Remembering Rothbury and the Great Lock-out

Hundreds of mineworkers, retired mineworkers and community 
representatives, joined a small band of surviving veterans to mark the 70th 
anniversary of Rothbury (NSW) at the Memorial outside the colliery on 
December 16.

Northern District CFMEU President Mick Watson delivered the main speech 
while Rothbury veteran Jim Comerford also made a moving contribution on the 
day.

In his speech Mick Watson said: "The bloodiest clash in the industrial 
history of Australia took place at the Rothbury Colliery on 16 December 
1929, during the 15-month long Northern District coal miners lock-out.

"Four thousand coalminers had marched on the colliery to protest against 
the use of scab labour there. By the end of the day, one miner, Norman 
Brown had been shot dead by the police. Dozens of others were wounded and 
many more miners and police injured in the clash.

"The employers had demanded that 10,000 Northern District coal miners 
accept a twelve-and-a-half per cent pay cut.

"When they refused, the employers affiliated with the Northern Collieries 
Proprietors Association banded together and on 1 March 1929 illegally 
locked-out their workforces.

"With conservative anti-labour governments in power in NSW and Federally, 
no action was taken against the coalowners' illegal lock-out. Rather, both 
governments threw their support behind the coalowners instead of 
prosecuting them.

"Local police were not trusted to handle the tense situation throughout the 
mining communities. Four hundred outsiders were brought in and organised 
into the Basher Gangs to roam the streets of the mining towns attempting to 
impose a reign of terror.

"As the 10,000 Northern miners remained solid, their comrades in other 
Districts had struck a twelve-and-a-half per cent levy in support of them. 
In addition, family men who were locked-out of work received meagre dole 
payments.

"However, in an attempt to dent the miners' spirit and deny them the dole 
the employers brought strike-breakers into the District and reopened the 
small Rothbury mine as a scab pit.

"Rothbury had not been producing coal. It had been opened so that the 
Locked-out miners could be denied dole payments when they refused to work 
at a scab mine.

"It is important today in the presence of these brave Rothbury veterans 
that we remember that all of what we have now we owe to those who went 
before us. We have never been given anything for nothing. Always we have 
had to fight hard to defend the gains we have made and it is no different 
today", said Mick Watson.

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Acknowledgements: Common Cause, Feb/Mar 2000