South Gippsland Coal Mining Community and the State Coal Mine Wonthaggi

The papers of labour lawyer AT Brodney hold material on the Royal Commission into the State Coal Mine during 1923-1937.

Photographs of South Gippsland coal-mining are held in the archive of Joe and Lyn Chambers. Included are 36 black and white prints, all taken in 1910, mainly of the Powlett River coalfields, miners, buildings, processes, including the State Coal Mine.

Records of the Wonthaggi Vigilance Committee, established in 1956 in response to local fears about the possible closure of the State Coal Mine, include minutes and correspondence for 1956-1958. Later records of the Wonthaggi Vigilance Committee are contained within the Australian Coal and Shale Emplyees Federation collection.

Bill Rankine was a unionist and amateur historian who collected material relating to politics and social life in Wonthaggi. Included in his papers are files on the Wonthaggi Branch of the Miners' Federation, the Wonthaggi Co-operative Society, the Communist Party of Australia, the Australian Labor Party, the peace movement, Wonthaggi local government and the Wonthaggi hospital.

D. Heslop's collection includes 60 photographs depicting coal mining and settlement at Wonthaggi and nearby settlements from 1890 to 1915.

The activities of the of the Union Theatre in Wonthaggi are documented in the Bill Rankine Papers (as above), the Australian Coal and Shale Employees Federation records (as above) and also depicted in four photographs in catalogue record no. 1982.0085.

Completing the documentation of the coal mining community at Wonthaggi are audio-tapes from an oral history project undertaken in 1978 with members of the Wonthaggi Women's Auxiliary.

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