Rothbury riot
| Rothbury riot | |
|---|---|
| Date | 16 December 1929 |
| Location | Rothbury Colliery 32°40′49″S151°20′44″E/ 32.68024°S 151.34545°E |
| Casualties | |
| Death(s) | 1 |
On 16 December 1929New South Wales Policedrew their revolvers and shot into a crowd oflocked-outminers in theNew South Walestown ofRothburyin Australia, killing a 29-year-old miner, Norman Brown, and injuring approximately forty-five miners. The incident became known as theRothbury affairor theRothbury riot,and is described as the "bloodiest event in national industrial history."[1]
In 1929,collieryowners on the Northern New South Walescoalfieldscombined as the Northern Collieries Association. On 14 February 1929 the mine employers gave their 9,750 employees a 14 days'notice,that the miners should accept the following new conditions:
A wage reduction of 12½ per cent on the contract rates, one shilling ($0.10) a day on the "day wage" rate; all Lodges must give the colliery managers the right to hire and fire without regard to seniority; all Lodges must agree to discontinue pit-top meetings and pit stoppages.[2]
The miners refused to accept these terms, and on 2 March 1929 all miners were "locked out" of their employment.[3]
In September 1929, theNSW State Parliamentintroduced anUnlawful Assembly Actdesigned to suppress the miners, which authorised police to break up any gatherings.[2]
On 16 December 1929 about 5,000 miners demonstrated against the introduction of non-unionlabour into the Rothbury mine by theconservativeBavin government,which had taken over the colliery. The government called in 70 New South Wales police officers from districts outside Newcastle to protect the colliery and allow the entry of non-union labour. Angry miners marched to the mine gate led by a pipe band. When they charged the gate bearing clubs and firearms, the miners were met with defensive baton blows by the police and there were hand-to-hand clashes. Three shots had been fired at the police, followed by the order for law enforcement to draw their revolvers and fire a volley of shots over the heads of the rioters and at the ground. One miner, Norman Brown, received a fatal wound from a ricocheting bullet. The youngest miner was 15-year-old Joseph Cummings, who risked his life, dodging bullets as he ran for the doctor, in a futile effort to help save Brown's life.
TheSydney Daily Telegraph Pictorialdescribed the event as "the most dramatic industrial clash that has ever shocked Australia."[4]
In June 1930, after fifteen months of living in poverty and starvation, the miners capitulated and returned to work on reduced contract wages. However, the lockout failed to break the resolve or organization of the miners union.
The Rothbury mine finally closed in 1974. A monument in honour of Norman Brown is located at North Rothbury.[5][6]The site is now a railway workshop, restoring locomotives and rollingstock used on railways in the local coalfields.
The 1957 poem "The Ballad of Norman Brown" byDorothy Hewett,[7]has become one of Australia's most strident union songs, under several different tunes.[8]Other songs about the event include "A sad day on the coalfields" (1929), "And the country knows the rest" (1975) and "Rothbury" (1984).[9]
The wordRothburyhas been trademarked by the Fosters Group.[10]
References
[edit]- ^Huxley, John (20 May 2006)."Deadly riot: record set straight".The Sydney Morning Herald.Retrieved17 April2016.
- ^ab"Rothbury Colliery".Newcastle Regional Museum. Archived fromthe originalon 15 June 2012.
- ^"75th anniversary of Rothbury".CFMEU. Archived fromthe originalon 22 June 2006..
- ^"Rothbury: The 50th Anniversary".Daily Telegraph.Archivedfrom the original on 25 August 2006..
- ^"Struggles, Scabs and Schooners: a Labour History Tour with a Pint".Labour History(84). May 2003. Archived fromthe originalon 5 September 2005..
- ^"Rothbury Riot Memorial".Monument Australia.Monument Australia.Retrieved20 March2023.
- ^"BALLAD OF NORMAN BROWN".Tribune.2 January 1957.Retrieved11 May2023.
- ^"Ballad of Norman Brown".unionsong.Retrieved11 May2023.
- ^Gregory, Mark (2010)."Industrial Song and Poetry in Australia: An Introduction".Australian Folklore.25.
- ^"Fosters grabs right to Rothbury name".Hospitality Magazine (Online).Archived fromthe originalon 24 February 2012..
External links
[edit]- Chris Fussell -Rothbury Riot Mural 1929- painted with Acrylic house paint and installed onto the back of theCustom Creditbuilding for the Mural Project ofKurri Kurri,NSW.