1873 - Lothair mine strike in Clunes, Victoria
- Victoria - Clunes -gold - Cornishmen - Chinese - Lothair Mine - Inspector Larner -
The first important gold discovery in Victoria was made at Clunes, twenty miles
north of Ballarat, in July 1851 by James Esmond ('Happy Jim'),
an Irish prospector who had recently returned from the Californian fields. The
gold-seekers who flocked to Clunes soon found that the bulk of the precious ore
was in quartz reefs requiring expensive shaft-sinking and crushing equipment;
many went off in search of the easier alluvial gold. Companies were formed to
exploit the Clunes reefs, and Cornish tin miners ('Cousin Jacks') were induced
to leave their homeland and settle at Chines.
For years harmony existed on the Clunes field, despite the low wages paid to the
Cornishmen, and the gradual introduction of economy measures by mine managers as
the shafts went deeper. The miners began to grow restive and to complain that
safety measures were inadequate and hours of work too long.
The discontent came to a head in September 1873 when the miners were told by the proprietors that they were no longer to be paid by contract but at a set rate of £2 2s per week or 7s per shift at six shifts per week.
This has amounted to a cut in pay. It was management's answer to the miners' request for a break between 3.00 p.m. on Saturday and 7.00 a.m. on Monday, rather than the current system of a break between Saturday night and Sunday night. Miners even offered to work during the requested break if the safety of the mine was at stake.
The miners went on strike and the management responded by seeking cheap Chinese labour in Adelaide, where migrants from China were constantly landing; and news of the arrival of this 'blackleg' work force at Clunes, turned the town into a battlefield.
Cornishmen converged on the Lothair Mine and wrecked buildings intended to house the Chinese.
More than 1000 miners, their wives and supporters set up a barricade of wagons, ploughs and tree-trunks at the junction of the Ballarat and Clunes roads on 8 December 1873, and there waited for the strike-breakers, escorted by Inspector Larner and troopers, to arrive in their convoy of coaches from Ballarat.
A shower of stones met the advancing convoy; then, as it halted, men, women
and children left their barricade and stormed the coaches, hauling out the
frightened Chinese and handling them so roughly that they were glad when orders
were given to the coach drivers to take them back to Ballarat.
The riot ended without loss of life; and the Lothair mine resumed production,
the management having agreed to the men's demand for a shorter Saturday shift.
It was a landmark in the history of labour-capital relationships in
Australia; and it was a strong blow against employer attempts to introduce cheap
Asiatic labour into the mining industry. Some historians have seen the Clunes
riot as a vital contributing factor in the inauguration of the 'White Australia'
policy.
A contemporary balladist summed up the events at Clunes in a song, only a
fragment of which (collected by Dr Geoffrey Serle from Mr A.E. Kempson of
Clunes), now apparently survives:
So you all come down from Clunes,
That town of great renown,
When gold was first discovered
By a shepherd on his round.
Mother Bailey was in front,
With her apron full of stones,
Determined if she could
To break some of their bones.
The Chows were driven back
All a-quiver and a-quake,
With Larner and his escort
Following in their wake.