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  Issue No 21 Official Organ of LaborNet 09 July 1999  

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History

A Rich Vein in the Rock

By Erik Eklund - History Department, University of Newcastle

Every mine, like a human being, has its life. Mount Morgan and Queenstown between 1880 and 1930.

Introduction

The development of the labour movement in the mining and industrial towns of Australia is an area of increasing interest and research for Australian labour historians. We are only just beginning to discover the way in which the experiences of workers at local or regional level relates to labour history at a national level. This paper focuses on two mining towns, Mount Morgan in Central Queensland and Queenstown near the west coast of Tasmania, and it considers the development of the labour movement in the unique conditions that characterised the two isolated mining fields. It represents a small part of an ongoing research project that looks at a range of themes in the history of these communities and others throughout Australia, including Port Kembla, and Port Pirie.

Mount Morgan

Mount Morgan was a single industry town. Its existence was dependent on the existence of the mine. The great Mount Morgan ore body was first worked on a commercial basis in 1883. In its early years the mine was primarily worked for its gold content. By 1886 a town had been surveyed, and the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company formally registered. By 1891 the population had increased to 3,514, and the mine continued to return fabulous profits to its original syndicate members.

The town's prosperity peaked in the late 1900s when the mine and its smelters, which were increasingly focusing on copper rather than gold, supported a population of 12,500. But the 1911 census recorded a population of only 9,772 after a decline in world base-metal prices. The post-war recession in the early 1920s was a further blow to the company's prospects. After the liquidation of the 'old company' in 1927 and the struggles of the new Mount Morgan Ltd to resume operations, the population dropped to a mere 3,262 by the late 1920s.

Mount Lyell - Queenstown

The Mount Lyell mine began as an open cut in the early 1880s but reverted to underground mining in 1909. In 1935 open cut mining recommenced after mining low grade ore became commercially viable, and this was the dominant mining practice by World War Two.

Mount Lyell was also worked for its gold and its copper, but in contrast to Mount Morgan, the field was initially worked by a number of different companies, the most important of which were the Mount Lyell and the North Lyell companies. As a result a vast amount of economic and social infrastructure was replicated - Queenstown had at one stage three separate railways leading to two separate ports. The valleys around Mt Lyell were dotted with smaller settlements, Crotty, Linda and Gormanston. After a period of bitter rivalry, the two major companies merged in 1903. Eventually the smaller communities disappeared. One was flooded by a new hydroelectric dam, and the others dying much slower deaths.

As at Mount Morgan some industrial development associated with the mine appeared in the form of smelters and refineries. Smelting began at Mt Lyell in 1896, and by 1915, the Reduction works employed some 750 workers.

Decline and Deindustrialisation

The future of Queenstown and Mount Morgan was tied to the geological and commercial prospects of the nearby-ore bodies. Early estimations of the future were full of optimism and confidence. Mount Morgan was the favourite topic of travellers and journalists. Likewise at Queenstown the Zeehan and Dundas Herald commented in 1896 that "The Mount Lyell has certainly become one of the foremost ventures in the mining industry of the world" (18 August 1896).

But after the initial flush of growth, and the fabulous profits delivered to some investors, the optimistic tone moderated. As the Queensland Minister for Mines put it in 1930: "Every mine, like a human being, has its life". (cited in J.Kerr, Mount Morgan: gold, copper and oil, p.183) And the economics of siting large smelting and refining plant near a mine with a definite life were not promising.

These "wasting assets" produced not only millions of tons of gold and copper bearing ore, but a range of distinctive political and social formations that tried to protect and enhance that asset, despite the widely-held view that the mine would inevitably die. In both mining towns the idea of a limited life put limits on the rhetoric of progress and growth. The uncertain future also created some distinctive political coalitions. The end of a mining field is not a matter of geology and simple economics, and local political coalitions proved as much. The life of a mine could be extended. Subsidies, tax breaks, the provision of infrastructure, incentives for further exploration, could all prolong the life of a mine. Locals of all classes came together to lobby State government over the provision of better infrastructure, or subsidies for the mine to continue production. In light of this, moderate unions with some industrial and political clout, such as the Australian Workers Union (AWU), became not only important representatives of local miners and smelter workers, but also key participants in various campaigns to keep the mines operative.

The Labour Movement

Both workplaces were dominated by the Australian Workers Union by 1917. In Queenstown the AWU evolved out of the Amalgamated Miners Associations (AMA). This highlights the role of former Victorian gold miners in the area, many of whom had crossed Bass Strait in the 1880s. From 1894 to 1917 the AWU had successfully transformed itself from a union of shearers and other pastoral workers to a general rural workers union. Amalgamations with the smaller mining industry unions was a feature of this expansion, and this occurred at both Queenstown and Mount Morgan in the period 1914 to 1917. By 1925 it was estimated that there 450 AWU members at Mt Lyell out of a total work force of 900 workers. At Mount Morgan the AWU took over from a local union the Australian Workers Association in 1913. By the 1920s at both workplaces peak bodies of workplace unions called Combined Union Councils usually consisting of the AWU, the electricians union, the engine drivers and firemen, and the carpenters had formed.

Some of this AWU dominance translated into local success for Labor candidates who were former union organisers. The Labor party in all states drew significant support from rural and regional areas, and AWU-backed candidates in these electorates were very successful. Jack Stopford, MLA for Rockhampton from 1912-35, grew up in Mt Morgan. He was a former General Workers� union organiser (a predeccessor of the AWU) and engine driver. He was dismissed by the Mount Morgan company for his union activities before becoming a member of state parliament.

One historian has argued that the labor party in Tasmania was founded in the west coast mines. Key parlimentarians such as James Odgen (MHA for Zeehan 1906-09 and later Labor senator) and James Long (senate) had backgrounds in the local mines around Queenstown. Ogden himself had been an organiser for the AMA at Zeehan. He was finally expelled from the ALP in 1925 for allegedly criticising extremists in the party. (Australian Dictionary of Biography & W.A. Townsley, Tasmania: from colony to statehood 1803-1945, 1991). These Labor parliamentarians were important in the complex and ongoing series of meetings and discussions between management, unions and governments to maintain the "wasting asset". Their overarching concern was to protect the workers� jobs and ensure some job security, but often this involved protecting the interests (and profits) of mining companies.

At the same time we shouldn't underestimate the AWU rank and file and we shouldn't mistake the bureaucratic and machine-based juggernaut of the AWU, for the activism and militancy of some AWU members. This is the perspective that detailed local studies can offer. Branch members had to be occasionally reminded of the moderate, arbitrationist policies of the union. Often in the face of harsh economic conditions and political radicalism some branches rebelled and led "unofficial" strike action.

In Queenstown in 1911 strike action over the eight hour day was threatening enough for the company to request that staff be enrolled as special constables to protect company property, and that police protect the homes of staff in the township.

There were also significant industrial disturbances in both towns in the 1920s. This was a difficult decade for the mining and related processing industries. Base metal prices, never that buoyant after the Great War, had declined further from 1925. In 1922 a major downturn was experienced across the country. Workers in Queenstown and in Mount Morgan were faced with the prospect of a 20% wages cut, an idea proposed by both companies in light of overseas experience, and declining returns for processed material.

In December 1920 the Mt Morgan Company applied to have all industrial awards covering 1200 employees suspended, and also sought a 20% reduction in pay. (Daily Mail, 13/4/1921) A long industrial dispute ensued. Finally it was through Government intervention of an offer to reduce freight rates that the Mine reopened in March 1922, after almost a whole year of shut down. Local labor politicians and union officials brokered agreements not only in the interests of members' jobs, but also out of concern to stave off violence and direct action. Again in 1924 a dispute over wages and safety culminated in a strike and a picket at the mine. At subsequent meetings AWU officials were criticised and a vote of no confidence was passed in the state secretary, W. Dunstan (Kerr, p.177). Again Stopford stepped in to smooth relations between unions and management, but not before workers had marched on the mine, rejected the company staff and taken over. According to Stopford's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography he worked to "quell extremists within the local labour movement".

So in the 1920s we see both faces of the AWU at work in the two towns. AWU officials and AWU-backed labor parliamentarians worked to arbitrate and negotiate industrial conflicts between management and workers. At the same time AWU members were more interested in direct action, and sometimes were dissatisfied with their union representatives. The dilemma that union officials and Labor parliamentarians found themselves in was a difficult one. There was a widespread understanding that mining fields close; that they have a finite life. This meant that a range of bargains and compromises had to be struck with mining companies to keep them running if jobs were to be saved. At the workplace, however, workers, not only wanted continuing employment, they wanted wage justice as well. The tension between rank and file demands and union officials was played out in these two towns in the crucial context of this wasting asset.

This is a sumary of a Paper presented to the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History - 10th May 1999.


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The ACTU's Organising guru looks at the lessons to be learned from the recent dispute.
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*  History: A Rich Vein in the Rock
Every mine, like a human being, has its life. Mount Morgan and Queenstown between 1880 and 1930.
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*  International: Jailed Unionist Freed
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*  Review: Ten (More) Steps to Revolution
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*  Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
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