Review

Tailing Out

By Steve Wilson - Arts Organiser,Workers Cultural Action Committee Inc.

When BHP left Newcastle steelworks, it also left a rich working culture. A ground-breaking project is now honouring what has been lost.

'BHP announces closure of Australia's oldest Steelworks by 1999 ... All steel production to stop, retaining only rod and bar plant. More than 2,000 jobs to go, plus 1,000 jobs amongst contractors ... Premier Bob Carr calls it tragic and brands it a 'boardroom betrayal of working-class Australia.' ... AWU promises war over Newcastle ... BHP shares rise by 48.5� to $17.86 ...'

These were the headlines on and shortly after 29 April 1997, the day that BHP announced its decision to end steelmaking in Newcastle. The immediate effects of the decision were very dramatic - workers walked off the job, a large stop-work meeting was held, the Today Show from Channel Nine broadcast from Newcastle the following day, even Sixty Minutes ran a story about the decision - but since the decision little has been heard of the workers or how they're coping with the closure as it draws nearer (ie. September 30, 1999). That is, till now. The Workers Cultural Action Committee (WCAC) is about to release the results of the Molten Arts Project - an arts project with the employees of the Newcastle Steelworks recording and celebrating their working lives.

For example, over the past nine months PP Cranney, a writer, has been working with employees to gather their stories about working at the Steelworks.

'The Committee felt it was important to give the workers an opportunity to tell their side of the story', said Cranney. 'Through the interviews and writing workshops people have been telling us some interesting tales about how it used to be in the old days, funny stories and the accidents that have happened'.

When you were ready to hose the ash pit in, you'd wait till you'd get the blokes you didn't like on the other side and you'd squirt it through and it'd blow shit all over him. - Tom Lutton, Rail Traffic

Everybody grew stuff and everybody brought it in. We used to have a big biscuit tin and you'd go and get a biscuit and you'd have a cup of tea and lemons ... Nobody drank coffee. It was always tea. - Ernie Kembrey, Bar Mill

Everything was exploding, the whole building was shaking. The flames were shooting, tremendous, you know. $15,000,000 damage done - Adam Niewidok, Bloomcaster

The WCAC also employed a photographer, James Campbell, to co-ordinate a photography workshop for employees. Over 100 disposable cameras have been distributed. 'We've asked workers to take photographs of what's important to them about this place. For the keener photographers we've given them black and white film and shown them how to process and print their own photographs' said Campbell. 'They haven't had great gear or the knowledge to get the greatest photographs of steel making but what they do have is an amazing perspective. You look at some of the shots and think where did they take that from? How the hell did they find that angle?'

The pictures and stories will be edited and compiled into a publication titled Tailing Out - BHP Workers talk about Life, Steelmaking and the Newcastle Closure due to be released in June 1999.

The interviews, prose and poetry in Tailing Out were recorded and written between May and November 1998: roughly halfway between 'the Announcement' and 'the Closure'. The book as such is a freeze-frame, a snapshot, in the words and images of the people who work there, of a workplace - a community - in transition.

I can remember as a young apprentice ... one of the bosses come down and he asked me why had I done something ... and I said, 'I've used my initiative.' And he said, 'Well, don't you ever do that again.' That stayed with for some years - Steve Skelton, Fluid Power

A lot of people looked at me and said, 'You're going to the Coke Ovens? What did you do wrong?' - John McBride, Coke Ovens

You were so close to hell you'd know where it was - Ernie Kembrey, Bar Mill

Another project undertaken by the WCAC has been the design and installation of a public sculpture honoring the men and women who have worked at BHP. Shaped like an industrial shed, the sculpture is designed for people to walk through and around it. The interior - containing components from the plant - will use key images to prompt memories of the place and the people.

'It's about the work experience of the people here and the culture that such a large industrial place creates', said sculptor Julie Squires. 'Once the steelworks is gone people will be able to bring their families to the sculpture and point out the references to where they used to work. It's trying to capture a sense of what it was like to work here '

The 50-tonne, 8-metre high sculpture will be located along Industrial Drive near the main entrance to the old side of the Steelworks. The sculpture should be completed by June 1999.

In August this year the WCAC will enhance these projects through a performance to be held on-site at the Steelworks.

These projects have been funded through a grant from the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and additional funding support from BHP Rod, Bar and Wire, the Australian Workers Union, Newcastle Trades Hall Council, the CEPU (Electrical Div) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. BHP Port Kembla, Tubemakers, Robert Carr & Assoc., BHPE, and various departments within the Newcastle Steelworks have provided additional in-kind support.

I often sit here at night ... when it's quiet and the phone's not ringing; I can still see these blokes. I can look at the crane - you might think this is stupid - and I can still see Spencer Lane's face. I can still see old Jimmy Stoker, and old Teddy Harrison ... All them blokes. And it's all gone. - Aub Brooks, Wagon & Rail

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  Issue 9 contents

»	Public Speaks: We Are Not Monsters!
»	Qantas to Dump Aussie Accents
»	Carr�s Faction Call Music to Costa�s Ears
»	But Thumbs Down to Small Business Labor...
»	Blow for Reith's Anti-Unionism
»	Un-Reconstructed Unionists on Study Tour
»	Unionists to Celebrate May Day
»	Tanner to Bragg with Billy

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Social Audit: Where's the Left?
»	Piers, Piers, Piers
»	Conspiracy of Silence?
»	Y2K plus VCR Equals SCAM

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