'Black Gold, Kindred Spirits'

Q Do you remember the 37 disaster?

The explosion of 1937 found me in Wonthaggi, normally I'd been working up Mirboo North but I happened to be in Wonthaggi that Monday and being interested in mining affairs because my father was a miner. I went along to the stop work meeting that was on that day, I can remember being in front of the theatre, a lot of men gathered there waiting for the meeting to start and ah I didn't actually hear the explosion possibly because there was an amplifier and a song going outside the theatre, now an amplifier was something new in those days and I can still remember the tune, "When I grow too old to dream" I always associate it with the 37' disaster.

Q What was the reason for the explosion?

Well in hindsight I think it occurred because they didn't realize what a powder keg they were sitting on really, there had been accidents in that same pit before, I think four men had been killed there in 1932 and they were still using naked lights and they were still carrying on like it was a shallow mine like station area or one where the danger of gas wasn't as great.

Q Tell us about the 49' strike.

The '49 strike was a different matter altogether to the strikes that had. happened in Wonthaggi, because it was national strike, and it was ah, Wonthaggi was out because the federation was out. Menzie's role in that, he was determined to show the country that that they could deal with the reds which would be the way that he would class the miners and the wharf labourers. Actually of course he wasn't in power he was nearly in power at that time, it was just before the election when the strike took place, so it was the Labor Party was also at that time anguish to show that they could handle this what would you say left wing menace, because at that time, you got to remember it was the time, the start of the cold war and it just seemed to be important to people at that time. The end result it certainly was a loss for the federation, the federation didn't gain what they were after they, ah they certainly loss there and also it helped Menzies into power because the way it was played up in the press it threw a bad light on the miners and on the wharf labourers and I should say it helped to put Menzies into power at that time.

Q How did the closure of the mine affect Wonthaggi?

Well in 58', when the edict went forth from the State government that the mine was going to close in a month there was certainly a big upheaval and quite a big campaign to keep it going for that 10 years which was the reprieve that the state government gave, it would keep open for ten more years and there would be no new labour employed. By the time 1968 came people new it was going to happen and, well several things had happened in the town and they were resigned to the mine closing, the work force had decreased considerably by that time, and I think it was something like 200 odd miners and mine workers that were left there some of them were retiring some of them were going over to jobs over in the Latrobe valley, and I think the town was looking ahead to what might happen. I don't think there was the despair that they felt ten years before that if the mine had closed in '58 I think it would've been a different thing altogether for Wonthaggi.

Q. Do you think the inquiry into the 37' disaster was fair?

Yes well I think, but I haven't read it very thoroughly, but from what I've heard of the discussion was that ah looking back on it now it seems it was a white wash of the management and ah there was certain things that was said at the inquiry that have been completely refuted by people who were on the spot, for instance whether the fans were on at the weekend or whether they were shut off. Well there were people who lived near there who have said definitely that the ah the fans were not going over the weekend which would have quite a big bearing on the amount of gas that would have been in the mine at that time.

Q Why was Wonthaggi a difficult mine?

The extreme working conditions in the mines and pits of wonthaggi they were due or course to the geological conditions, the extreme faulting in the field but the conditions themselves, the extreme wet, the damp, the low workings, and then in other pits the hot dry dusty conditions were very very bad. A person that I met had had quite a lot of experience, managerial experience in Britain, in Canada and in Australia, said they were the worse that he'd ever experienced in his life. That's right he worked for a while and he was offered a managerial job and he wouldn't take it.

END OF INTERVIEW
Date: 1995