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Book Review
| P.D. Gardner, A Gippsland Union: the Victorian Coal Miners Association 1893–1915, Ngarak Press, Ensay, Vic., 2003, pp ix + 178. $32.00, paper
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| Peter Gardner's work is well known to Gippsland historians. Gardner lives at Ensay in the mountains of East Gippsland and has pioneered research on Gippsland's massacre history with books such as Gippsland Massacres (1983) and Our Founding Murdering Father (1987). He has also published on aspects of Gippsland's union history. His latest book, which focuses on the formation of the Victorian Coal Miners Association in South Gippsland and the epic 70 week strike it conducted, shows that Gardner deserves a national audience rather than simply a regional one. The events that took place at the small black coal mines in the South Gippsland hills contribute to an understanding of Australian union history and provide compelling insights to working lives and mining communities. |
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In the early part of the book, Gardner establishes how small locality-based unions developed at isolated coal mines such as Coal Creek near Korumburra and at Outtrim and Jumbunna. Miners battled dangerous working conditions, poor pay, unscrupulous mining companies, management disputes over cavilling, and victimisation. Still retaining their local organisations, the unions combined to form the Victorian Coal Miners Association (VCMA) in 1896 and began to experience the benefits of federating. This section of Gardner's book is the least accessible. There is no map to show where the places are located and even South Gippslanders would have trouble finding some of them. In establishing the context to his history, Gardner uses a plethora of subheadings that tend to interrupt the flow of the narrative and divide the text into chunks of information at the expense of a cohesive discussion. |
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But persevere, because the narrative gains pace as it outlines the events that lead up to the devastating 70 week strike that began in 1903. Gardner documents an employer conspiracy fought through the courts in an effort to defeat the union, a 'riot', victimisation, and a coordinated plan by the mining companies to reduce the hewing rates, something the author considers a 'pro-active move'. The companies offered new contracts that reduced the rate of pay. The miners found the terms unacceptable but the companies insisted they were not negotiable. |
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So was it a strike or a lock-out? According to management, it was a strike. According to the unions it was a lock-out because they had not precipitated the situation by downing tools and walking off the job. Gardner uses both terms and notes that over the years in South Gippsland, the dispute has become known as the 'great strike'. |
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Gardner gives us an insight to the atmosphere, events and tensions in Outtrim and Jumbunna over the next 17 months: the arrival of the scab train with 'free labourers' on board, the arrest of miners' wives, arson, assaults and even the drawing of guns. He analyses press coverage, VCMA tactics and the vital support of the New South Wales unions. He discusses why the strike was called off in May 1904 and documents the bitter aftermath as all the gains the union had secured for the miners were lost, and the union itself was disbanded. Striking miners were not re-employed and poverty-stricken families left the area. |
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The VCMA reformed in 1907 and Gardner traces its radical legacy and impact elsewhere. Members left for other coal fields in Australia and New Zealand and some became influential union organisers and politicians, such as Arthur Wilson in Western Australia. And the union was revitalised with the establishment of the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi in 1910, an enterprise that ushered in a new phase in Victoria's black coal mining industry. From the isolated South Gippsland hills, the striking miners had a national impact. |
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Throughout the book, Gardner has included an impressive and evocative pictorial documentation of the mines at Outtrim and Jumbunna, their communities and the 'great strike'. There are photographs of mines and miners, streetscapes, picketers and the arrival of the scab train. Dressed in suits, union members pose in nearby mountain ash forest, surrounded by tree ferns. I couldn't help thinking that the events at Outtrim and Jumbunna could make a great documentary, drawing on Gardner's research and the photographic record. Gardner's work deserves a wide and diverse audience. |
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| Monash University |
MEREDITH FLETCHER | |
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