Stuart Diver

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.

Thredbo landslide
Main article: 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.

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 he is one of the best-known public faces of the charity. He has a brother Euan, mother Annette and father Steve.

Notes
  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. Calligeros, Marissa (24 March 2015). "Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver loses second wife Rosanna to breast cancer". Retrieved 14 January 2017.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.