Mine authorities in Tasmania say the two miners who have spent a week trapped underground are now helping their rescuers trying to reach them.
Inside the cage that saved them from a rockfall at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, they are passing word about ground conditions and any falling rocks.
The mine manager, Matthew Gill, says rescuers are shouting with Todd Russell and Brant Webb through a 16-metre-long pipe.
Mr Gill says any rescue could still be a couple of days away.
We are asking them many questions: Do they hear us? What are their conditions like? What do they sense, in terms of the ground conditions around them? Do they hear rocks falling? What do they need? Those sorts of questions, so that feedback allows us to progress, or not, actions that we have planned.
He told reporters "One comment that gives you an idea, we asked them what do they need, and they said, 'We would like food, water and to get out.'"