On 16 December 1929, New South Wales Police

New South Wales Police

The New South Wales Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is an agency of the Government of New South Wales within the New South Wales Ministry for Police...

 drew their revolvers and shot into a crowd of locked-out

Lockout (industry)

A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...

 miners in the New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 town of Rothbury

North Rothbury, New South Wales

North Rothbury is a small town located in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. It is 19 km from Cessnock.The town is home to a small population of the critically endangered North Rothbury Persoonia ....

 in Australia, killing a 29-year-old miner, Norman Brown, and injuring approximately forty five other miners. The incident became known as the Rothbury Affair or the Rothbury Riot.

In 1929 colliery owners on the Northern New South Wales coalfield

Coalfield

A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological...

s combined as the Northern Collieries Association. On Thursday 14 February 1929 the mine employers gave their 9,750 employees 14 days notice

Notice

Notice is the legal concept in which a party is made aware of a legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice , actual notice, constructive notice, and implied notice....

, that they (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".

The miners refused to accept these terms, and on Saturday 2 March 1929, all miners were "locked out" of their employment..

In September 1929, the NSW State Parliament introduced an Unlawful Assembly Act designed to suppress the miners, which authorised police to break up any gatherings.

During December 1929 about 4,000 miners were demonstrating against the introduction of non-union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 labour into the Rothbury mine by the conservative Thomas Bavin State Government who had taken over the colliery. The State Government called in 400 officers from the New South Wales Police from other districts to protect the colliery and allow the entry of non-union labour. On the morning of 16 December the miners had marched to the mine gate led by a pipe band. When the miners charged the gate, they were met by baton charges by the police and hand to hand clashes. Then the police drew their revolvers and shot into the crowd. The youngest miner was 15-year-old Joseph Cummings. He risked his life, dodging bullets running for the doctor in an futile effort to help save Norman Brown.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph Pictorial described the event as "the most dramatic industrial clash that has ever shocked Australia."

After fifteen months of starvation and living in poverty, the miners capitulated in June 1930 and returned to work on reduced contract wages. The lockout failed to break the resolve or organisation of the miners union.

The mine finally closed in 1974. A monument in honour of Norman Brown is located at North Rothbury.

The site is now a railway workshop, the workshops work on restoration of locomotives and rollingstock.

The word Rothbury has been trademarked by the Fosters Group.

External links

• Chris Fussell - Rothbury Riot Mural 1929 - painted with Acrylic house paint and installed onto the back of the Custom Credit building for the Mural Project of Kurri Kurri, NSW.