By Tyler Wright
Monbulk’s local hero – professor Arnold Dix – has returned to his home town of Monbulk after rescuing 41 workers from a tunnel in India last month.
After being flocked by TV station crews at Melbourne Airport upon his return on Tuesday 5 December, Dix’s first port of call after the 17-day rescue, of which he was present for 14 days, was young people in his hometown.
On Friday 8 December, Dix spoke to students at Monbulk College about the rescue, and what they could take from his story into their lives and schooling.
“I’m so excited A) to be alive and B) to be back in my favourite place, which is Monbulk and of course back at the school where my daughter Trisha goes to school,” Dix said.
“When you do advanced maths, when you do your engineering, when you decide that you want to do stuff like this because it is really cool…you’ll discover that all of this really fancy maths and physics and engineering happens.
“In the end, despite all the technology and despite everyone going, ‘my machine’s bigger than yours’ and ‘we’ve got the biggest American auger digger’, in the end it’s the soft ancient ways that we used to get the emergency passage.”
After multiple efforts to rescue the trapped miners – who were working to connect sacred sites to create a safer journey for pilgrims who would otherwise have to trek across the mountains over “really dangerous hills,” Dix said rescuers worked 100 millimetres at a time to remove each piece of rock one at a time by hand.
Despite external pressures, Dix refused to budge on his goal of rescuing all 41 men – uninjured – by Christmas.
“We have technical skills, we have competencies; I don’t mind whether you’re a welder, whether you’re a physicist, whether you’re an engineer, whether you’re a doctor, whether you cook pappadums; I don’t mind, but be good at what you do and don’t stress yourself unnecessarily,” Dix said.
“Bring your best skills to it; that [was] very much my message to India while we [were] doing this.”
Dix also said his first port of call after he landed in the helicopter in the Himalayas, was to pray at the tunnel portal.
“I’m an engineer, I’m a scientist, I’m a lawyer, right? Why am I doing that? Because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“I’m going to the most sacred place for the Hindu people and it’s the right thing to do; it’s not a textbook thing, it’s about being a good person and being respectful of other people’s cultures and gods.
“In Australia, we have temples in front of all our tunnels too, you might not know, but all the tunnels you go through will have a little temple for the people who work in them, because the tunnelers are terrified about going underground because we know how incredibly dangerous it is and we also know how teensy we are as humans and the forces are so big.”
Among Dix’s messages to Monbulk College students were ‘do not believe everything you read’ and ‘kind people can do anything’.
“On a scale of 1 to 10 [of how proud I am], I’m about 12,” he said.
“[The workers] are just kids in their 20s, some of them aren’t even that…they’re just young men who work really hard.
“I feel like this job was like a once in a lifetime job and that’s enough… I only want to do that sort of international rescue once.”
Monbulk College assistant principal Fiona McNair, said the school was “very fortunate” Dix was forthcoming and reached out to the school to engage with the community.
“The presentation today captured the hearts and minds of our young people, especially that message in there about sciences, engineering and ICT,” she said.
“He’s an amazing local hero.”
Monbulkians have also decorated the town for Dix’s return, with signs along the main street with statements including: ‘Welcome home Arnie! Local HERO’ and ‘Welcome home Prof Dix’.
“It’s a bit surprising…the fact that there’s some signs up and people are being nice to me; people are always nice anyway, but some recognition is really lovely,” Dix said.
“In India, I’m a celebrity, I can’t walk in the streets, so I can walk the streets of Monbulk.
“I was really happy that [the students] were so happy; I felt the reaction from a group of kids on the last day of school was really positive; I thought they’d want to throw stuff at me.”
On Saturday 9 December, Dix even featured as Santa at the Monbulk Produce Market.
Facebook commenter Valerie Willoughby said Dix is a “perfect reminder” of the good that locals have in the community.
“Whether it’s Arnold, or our local paid and volunteer emergency services, as well as those who run every program within our community, sporting, mental health wise, anything,” she wrote.
“We need to see the good in everything.
“Arnold is the perfect example that within our community we have humble people going about life doing amazing things, that are bigger than us as individuals. Not just helping community, but are impacting widely around the world too.”
