Up from the Underworld: Coalminers and Community in Wonthaggi 1909 - 1968
The first union Vigilance (or organising) Committee, Powlett River coalfields, January 1910 Frank Murphy stands at top left with Matthew McMahon on his immediate left. Harry Webb, Committee Secretary, sits at Murphy’s feet. Wonthaggi Historical Society Co
Historian Andrew Reeves unearths the rich mining history of Wonthaggi, located on Victoria's southeast coast, in his first book
Up from the Underworld: Coalminers and Community in Wonthaggi 1909 - 1968.
The publication, to be launched next month the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr, explores how the town's workers came to exert a disproportionate amount of influence on the coal mining industry for more than 60 years.
"The history of Wonthaggi is enigmatic: despite having only thin and broken seams of coal, the town was able to build a successful living that went against the profit predictions of many mine owners," Reeves said.
"Although the town's miners represented only a fraction of the Miners' Federation's national membership, their role in its recovery following the Great Depression proved to be highly influential."
The town's union came to be a part of its identity and a driving force in its industrial and social campaigns. It would define who they were and shape industrial relations today.
A regional mining community that won a national reputation, Wonthaggi came to be admired by many, and disliked by others.
"Such contradictions can be resolved, in part, by recognising that for Wonthaggi's miners their place within a national union was as important as their regional sensibility, and that the solution to local issues depended, to a significant degree, upon national answers," Reeves said.
The book will be launched on 3 June at the State Coal Mine, Wonthaggi.