'Black Gold, Kindred Spirits'

Yes well I came to Wonthaggi in 1924, with my mother and three brothers, my father had proceeded by about 12 months before, and he was then working in the mine. And so we arrived in Wonthaggi then and the point of interest was the fact that the ship we came out on had a cargo of girders for the Sydney bridge which was then just under construction. And so I lived in the town ever since, or until the closure of the power station. I went to school here and then I started in the mine in 1928, and I worked in various positions then until, I think it was the 1930s, then the decision was made that people who had turned 21, who were clipping would be put off. So I worked then, worked from then until I was put off at 21, which was for a period of 12 months I think or so before I was re-employed. And then I worked in various capacities, first as a brace boy, as a clipper, as a wheeler and as a shiftman, as a winch driver, I worked on the coal, hewing the coal. And then I became interested on the mechanical side and became a winch driver and then finally getting up to the surface into the power station where I was interested in steam. And I started as, in the power station under the lower classification of a Plant Attendant, then fireman and then as a relieving engine driver in charge. And I also was interested in the winding aspect of the mine and so I went and I obtained then 1st class electric winding certificate, which entitled me to work and operate the winders at the mine. So basically that's the story of my employment at the mine in short.

Q. Were you glad to get up top?

Oh yes, yes. Actually the deciding factor in getting on top was the fact that at the time of the 19, 20 shaft explosion, previous to that I was working in the mine and some of us where interested in starting a class for a managers certificate. And after the explosion when I went down and saw the devastation of 20 shaft, I thought well if I'm going to try to better myself it won't be in a job that will remain underground, it will be on the surface. So I was able then to become eligible to put in time as an apprentice at the Power Station to sit for a second winding certificate, then ultimately the 1st class winding certificate. And then having got those two certificates, that qualified me to become an examiner with the Mines Department. And in 1961 I became an examiner with the Mines Department, from then on into the Department of Labour and Energy. Examining was quite interesting in that because of my experience in steam and electrical winding I was able then to take candidates and examine them on the safety aspects of operations as far as winding at the shaft was concerned and also in the Power Station with steam.

Q What was the town's reaction to the close of the mine? How did you deal with it?

Well, I think there was always a fear that the mine would close, but there was also a hope that it wouldn't. It was a situation where the mine had always been operating and there was this hope that it wouldn't close, but events since have proved that the closure of the mine was inevitable. And that being more so with the advent of the diesel locomotive, because Wonthaggi coal was principally used for locomotives and when the Railways decided to move from the steam locomotive to the diesel, well then that seemed to seal the fate of the town. Personally I always had a feeling that Wonthaggi was much too good a town to allow it to just to die like other towns have in the past. And when I became a member of the Borough Council, I had a feeling that in that capacity, I could make some contribution to the town if I tried to interest outside business people in the town. So when I was fortunate enough to be elected Mayor, then I felt that it was to some degree my responsibility to give a lead in the attempts to bring stability to the town with the closure of the mine. I never felt that when the mine closed that that would be the end of the town and I would often take issue with people who would say that that would be so. So during my term of office, having spoken with councilors in the municipal area, who were members of other towns, for instance Maryborough, Castlemaine, Bendigo and some of those midland towns which had a history not unlike Wonthaggi because of the fact that they were founded on an extractive industry which is gold. I learnt that those towns would have faced the same future as Wonthaggi if they had allowed it to happen. And progressively minded people determined that it wouldn't happen. And I remember talking with one former mayor of Maryborough and he said your town is now at the same stage as Maryborough was years ago when the gold gave out. Unless the people did something that town would probably just fade away. They said we determined that it wouldn't and we formed a committee and we determined that the town's people would assist and so this committee then set about interesting industries in Melbourne who were not able to expand because of lack of finance, they determined that they would invite them to come to Maryborough and they would get them free land and free water rates and all sorts of concessions that would encourage them to come to settle in Maryborough. And probably the most important one would be Patience and Nicholson, that's a firm that was then a backyard firm and they invited them to come. And Patience and Nicholson started off in Maryborough and they expanded and well, I'm not sure now what the amount of capital involved then, but it's pretty significant, or was. And I felt that Wonthaggi could do the same. And so we formed this committee, of local people, of business people and interested citizens and then we set about getting people interested in the town. When I became the state secretary of the Victorian De-centralisation League, well then that opened up to me doors that were closed before, it gave me access into the State Development Division of the Premiers Department and I was able to meet officers there who were interested in developing country areas. Two people in particular I think of, one was a gentleman named Phil Hedger and another gentleman called, his name was Elliot Kullford who was the officer in charge of the State Development Division. And they had an interest in Wonthaggi, a personal one and through these officers and working with them we were able to attract industries to the town, notably Smith and Nephew, they were a Belgium firm located in Blackburn who wanted to expand. And so contact was made with them and as a result there were two of their directors, Mr Best was one anyway they, they came up and we met them and as a result the company was formed in Wonthaggi and Smith and Nephew then became a viable operation in Wonthaggi. In that capacity the Government was prepared to allow them to get to obtain land, crown land which was available, so that was made available to them over where they are now. And they've never looked back. After a while Smith and Nephew apparently made an offer and took over the (Then ?) company, the Wonthaggi cotton mill, which was a good thing because they had lots of capital and they were able to expand and so now it's quite a large industry. And then on another occasion Mr. Donohue was interested in expanding his business, but he didn't have land and so we went down to the Department again and made representation and we were able to secure land for him out on the Cape Road and then as a result from that, Colden Homes, they developed. And for each of these there was a pattern in other areas, in Stall for instance there was a viable industry like Colden's and my view was that if country areas like Stall, like Maryborough and Wangarratta were able to sort of by self effort sort of stabilize themselves, why shouldn't we in Wonthaggi. And so that was how we set about getting these industries. And with the close as the mine was winding down, well these gradually took the position of the mine.

Q So you think it was successful generally?

Oh yes, when one looks around the town now obviously it was a successful venture. Probably one of the most significant ones would be the Cyclone Forging Company which was commenced early before my time on the council, when Adam Kelty, the late Adam Kelty was Mayor. This company, I'm not sure whether it was Cyclone Forging or a Mr.Millar, anyway they were interested in Wonthaggi and so when they came, 18 shaft buildings were available and cement could be obtained from Tasmania when it was in short supply because of wartime restrictions and by very, very keen oversight and co-operation between the town and the Department, well then cement, the fishermen I think from San Remo were able to bring cement from Tasmania. Buildings at 18 shaft were made available and they were the first buildings that were set up with Cyclone Forgings, I think it was Millar Cyclone then and from then on it has expanded. Mr.Warner, Sir Arthur Warner, considered with the type of labour available at Wonthaggi that that type of industry would do well to replace the mine. And so he was favourably disposed to it coming here. Danny Carr, Danny Carr's another one that, Danny was one of the senior operators in the workshops and he also was interested in establishing his own business when the mine closed and we were able to secure land for him.

Q What were dirt fines?

Dirt fines were imposed on miners, on the contract miners if they felt coal was dirty, in other words if there was an undue concentration of stone in the coal. For instance the seams at Wonthaggi were broken in areas sometimes there'd be a small band of dirt or stone and there might be another smaller seam of coal and so on. And when the miners used the explosives to win the coal, after they fired their shots they would go back into the working place into the coal face and all this coal and stone and splint would all be mixed together. And unless they separated the stone from the coal they would be fined, the dirt fines we were talking about in other words if they didn't take the time to clean out that stone as the coal was passed over the screens on the surface the splint, the people who were picking the splint and the impurities out of the coal would see that this coal, there was an undue concentration of impurities and would stop the screen and take the number of the skip and then they would pick the splint out of this area of the screens and it would be weighed and fines were imposed for every 100 pounds, I think it was of splint or stone that was in the coal.

Q. Was it fair to the miners?

Well, I don't think it was fair to the miners considering the harsh conditions that they had to work under, when you realise that they only had very small lights and they were working, lying on their sides a lot of the time or kneeling down, so it was pretty difficult to get the coal clean. On the other hand you can imagine the attitude of the owners, marketing coal that wasn't pure coal. So I guess it was one of these things that was a division of opinion about it and the miners felt unjustly penalised and the owners felt that it was a necessary measure. That was because of the contract system because miners were paid according to the tonnage of coal that they filled. So it goes without saying that if they could fill, keep on filling coal and not spend time cleaning the stone out of it they would obviously be able to send out more tonnage and they would earn more money.

Q What was it like to be a miner at Wonthaggi?

Well, conditions varied from mine to mine, some mines were hot, dusty, temperatures very high, there was often a high degree of humidity which made things very uncomfortable for the men to work in. And then others of course were, such as Western Area, conditions were very wet, low seams and that made conditions very uncomfortable, men would be lying in on their sides winning coal and water would be dropping from the roof. Wheelers would be wheeling these skips along the tunnels and often walking in water, the horses were used to wheel the skips and as the horse were pulling the skips they'd splash the mud and dirt up and so it could be very uncomfortable for the operator or the wheelers. I've seen men working almost nude in some areas because of the high humidity which is sometimes close to 100 percent very often 90 degrees Fahrenheit. So that meant that when men were working hard and sweating that the sweat was not absorbed, it would just stay on your body and it made it very uncomfortable to wear even a singlet. When you consider that some of those men were working over a 1000 feet from the surface and in access of a couple of miles from the entrance to the mine, conditions were not really very pleasant at all, in that respect.

Q Was gas a problem in the mine?

Yes in some mines, not so much in others, I guess when you speak of gas you naturally think of 20 shaft where the major disaster took place and as I said before I worked in that mine previous to the explosion and it was not uncommon to go to some of the working places where the men were working and after firing a shot, you could go into their bord or coal face and if there was a cavity up in the roof or a recess, gas sometimes would have accumulated in that, and when the miners went back with their lights, that gas would be ignited and it would just sort of burn momentarily and then just go out and men just thought oh well that's part of the scene. In other places in what were a dip bord or a stone drive where there was, perhaps after a weekend when there was an accumulation of water in the bord or in the end of the drive, it was not uncommon to see bubbles of gas coming up through the water just dissipating into the air, of course that was, as long as the fans were running well then it was considered an acceptable level of gas to be present as long as it was taken away and not allowed to accumulate in any great degree. Of course the ever present fear of explosion as there is where there's gas, and when you got an accumulation of gas and if it is set off as obviously it was set off in 20 shaft, you not only have a gas explosion, but you have all the dust that has settled in all the surrounding area of the mine, which is all lying inert, but as soon as you have a gas explosion the air is distributed and the dust, the coal dust is raised and it becomes then an explosive mixture. You have gas and coal dust which creates the major type of explosion as in 20 shaft as I understand it. So I guess if you said is gas present? Well it was in some mines, other mines were considered safe, Western Area was not, as far as I know, was not considered to be a gassy mine, although there would be gas present in minimal quantities. Of course the purpose of the examiners was to go into the working places and detect, with their lamps, they would detect whether there was gas present and measure.

Q What was your role in the 34 strike?

Ah, 34, I was, I said I started at the mine in 1928 so at that time I was a clipper, I was working as a clipper, which, I was working with the skips clipping them on and clipping them off on the haulage's. I wasn't involved in anything further at that stage. So that was quite early in my experience of the working at the mine. It was a pretty trying time for most people, it was a time when conditions were bad for working in so far as the miners were concerned and there was a general air of discontent, I suppose you could say with the conditions that were operating, naturally the men working in the mine were trying to create a better atmosphere for themselves and for everybody concerned. That couldn't be done easily, there was usually confrontation between the men and the management to get better conditions. And so, that time was a difficult time for everybody concerned, in 1934 you're talking about?

Q What do you remember about Wonthaggi?

Well, as I said I came to Australia in 1924 which was the beginning of the Depression and from then on it was not uncommon for people who wanted work to not be able to find it in the place they were living, so they would then, to use the popular term "hump the bluey" which was carry the swag and move around in different country areas looking for work and so on which was not easy. And you asked me before about the 1930, 31, I think it was about clippers about being put off. Well when I turned 21 I was dismissed, or dismissed from the mine because there was no further work for us at 21 years of age because we were then eligible for an adult wage. And so at that time there was great concern in the mine because of that aspect of it and so it meant that those of us who were working in the mine as clippers and who had become 21 years of age and entitled to move on to a higher wage. Well there was just no work for us, so the clippers were then put off and well there was no work for them. That's what happened with me at 21 so I went to look around for work and when I couldn't find work here, then I went and applied for a, what was the dole or sustenance or so it was known then. And because my father was working I was not even eligible for that, for the dole, or for sustenance, so I then moved on down to Melbourne and looked for work there. And it was not uncommon to see long queues of men in different areas waiting to get a job particularly in areas where sewage was being installed. You'd see queues of men with their shovels and picks waiting to get a job, they were pretty difficult times.

Q How did the Depression affect Wonthaggi?

Well, I guess Wonthaggi was no different to most other mining communities. There seems there was a feeling of closeness in a mining community and if one person is victimized in one way or another the tendency seems to be to protect and protect means withholding labour and that ultimately leads to a strike, or a stop work meeting or whatever. And that invariably is the reaction in most mining communities to the harsh and hazardous working conditions that miners in those days were asked to work in. As far as Wonthaggi was concerned well, my understanding of it is that the first manager Mr. Broome was a very compassionate man and very few miners, to my knowledge ever had any adverse comments to make about Mr.Broome. But when he died, I think it was 1932, well he died and then the mine manager took over, Mr.McLeish, he was a totally different person. And it seemed that his way of managing the mine was one of confrontation with the men, instead of co-operation. And as I recall it there were very few miners or mine workers who, who really thought highly of Mr.McLeish as a person. I don't know how you could, how you could compare him with previous managers as far as efficiency was concerned, and I think that he was a very efficient manager and he just displayed that efficiency by a rather ruthless application of conditions. In other words, the cheaper he could get the coal produced, well as he saw it, the more viable the mine would be. And I guess that he could see the economical situation of the mine and I think, well we who worked in the mine didn't realise all that was involved in the operation, he could see that it was, I suppose his idea was that if he could produce coal as cheaply as possible then he was being an efficient manager. And that meant often imposing measures that reduced the rewards that were available to the miners, such as breaking down conditions, reducing wages and so on. So I guess that because of the broken nature of the seams and so on, and the harsh conditions that men were working in Wonthaggi, there was always that confrontation. And Also I would imagine that because Wonthaggi was producing coal mainly for the Victorian Railways, that was the purpose for which it was opened up, as long as the Railways were kept supplied and had an adequate supply, well then everything was all right. And to keep the mines operating fully would have meant that there was more than an adequate supply of coal so I imagine that possibly that aspect of it was important. I can remember whether true or false, I'm just not sure but it was always assumed that when the wheat harvest was due to be brought in the autumn and the Victorian Railways had to bring the wheat in, well there weren't sufficient trucks to keep the mine operating and producing and taking coal away, and also bringing in the wheat harvests. So it was usual to expect that during the wheat harvest there'd been some kind of dispute, that some kind of a dispute would take place which would cause a stoppage at the mine, while the harvest was brought in and then that would be resolved and things would go back to normal again. So, I think that the conditions then and the stoppages were all part of the scene, or part of Wonthaggi's existence, put it that way. I'm not sure whether that's, that would be my opinion about that.

Q What was it like at the bottom of 20 shaft after the explosion?

Well, after the explosion it was much more unpleasant to move around and work in the mine because of the stone dust that was then used. Previous to the explosion coal dust or stone dust wasn't used in the mine and so if we were working in the mine, say wheeling or clipping or moving around in and if you touched anything there would be just a cloud of this stone dust come down and you would be, you know it would be caked around your mouth or in your nostrils. And so that, that in itself meant that conditions were very unpleasant to work in because the dust was really taken down in big bags and then it was blown everywhere, it was sprayed all around with this air and so it was lodged everywhere. Of course the purpose of that was to, so that it would mix with the coal dust and render the whole thing, render it, the coal dust inert, so that it wouldn't cause an explosion. Then there was a lot of rehabilitation work to be done where timber had been blown out and so on. There were lots of falls, it took quite a while to bring the mine back into production again. Then, it was the fact that after it was a safety, electric lamps were introduced and that in turn produced another hazard because the mine, the lamps were, they had an electrical lighting of I think it was an alkaline and quite often that would leak and you'd often get, you wouldn't realise the lamp was leaking, but then it would maybe a day or so later, lots of the men had rather extensive burns, Alkaline burns to put up with.

Q Was there a unique spirit in Wonthaggi?

Yes, I think that there, as I said before, a mining community is usually a closely knit one and while there was the inevitable domestic arguments, you know of personalities, there was one maybe that are present in any workforce. As soon as any one person was victimized or unjustly dealt with by the mine management, well, all the others would rally around and support them and they would say if, well if you sack one, you sack the lot, sort of, and that of course often led to threaten stoppages. And I think that was reflected in the attitude of the town itself. There was a general air of friendship of one another and also I would imagine that people visiting the town would sense that and find that it was a quite a friendly town, coming to visit it.

END OF INTERVIEW
Date: September 1988