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.
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.
Diver has a Bachelor of Applied Science, is a level-three ski instructor and in 2012 he became Operations Manager of the Thredbo Ski Resort. [3] After his wife Sally died in the Thredbo landslide, Stuart remarried. With his wife Rosanna (née Cossettini), Stuart has a daughter, Alessia. [3]
Stuart owns a house above the disaster site, where he lived with his wife Rosanna and Alessia. [3] 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.
I met Sally Donald during our first year at the Melbourne Institute of Technology