Australasian Coal and
Shale Employees’ Federation (more commonly known as the Miners’
Federation) records were first deposited at the Archives of Business
& Labour in 1959 and 1960 at the instigation of ANU historian,
Robin Gollan, who was working on his history of coalminers in New
South Wales, 1860-1960. Gollan also made arrangements for a variety
of records of the Illawarra Miners to be lodged at the Archives.
To these he later added some of his own research material on miners'
compensation and pension schemes, and other matters. After Edgar
Ross completed his History of the Miners' Federation of Australia
in 1969, the Central Council of the Federation adopted his recommendation
that the Federation's records be lodged at the Australian National
University.
Coal mine, 1947. E165/56/279 (K2696)
The resulting deposit
(E165) consists of Miners' Federation records, which Ross had collected
for his research on its history. The major part of the deposit was
transferred from Ross's home to the Archives in 1969 and a second
batch was picked up from the office of Common Cause, the
Federation's journal, in 1971. The deposit holds records of the
Central Council, and of the Southern, Northern, Western, Queensland
and Tasmanian Districts of the Federation and their predecessors.
The Australian Coal
and Shale Employees' Federation was formed in 1915 by the New South
Wales, Queensland, Victorian and Tasmanian coalminers’ unions.
In 1917, the metalliferous miners in Broken Hill joined the Federation.
Deposit E165 includes Central Council minutes 1917-1929. The rest
of the Central Council records in the deposit are a selection of
discrete documents, files and printed material.
A collection of about
300 photographs and 40 cartoons from the records of Common Cause
forms part of deposit E165. The photographs cover a broad subject
range and cover the period from 1885-1968. The cartoons drawn from
Common Cause in the late 1940s and 1950s range from the dark
expressionist drawings by Herbert McClintock and D. Carson to the
humorous sketches of Toby Jackson and C.B. Arnott. A poster by A.J.
Duffy, a painter and docker and former Newcastle miner, celebrates
the Eureka centenary
The Western District
records include minutes of the Lithgow Miners' Mutual Protective
Association, originally formed as the Lily of the Vale Lodge in
1878 by miners of the Vale of Clywdd Colliery, dissolved in 1881
and reorganised in 1886. Intermittent minutes of several other Western
District lodges are also held. Only loose copies of the minutes
of the Western Delegates' Board 1906-1907, 1927-34, are held, together
with minute books of the Delegate Board of Management, 1944-1947.
The only substantial records of the Northern District held by the
Archives are a series of massive volumes of cuttings from the Newcastle
Morning Herald, 1893-98, 1903-13. A copy of A. McLagan's seminal
history of the Northern District is also held.
Miners' Federation records
held at the Archives of Business & Labour should be used in
conjunction with Branch and Lodge records in regional Archives.
Northern Lodge records are held at the University of Newcastle Archives,
and one minute book (1914-1923) of the Northern District Branch
is held at the Newcastle Region Public Library. Illawarra Miners'
records at the Archives of Business & Labour complement Southern
District Branch Minutes and correspondence, as well as extensive
records of Southern Lodges, held at the University of Wollongong
Archives.
The Archives of Business
& Labour does not hold records of the earliest south coast miners'
union. Ross refers to a "useful diary" left by J. Wynn,
who was a "driving force" in the formation of the Illawarra
Miners' Mutual Protective Association in 1878/79, but he did not
deposit it. The Illawarra Association was dissolved in 1887 and
re-formed a year later as the Illawarra Colliery Employees' Association.
In June 1890 it affiliated with the Amalgamated Miners' Association,
along with the Newcastle and Lithgow unions, becoming the Illawarra
Branch, No.2 Colonial District of the Amalgamated Miners' Association.
The link with the Amalgamated Miners Association appears to have
broken in 1895 and in July the Illawarra Association affiliated
with the Australian Labor Federation.
The Illawarra miners'
records reflect the union's affiliations in items such as the minute
book of the Illawarra Council of the Australian Labor Federation,
1898-1904. This deposit (T3) includes minutes, financial and membership
records 1890-1914, and letter-books 1896-1907. An unusual record
type is the series of miners' earning books which give daily tallies
of individuals and overall pit production and payments in several
south coast collieries 1902-29.
Minutes of the Balmain
(1904-11), Mt. Pleasant (1902-23) and Coledale (1922-27) Lodges
are also held with the Southern District Archives.
The records of the Queensland
District consist of minutes of general and Committee of Management
meetings of the West Moreton Coal Miners' Union (later the Queensland
Colliery Employees' Union) from its formation on the Ipswich coalfields
in 1896-1940. Minutes of the Trip Committees of the Queensland Colliery
Employees' Union 1907-1920 document arrangements made for the Union's
annual day-trip by train from Ipswich to Sandgate, accompanied by
a brass band, and with the prospect of sports, a banquet and dancing
at the seaside.
The Tasmanian records include minutes of the Tasmanian Coal Miners'
Association from its formation at Cullenswood by the Mt. Nicholas
and Cornwall coal miners in 1913 to 1926. Some correspondence of
the Branch and copies of its statistical returns for the same period
have also survived.
Minutes of the Victorian
and Tasmanian District Committee, 1913-31, are held in the records
of the Powlett River (Wonthaggi Branch) of the Federation collected
on Edgar Ross's advice when the Branch office was closed in 1971.
The deposit (E164) also includes minutes of branch general and committee
meetings 1911-48 and of meetings of Combined Unions of Carpenters,
Engineers, Engine Drivers and Miners 1917-48 (with gaps).
Peripheral records include
correspondence with the State Coal Mine 1914-60, record books of
complaints, check-inspectors' reports and reports on the management
of the State Coal Mine. There is also a large series of files of
awards, agreements, transcripts, evidence and correspondence associated
with industrial campaigns and arbitration cases involving the Powlett
River (Wonthaggi) Branch, 1910-64. Further records of the Branch
have been deposited at the University of Melbourne Archives.
Other unions dealing
with coal mining are the Deputies' and Shotfirers' Association,
the United Collieries Staff Association, and the Federated Mining
Mechanics' Association of Australasia. Of these, the Archives of
Business & Labour holds records of the Deputies' and Shotfirers'
Association formed in Newcastle and the Illawarra districts in 1908.
We have no federal records
of the Amalgamated Miners' Association or its successor, the Federated
Mining Employees' Association. Records
of the Barrier Branch of the Amalgamated Miners' Association, 1889-1917,
are held in the offices of Workers' Industrial Union of Australia.
Archives of the Australian Workers
Union at the Archives of Business & Labour contain some
Amalgamated Miners’ Association records. A printed copy of the Minutes of the 1913 annual conference
of the New South Wales Branch of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association
can to be found in the Miners' Federation records (E165/3/1).
Early reference to the
Amalgamated Miners’ Association and the Amalgamated Mining
Engine Drivers' Association are held in the Archives of the Ballarat Trades
and Labour Council at the Archives of Business & Labour.
Delegates of both unions
were active in the formation and operation of the Council and its
predecessors 1882-90. A complete set of minutes document their activities.
Some correspondence also survives.
Although mainly dealing
with administrative matters, one letter from W.G. Spence in March
1890 touches on the Amalgamated Miners’ Association withdrawal
of support for the Council and subsequent disaffiliation, possibly
over differing attitudes to the Australian Labor Federation.
The Australian Workers'
Union gained coverage of most metalliferous miners in 1915. The
Union has a considerable number of members engaged in rock mining
and upgrading processes at Mt. Isa, Mt. Newman, Hammersley, Mt.
Goldsworthy and Woodlawn. Australian Workers' Union records are
held at the Archives of Business & Labour and are available
to researchers who have been given clearance by the Union.
The Federated Engine
Drivers' and Firemen's Association covers drivers of stationary
engines and earth moving plant, such as bulldozers and draglines,
in both coal and metalliferous mining.
Comprehensive records
of the Federal Office and the New South Wales Coast District Branch
have been lodged at the Archives of Business & Labour, including
federal minutes from 1916 and New South Wales State Council and
Executive Minutes, 1915-27 and 1938-80. Records of the Newcastle,
Maitland and Illawarra Sub-Branches are also held.
Detailed industrial
files in the Federal and Coast District deposits document the involvement
of the union in rock mining at Mt. Lyell, King Island, Tennant Creek,
Cobar and elsewhere, and in coal mining in New South Wales and Queensland
from 1910 to the present.
No records of the Barrier
Branch of Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association (which
dates from the late 1880s) have been lodged at the Archives, nor
have those of the Newcastle Colliery Engine Drivers Union (formed
1889, amalgamated with the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's
Association in 1921). Records of the Queensland Branch are at the
Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
