Stuart Diver

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Stuart Diver (born 14 January 1970 in New South Wales, Australia) is a ski instructor and was the sole survivor of the 1997 Thredbo landslide.

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Thredbo landslide

At 11.35pm, on 30 July 1997, 3,500 tonnes of rock and mud slid down the side of Thredbo, a ski resort in New South Wales, taking two ski lodges with it. The landslide killed 18 people, one of whom was Diver's first wife, Sally (née Donald). [1] After 65 hours in sub-zero temperatures with only a small blanket and jacket, Diver was finally pulled from the rubble. [2] After the incident, Diver wrote a biography, Survival, with journalist Simon Bouda, detailing his struggles with the experience of the disaster and the aftermath. Diver's experiences were also made into the Australian TV movie, Heroes' Mountain , where his character was played by actor Craig McLachlan.

Private life

Diver has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree, is a level-three ski instructor and in 2012 he became Operations Manager of the Thredbo Ski Resort. [3] He owns a house above the disaster site and lived there with his second wife Rosanna (née Cossettini) [3] and their daughter Alessia until Rosanna died from breast cancer on 21 March 2015.

Diver has an active role promoting The Salvation Army and is one of the most well-known public faces of the charity. He has a brother Euan, mother Annette and father Steve.

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References

  1. Diver, Stuart; Bouda, Simon (1 May 2012). "2-Learning to Cry". Survival: The inspirational story of the Thredbo disaster's sole survivor (EPUB). Sydney: Pan Macmillan. ISBN   978-1-74334-036-3 . Retrieved 23 March 2015. I met Sally Donald during our first year at the Melbourne Institute of Technology
  2. Wendy Lewis (2007). See Australia and Die. New Holland. ISBN   978-1-74110-583-4.
  3. 1 2 Calligeros, Marissa (24 March 2015). "Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver loses second wife Rosanna to breast cancer" . Retrieved 14 January 2017.