Alas it Seems Cruel

The Mount Milligan Coal Mine Disaster of 1921

Peter Bell

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Paperback

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English

Boolarong Press
07 March 2013

Mining industry; Mining technology & engineering; Local history

Mount Mulligan is 100km west of Cairns, an impressive natural landmark whose sandstone cliffs look as though a part of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales has somehow been transported 2,000km north. Underlying the mountain are coal deposits that supported a small mining town from 1914 until 1958. There is not much left of the township now. The best place to learn about Mount Mulligan's history is the cemetery, where nearly a quarter of the little town's population was buried in less than one week. On 19 September 1921 a massive coal dust explosion in the Mount Mulligan mine killed all 75, or perhaps 76, men and boys who were working underground. This is the story of a horrible event in a remote and beautiful location ninety years ago. Of all peacetime jobs, underground mining is one of the most destructive of human life. Most people are vaguely aware that mining is a hazardous occupation, but probably few understand the scale of that hazard. If one were to ask what was the greatest disaster ever to occur in Australia, measured in terms of loss of human life, a well-informed answer might mention the Bathurst Bay cyclone of 1899 which took the lives of at least 239 crew members of wrecked pearling luggers, or perhaps the wreck of the immigrant ship Cataraqui on King Island in Bass Strait in 1845 when 400 were drowned. But very few people know that 623 miners were killed in the day-to-day operations of the Broken Hill mines between 1888 and 1964. They died mostly in ones and twos, unreported outside their immediate community, and no one ever refers to their collective loss as the Broken Hill disaster.

By: Peter Bell
Imprint: Boolarong Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 370g
ISBN: 9781922109514
ISBN 10: 1922109517
Pages: 210
Publication Date: 07 March 2013
Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Primary , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Line Illustrations iv, Photographs v, Abbreviations vi, Preface vii, Introduction 1, Chapter I Discovery and Development 9, Chapter II The Disaster 37, Chapter III The Royal Commission 67, Chapter IV The Aftermath 101, Chapter V Prosperity and Decline 135, Chapter VI Postscript 167, Appendix A Walter Filer Letter 175, Appendix B Herbert Smithson Letter 178, Appendix C Australian Coal Mine Disasters 180, Appendix D Population of Mount Mulligan in 1921 182, Appendix E Annual Coal Production at Mount Mulligan 184, Appendix F The Dead 185, Sources 189

Peter Bell grew up in Cairns in the 1960s, a few years after the town of Mount Mulligan had been abandoned. He went to school with members of the dispersed community, and heard stories about the mine disaster that had happened in their grandparents' time. His first visit to the deserted town site in 1971 inspired him to find out more. Back in Cairns, he went to the library and asked for a book about the Mount Mulligan disaster. Amazed to find there was nothing written on the subject, he decided to write the book himself. It took the form of an honours thesis at James Cook University in 1977, and led him on to a PhD thesis on the more general topic of North Queensland mining settlement and buildings, published in 1984 as Timber and Iron. Peter is now a freelance historian and heritage consultant, based in Adelaide. He retains a particular interest in Australian mining history, and is past president of the Australasian Mining History Association. His recent works include Our Place in the Sun, a history of James Cook University.