'Black Gold, Kindred Spirits'

Q Tell us about the Women's Auxiliary?

Wonthaggi miners were on strike in 1934 and out of that strike the Women's Auxiliary was formed. During the strike we helped the women and the children and pregnant mothers, we helped them a lot and they really needed it because times had been bad before that because every year, every Christmas they was always something turned up at the mine, little pin prickings that brought the men out, and the real reason was that we needed the trucks for wheat, it was the wheat season and you could be sure that there was always something happened that the men had to go out on strike.

Well it was through strikes that they had, they had to be strong. Oh yes it was something to be proud of really. Well, we were a very caring auxiliary and first priority was the children, how the children fared. They were well looked after and they fought for women's cause, ah…………during the strikes they had oranges and milk, that was through the Miners Women's Auxiliary and the some of the other auxiliaries, which was good, they were getting their vitamins and then the miners formed a Broad Committee and that was something that really worked, we were all self supporting, Wonthaggi The men went out and there were ex butchers amongst them and they brought the cattle and cut it all up and we all had rations, so much per family, how big your family was......

Q You were involved in public speaking during the strike?

Yes, yeah there were eight women went and quite a lot of miners and um I use to be sick every time I had to go and do a meeting (chuckle chuckle) before I went, but once I was there it was all right and they liked to hear the women's version of it you know, what transpired and that but um when they froze the miners funds that was the start of all the trouble, ah, the miners took their funds out and they hid them amongst all the farmers, we even had one minister had some of it but his wife was pregnant at the time and ah she was getting a bit worried about it so he came to them and asked them could he be excused and give them the money back.

Q You were saying that you hid money in your cushions?

(Chuckle chuckle) I think my husband did that and blamed it on me, chuckle chuckle, yes we had funds for a long long time and every knock on the door we thought it was the police ... well yes through the local police it was.

Q Tell us more about your speaking during the strike?

Well we were on strike, the miners were on strike then over the log of claims its a general strike, and we stationed at Unity Hall - speakers that was our starting off place. I went to Geelong and the other women went to other places, I was there for a while and we always reported back to Unity Hall every day of where we had been and went to the Ford Factory at ah Geelong but they wouldn't let you in the men came out, the workers came outside and brought their lunch with them, they sat, while we talked to them. There was a miner with me like it was a man and his wife and the women had to .. so they didn't want much to hear about the miners but they wanted to hear about the women how they were doing so we were ah , they were very good the men ah but ah we couldn't get into the factory at all, but ah it was a good meeting, the men said they would support us, both financially and morally, which was good and we went to the woolen mills, and we got a wonderful reception there and we were asked in and we were taken around and we were allowed to speak to them and they had lovely conditions in that woolen mill, different to what they had at the other one, but um from there then we came back to Melbourne after we had been in Geelong for a while and ah I spoke at one of the theatres there was a big public meeting there and we got a wonderful support there, only one man challenged me and he said to me you don't look much like a miners wife and I said to him, how did you expect me to look - in sack cloth and ashes? So they all cheered then and it was really wonderful, the support we got, we had food coming in everywhere all through the night to Wonthaggi the trucks were coming in with food. We were well catered for during that strike.

Yes, well during the time I was in Geelong I was, um billeted with a school teacher and his wife and ah they were Labor Party members so they asked me would I go and speak at a Labor Party meeting and I said oh I couldn't do that, they said why not, so they talked me into it and I went . So when I spoke to them about the Chifley Government putting the Army in to the mines I called Chifley, 'Boots'n all Chifley' and ah oh see they weren't supposed to help, they were not allowed to help financially to the strike, to the strikers funds because ah well most of them they weren't allowed to that was the policy, but when the meeting finished and the President came and shook hands with me his own personal cheque was in that, I took it back to the Unity Hall and handed it in. But it was never ever divulged who that President was, we kept that for us which was really good because he was going against his policy.

Q What about the women's boycott of stores?

Yes well it was over the John Rogers speaking at the theatre, he had been to Russia and he see we were connected with the peace and he came to give us his experiences when he was over in Russia and the returned soldiers were boycotted they came into the theatre and took all the front seats, I wasn't there then but my husband was on the platform conducting the meeting and ah morning after we decided that we would go and boycott the shops, because they were against the freedom speech not the proprietor but the ones that worked there. And it never, never was lifted that boycott. We came to the theatre, the returned soldiers the head ones came to the miners and asked for the boycott to be lifted the miners would have nothing to do with it, they said they had to see the women, so it never ever was lifted.

Q Why did the 49 Strike fail?

The 49 strike failed because the northern district decided to go back to work and that broke the strike but two men in particular were in that, and when the strike broke they got positions in parliament that was the pay off...... so men had to go back to work, we didn't win anything. It was all for nothing.

Q There weren't many strikes during the war?

Oh that was during the war period to ah it was to declare a ah what to you call that industry? A protected industry and they worked Saturdays and all, the men and they put everything into it because that was the munitions to feed the soldiers. It was really a good period as far as the men went they were solid behind it but um we were all glad when the war had finished

Q What was it like having your men going off to work?

Ah , well we had the main whistle and it used to you know when the men were going on their shifts and when they were leaving the other shift was going on and you depended on that every day but as soon as the whistle went that's when we knew there was a disaster everyone was out and you didn't know when they were coming home. I remember one night like a my husband was afternoon shift and I could hear someone it was late at night and ah I thought it was him coming in but it was his mate he'd come to tell me that my husband was in hospital he'd met with an accident and had his nose broken, so he was up in the hospital, that was on my mind I think really........ but it was you know you worried about them going to work, you worried about them getting home or harmed, one of the times they had to walk up the ladders, at the mine, to get out the bottom up from the bottom and that must have been terrifying cause it was the big shafts you know, so.

Q Why were you called Ned Kelly's women?

(Chuckle, chuckle) Well I don't know really why they called us Ned Kelly's women really, I think they were just slinging off some of them you know

Oh well they were against some, some were against the strikes, the men being on strike and I can remember one time ah during that we, I was in Myers we went into Myers the women and ah there were so many went up on each floor and I happened to be up where the canteen was and ah I went into the canteen and I got a lovely reception there but the word had got through to the floor walkers that we were in the building and so we had to hurry and get down on the on the ah on the cage down and get out and I met a bloke up on the corner and he stopped me, he must have been there and he said ah the strike was just a farce you know and I said what, he said yeah, he said I know it, my brother was a Deputy. I said don't talk to me about Deputies, I said they were working while our men were on strike and do you know that I met that man not long ago in the streets, until I heard his name I said to my husband I said "that's the bloke that stopped me on the corner in Melbourne, he said you're kidding, I said "no it was him". I wouldn't tell you what his name is (chuckle, chuckle) but um.

Q So the women supported the miners?

Well the miners wives & families were 100 per cent behind their men and it was really something to be proud of I just feel so proud of the Women's Auxiliary. I'd like to read this little bit to you The miners wives & families were 100 per cent behind their men and the solidarity was really something to be proud of and we became the parent auxiliary in Australia.

Q What do you think of the name Red Wonthaggi?

Red Wonthaggi, ooh I don't know, I don't think its so red, (chuckle). Oh no, I've never heard it called that, the commos, but I never was politically minded you know, till I was married, and I listened to my husband and I listened to Watty Doig, and I listened to some of the professors that came and spoke to us and I followed their ideas...…and it didn't bother me, nah, nah it didn't bother me. Oh we've been called 'Red', ….I've been called red before now, but I think my people turn in their graves, if they knew that….

END OF INTERVIEW
Date: September 1995