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    Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story
    Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story
    Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story

    By Colin Archbold

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    About this ebook

    In his life as a miner, Colin Archbold has seen many changes below ground in the coalmining industry. In his memoirs he describes the mines where he worked; the techniques, the unions, the bosses and the disasters.
    He gives an insight into the mining community of Kurri Kurri, Australia where he grew up and the mining communities where he raised his family. He believes we will never again see whole towns like Kurri Kurri, Weston, Abermain, and Cessnock where all the people were involved with local mines. The old days of people watering their gardens and talking about their day at the pit will never come again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHightor
    Release dateAug 14, 2011
    ISBN9781921124457
    Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story
    Author

    Colin Archbold

    Colin Archbold has spent most of his life in the mining industry. He was challenged to write about his life at a creative writing group held at his local church where he is an active member. He is devoted to his wife Joan and they have a son and two daughters who have given them eight wonderful grandchildren.

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      Book preview

      Above and Below- A Coalminer's Story - Colin Archbold

      ABOVE AND BELOW

      A COALMINERS’S STORY

      COLIN ARCHBOLD

      PUBLISHED BY HIGHTOR AT SMASHWORDS

      All rights reserved. No reproduction of this book in whole or in part in any form may be made without the written authorization of the copyright owner.

      Copyright 2011 Colin Archbold

      ISBN 978-1-921124-45-7

      Smashwords Edition License Notes.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Cover by Bill Bottomley

      .

      BLACK

      BLACK HANDS

      GREASE AND GRIMY STEEL

      DIRT UNDER MY NAILS

      DARK NIGHT

      MAGNIFICENT SKY

      BLACK SKY

      UNDERGROUND

      BLACKNESS

      COMPLETE

      ALL AROUND

      ****

      CHAPTER 1- THE MINING TOWN OF KURRI KURRI

      Kurri Kurri is a small town in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It was founded in1902 to service the local Stanford Merthyr and Pelaw Main collieries and mining communities.

      The town had two mines close by - Pelaw Main and Richmond Main..

      The Pelaw Main Colliery near Singleton, operated between 1901 and 1961 and took coal from the Homeville seam.

      The establishment of this mine led to a dramatic increase in the population of Kurri Kurri.

      When I was a child Kurri Kurri was a totally mining town.

      Kurri’s name was given to it by District Surveyor T. Smith and comes from the Awabakal language which means ‘Hurry up." As Kurri was the very first designed town in Australia a misunderstanding about the name has arisen. The sign on entering the town says ‘Kurri Kurri, The very first.’

      I lived in Lang Street, Kurri Kurri. The many murals that grace buildings around the town show early life in the town. Kurri was a mining town and the miners played an important part in it.

      Rothbury Riots

      The town has changed from what it was in the late thirties and early forties. Now it is a town of murals.

      The murals are amazing, giving an insight into the many different activities that lay behind the developed of the town.

      As my family tradition was in mining, I was drawn to the mural on the Rothbury Riots.

      The Rothbury Riots mural shows the relationship existing between miners. Mining is a dangerous occupation. As well as the dangers of moving machinery there is also the dangers of roof falls, deadly gases and isolation from medical assistance when required. So miners look after each other to make sure that their mate is safe.

      My father was working at Pelaw Main at this time. He was not involved but the whole town of Kurri as well as Weston, Abermain and Cessnock were.

      Miners in 1916 had set up their own union called The Miners Federation with the intention of getting the best return, financial reward and conditions of work for their labour. With the collapse of the world economy in 1929, the great depression set in. Because there was a world glut of coal, the mine owners Charles McDonald and John (Baron) Brown decided to attack working conditions.

      They demanded a cut of twelve and a half percent in wages as well as reduced times. The union refused this demand so the employers imposed a ‘lockout’. Even though this was against the law they locked all the entry gates to the mines. Their idea was to starve the miners into submission and so accept their conditions. Little did they know that by taking on the miners they were taking on their families and in fact the whole town. The businesses in Kurri Kurri, Weston, Abermain and Cessnock relied on the miners to buy their goods. There were many times grocers, butchers and green- grocers would carry families through difficult times knowing that they would be paid in the long run.

      So began the downward spiral that led to the Rothbury Riots.

      Mine owners, with the support of the Brown State Government, decided to bring in scab workers to Rothbury. Advertisements went in the local paper calling for volunteer in the mines. Scab workers were non-union workers who were brought to do the work miners had previously done. The first mine intended to be operated by volunteers was Rothbury Colliery at Branxton.

      When the miners found out about this four thousand of them led by the local pipe band decided to march to Rothbury to stop this from happening. The state government brought in four hundred armed police to ensure passage for the ‘scabs’. So the scene for the Rothbury Riots was set.

      The mural shows what happened that day in December, 1929. One can see the anger on the faces of the thousands of miners who marched. With he buildings of Rothbury Colliery in the background, miners lie on the ground, blood pouring from wounds, which had been inflicted by the police using large batons. One miner lies dead in his mate’s arms on the ground, shot by a police officer. Many were shot by the indiscriminate use of guns. Records show that over forty miners were injured that day. The State Government defended itself saying that some miners carried guns. None were ever found. The miners were fighting for their jobs and a fair days wage for a fair days work.

      In September 1929 the State Government had passed a bill against unlawful assemblies. They determined the Rothbury March was one.

      Years later a court decided that the miners had died participating in an illegal assembly. In March 1930 workers returned to work with reduced wages but held onto their other conditions.

      I would recommend visitors to Kurri Kurri not miss this mural as it helps to understand that part of mining history and is a reflection of the working miner, the fighting spirit and the need to keep communities together which still exists today.

      ****

      CHAPTER 2- THE MINING TRADITION

      My family has a tradition in mining. My grandfather worked in the mines in Durham. England, and then after a short stay in Bendigo Victoria, found work in the Hunter Valley.

      When I was born in 1927 my father worked at Pelaw Main. My father worked in the Pelaw Main until he retired from the mine in 1939. Two of my brothers worked there during the war and two others joined them after the war.

      In the beginning my family were all miners and I was the odd one out. After I left school I didn’t want to do that job. I did my apprenticeship as a boiler maker but when I was twenty two years old I went to work at Elrington colliery. So I continued in the family tradition.

      My grandfather, Arrowsmith Archbold, was born in England in the county of Durham on the 13th September, 1835. Durham was a leading mining area in the very early years around 1200 A.D., mining being one of the country’s leading activities. The coal mining industry became a reality in the 1500`s and five hundred new pits were sunk between 1800 to1900. I believe this is where the family tradition of mining started. Mining in Durham ceased towards the late 1900’s. By this time my grandfather had left for other shores.

      In the middle of the 1800`s Arrowsmith in the company of his older brother John boarded the Sir William Eyre and sailed for the new colony of Victoria. On arriving there in July 1857, they found work in the goldfields around Bendigo. After five years in that area an unfortunate accident took John’s life. John died when the windlass rope unwound causing the cage he was in to fall down a one hundred and fifty foot shaft. A coroner’s inquiry was held and Arrowsmith was a witness.

      Sometime after John’s death, Arrowsmith left the area and turned up in New Lambton, N.S.W. Being an experienced miner he soon found work. Arrowsmith met and married Elizabeth Gardham who was ten years younger than him. They were married on the 29th January, 1876 – it was Elizabeth`s second marriage. They had one daughter and four sons. One of the sons was my father, Thomas. Two of his brothers died in infancy.

      My father Thomas was born on 9th April, 1878, and when he was seventeen years old his father (my grandfather) Arrowsmith died. Arrowsmith’s wife Elizabeth ( my grandmother) died three years later. They are both buried in a single grave in the old part of Sandgate cemetery.

      My father met my mother Rebecca Olive Clothier at New Lambton and they were married on 17th April, 1907. That marriage produced seven children, two daughters and five sons, of which I am the youngest. My mother Rebecca Olive died in 1937 from kidney failure. I was just 10 years old at that time.

      My father retired in 1939 on the Mineworker’s Pension Scheme. He was one of the first recipients of that scheme.

      At one time after the war in 1945, my four brothers worked at Pelaw Main Colliery.

      Pelaw Main Colliery never had any mechanised mining. It was always hand mined. The coal on reaching the surface was fed into

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