Steve!
Oh sh*t!
Back, back, back!
f*ck!
Go through.
This way.
No, it's a dead end.
It?s a dead end.
Oh Jesus.
I thought that was it...
it was over.
There was nowhere left to run.
Then I saw this tiny bit of wall that
looked like it had broken away.
Pete, take this, take this.
Take it!
Give her a hand Pete.
Get the light Steve.
Shh, keep it down.
Keep it down.
Here, come through Steve.
- Huh?
- Come through.
- Go, go, go.
- Come on. You go first.
Here take this, quick.
- Here Nat.
- Okay.
Shh, shh, keep it down.
This isn't good.
Steve is that... oh god...
This isn't good.
Steve...
We've got to go.
f*ck, f*ck.
- Light mate, light.
- Sorry.
- It?s gone.
- Batteries right.
Steve...
f*ck I need some
light over here.
Quick, Nat, light.
- Nat, f*cking light Nat, f*ck.
- Nat... give me the torch.
f*ck.
Ah sh*t that one's dead.
Oh Jesus.
There's only one left.
We need the f*cking light...
Steve, we need the f*cking light!
Come on!
Okay... now
RUN!
Steve...
Steve...
Steve...
it's going for her... it's going for her.
We've got to go.
Come on... come on.
Nat! Nat!
- Let her go!
Let her go you f*ck!
Pete, come on!
- Take her, just take her!
- Pete!
Just take her!
All right. Nat come on!
Come on!
Come on, you f*ck!
Come on, Nat.
Come on, let's move.
- No.
- Let's move.
Come on.
Come on.
- Wait!
- Come on.
But... but Pete...
- Come on!
- No...
- Steve we can't leave him.
- Come on!
We got...
Nat... Keep moving.
Keep moving!
- No...
- We've got to keep moving!
- You can't leave Pete.
- We can't, we've got to go!
- Come on!
- No...
We've got to keep moving.
I think that
Pete was looking out for us and
I didn't want to leave him there.
Come on.
Pete wanted us to be safe
I understand that, but I didn't...
I didn't want to leave Pete behind.
Come on.
Come on. Come on.
Ah f*ck it, it's Pete.
f*ck.
When I heard Pete's voice
coming out of the tunnel,
out of the darkness,
uh,
I mean,
I wasn't expecting to
hear his voice again.
- Pete no... no...
- I can't...
Let's go.
Come on, come on.
Let's go!
- Pete it will be okay... stay with me...
- Help! Get some help!
Get some help mate! Anyone!
I need a phone! I need a phone!
- Give me a phone! Give me a phone!
- Give us a phone!
Hey.
Hello? Police Fire or Ambulance?
- Hello?
- Yes. Hello? Do you need police, fire or ambulance?
Hello? Help, we need help, we need help.
OK Miss, we'll get you some help.
What's happened?
We're on platform one,
we're at the station...
Please, you gotta get...
...my friend is dying. He's bleeding.
Please calm down, Miss.
I need you to tell me exactly where you are
and what's happening.
I don't know we're at the station and
something... something
...took our friend.
OK, please stay calm.
You said you're at the station?
Which station are you at?
Help me... Somebody help me.
What are you doing?
Miss are you there?
Which station are you at?
- ...Get someone here.
- Hello? Hello Miss?
Hello are you there?
Miss?
Pete... Pete.
Pete...
I'm sorry... Pete...
Yeah... it's kind of hard to...
to talk about it now.
But I didn't know he
was dying at that point.
You know, I thought we
were all going to fine.
I mean...
it had been so difficult
to get to that point
where we got there,
and then...
you know I thought we
were going to be okay,
there was people around us,
there was light,
I... you know... I would
have been doing more
if I thought he was lying there dying.
I... I feel that I could have
done more to help Pete.
You know, it's, um...
it's easy to say that you
would do things differently, you know.
It just didn't seem... very fair.
I got told by the first paramedics
that, you know...
they'd sort of given up working on him,
they sort of... you know...
took a while to get Nat away from him
and uh,
it slowly, slowly dawned on me
about that point, you know,
they sort of walked away from him
and he was just lying there,
and he wasn't moving,
and I was... I just thought f*ck.
I felt... I feel... I feel responsible
I don't want to say that
I felt like it was my fault
Peter Ferguson was pronounced dead
at 7. 37am on 21st October 2007.
According to the Coroner's Report
he died from internal bleeding.
I don't know exactly how
I've changed since that night.
I can't help thinking...
we were so close,
help was right there.
I go over it again, and again,
just constantly...
What would I do differently?
Natasha Warner resigned
after the underground sh**t.
She no longer works as a journalist.
I was just pissed off,
with everyone.
Everything.
The government,
the police,
I mean, f*ck, how much
evidence do you want?
It's just sad now thinking about it.
It's pointless.
It's just f*cking sad.
Steve Miller is still working as a news
and current affairs cameraman.
The whereabouts of Jim 'Tangles' Williams
remains unknown.
His family are still searching for answers.
The police investigation was closed
due to 'inconclusive evidence'.
Despite several requests, no State Government or Police
representative agreed to be interviewed for this film.
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Tunnel, The (2011)
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