BENDIGO will step back in time this weekend for the Hustler's Lost Miners Centenary.
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Friday marked the 100-year anniversary of the worst mass fatality in Bendigo's goldfields history with events on Saturday and Sunday set to mark the tragedy's centenary.
Seven men were killed in an explosion at the Great Extended Hustler's Mine in Bendigo on May 2, 1914.
The explosion erupted 300 metres underground.
Hustler's Reef Reserve will be abuzz with activity on Saturday from 10am to 3pm with presentations, displays and guided walks.
The Bendigo Historical Society's collection A dangerous job: accidents and illnesses on the Bendigo Goldfields will be on display at Specimen Cottage on Sunday from 9.30am to 11.30am.
A Cornish miner's lunch and goldfields music and dance display will be at the Boundary Hotel on Sunday from 11.30am to 12.30pm.
Bendigo Hospital's old mortuary will also commemorate the centenary of the Hustler's Mine Disaster with an exhibition featuring memorabilia from 1914.
The miners’ bodies were brought in a horse-and-cart ambulance to the old mortuary on Stewart Street, an historic building recognised as a striking example of an Italianate mortuary with no comparable examples in Victoria.
Photos, medical instruments and stories will create a snapshot of life in medicine and mining in Bendigo 100 years ago.
The Life and Death on the Bendigo Goldfields exhibition is on Sunday from 2pm to 4pm.
Hustler's Lost Miners Centenary committee chairman Aldo Penbrook is encouraging the Bendigo community to support the event.
"This was the worst mass fatality in Bendigo's goldfields history," he said.
"But during the time of the goldfields up to 900 men lost their lives in underground mining accidents and probably thousands more died from lung disease.
"A lot of them died at a young age and left their families and widows and orphans behind."
Mr Penbrook said the weekend would be very informative.
"We've got a range of talks looking at the circumstances around the disaster and the mining company," he said.
"We also have a range of displays showing photographs and memorabilia related to life around the 1914s.
"We're having guided walks at the Hustler's Reef Reserve.
"There will also be a display of mine rescue equipment, past and present."