.png "Credit: Ethan Brown, Trentham Fire Brigade")
Credit: Ethan Brown, Trentham Fire Brigade
A team effort in the west today (2 June) saw local Trentham Fire Brigade members work with CFA's Oscar 1 rescue team to safely rescue a dog from an eight-metre-deep mine shaft.
Having wandered off from their owners' property on Thursday afternoon, Labradoodle Penny and Labrador Ted were found on Pronk Track in Trentham at around 11.43am this morning, with Penny above the mine and Ted sadly within it.
While extensive social media posts were placed online to help locate the dogs over the weekend, and hopeful sounds of barking were heard in the distance by neighbours, the pair were still unable to be located.
Trentham Fire Brigade Captain David Wheeldon said it wasn't until today that the neighbours fortunately crossed paths with Penny and Ted on their walk and called Triple Zero.
"When we arrived, as you would expect, Penny was quite agitated, but luckily one of our firefighters knew the owners because they lived next door to them," David said.
"We were able to get a hold of them to come down before Bendigo's Oscar 1 crew started the rescue process.
"Throughout the morning, we were providing Ted with plenty of food and water.
"The members of Oscar 1 descended down the 8m shaft to safely extricate Ted and hand him back into the arms of his owners at around 2.53pm, happy, healthy and well."
While on scene Trentham Fire Brigade members worked with Forest Fire Management Victoria to track their location with pink ribbon and red taped a number of open mine shafts nearby to prevent future incidents.
Hepburn Shire Council were also on scene for wellbeing support.
