Books

Reviews of books related to Australian mining history and heritage are added by members.  The Webmaster welcomes relevant new book releases and reviews from members and others interested in mining history.  Active items may remain indefinitely.  They are arranged in date order.

New Books

Cornish Beam Engines in South Australian mines
drew.jpgGreg Drew and Jack Connell, 2nd Edition, 2012.  Dept for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy, A4, 196 pp, 159 photos, 105 ill., $40 plus postage.  To order 
Cornish miners and engineers played a central role in the early development of the South Australia’s mining industry and it was therefore natural that Cornish machinery and mining methods were adopted. The successful mining of copper would not have been possible without Cornish beam engines, which drained mines, raised ore, and powered crushing and concentrating machinery. This revised and
updated publication presents a thoroughly researched historical review from a SA perspective that includes engineering aspects and practices of a mining era that had such a profound impact on the State’s development.   Review

Women of gold : the unsung heroines of the goldfields
kakoschke.jpgKevin Kokoschke, 2011.  Eureka Printing, 25cm, x, 180 pp, ill., facsims., maps, $35 (plus postage).
To order email
This book is a blend of historical facts with a dash of humour. The stories are of the NE Goldfields of South Australia including Teetulpa and Waukaringa during the late 1800s and 1930s depressions.  Cases of the hardships experienced by some women on the goldfields, is injected into the mining narrative, to both humanise and personalise, what is generally accepted as a man’s realm. The role of women, how they coped in the harsh desert conditions, of personal tragedies, love, marriage, birth and death.

No Easy Field: Ipswich Coalmining, 1920-2000
Alan Murray, 2010.  Queensland University Press, xiv, 418pp, 30 p. of plates, ill. (some col.), maps ; 26 cm.
The book is available at Ipswich Visitor Information Centre or from the author at PO Box 6042 St Lucia QLD 4067.
Publication of this book coincided with the celebration by Ipswich of its 150 years as a municipality. The outcome is a large, handsome, luxuriously produced and lavishly illustrated tome rarely found among latter-day industrial and economic histories.   Review

Koolyanobbing: place of large rocks and big hearts
duggan.jpgMichael Duggan and Ian Wake, 2010.  Victoria Point, Qld, 24cm, 480 pp, ill. (some col.), maps,       16 pp of plates, $35 (plus postage).   To order contact the Shire of Yilgarn, PO Box 86, Southern Cross, WA 6426: ph 08 90491001 or email.
Co-Authors Mike Duggan and Ian Wake, ex-mining industry workers, reveal that Koolyanobbing is not just a tidy town and iron ore mine. Koolyanobbing started as a model mining town, ran a great race for sixteen years up to 1983, slumbered in caretaker mode for ten years and was then substantially erased from the landscape. Their book captures the spirit of the place, its people and contains many personal contributions from people who have worked and lived in the area since World War 2.

Dust and Dreams.  Mining Communities in South-East New South Wales
mcgowan-2.jpgBarry McGowan, 2010.   UNSW Press, Sydney, 381 pp, 80 photos, maps and drawings, $50 (plus $5 postage and packing in Australia). To order phone Barry at 0427118207 or email.
This lively, evocative book uncovers the rich history of the former gold, silver, copper and leading mining communities that once existed in the Southern Tablelands, Braidwood, Shoalhaven, Monaro and south-west slopes districts of New South Wales. Dust and Dreams focuses on the towns, camps and communities that developed around mines and the people who lived in them, rather than the mines themselves.   Review

The Olympic Dam Story - How Western Mining defied the odds to discover and develop the world’s largest mineral deposit
upton-cover.jpgDavid Upton, 2010.  Upton Financial PR, Armadale, Victoria, 180pp, including maps and photographs, $35. Available from the author (david@theolympicdamstory.com) and from selected Dymock stores.   To order
The Olympic Dam Story tells for the first time the surprising story behind the 1970s discovery of the world’s largest mineral deposit.  The author explains how Western Mining’s pursuit of the best science, teamwork and a dash of good luck led from an exploration base in a suburban garage to a super-giant copper, uranium and gold resource.   The book also describes how Western Mining overcame the main challenges of developing Olympic Dam, a multi-billion dollar project more difficult than ever envisaged with the unexpected discovery of uranium.    Review

A Mirage in the Desert? The discovery, evaluation and development of the Olympic Dam
ore body at Roxby Downs, South Australia, 1975-88
johns-2.jpgR. Keith Johns, 2010.  O’Neil Historical and Editorial Services. A4, 64 pp, 27 images in colour, $30.
Available from O’Neil Historical and Editorial Service, PO Box 2, Klemzig SA 5087.
The occurrence of uranium in the Olympic Dam orebody ensured that the mine’s development became a controversial and often emotional issue dominated by prejudice, ignorance and fear of the unfamiliar world of radiation. This narrative provides historical insights on these and other issues with which the developers would have to contend - and which have relevance 35 years on from discovery.   Review  Order form

Glen Davis: a Shale Oil Ghost Town and its people 1938-1954
knapman.jpgLeonie Knapman, 2010. Halstead Press. H/cover, A4 270 gloss pages, over 400 photos.
$50 Postage $10 Australia, $26 NZ.
When the Glen Davis shale oil undertaking closed for good in 1954 it left a lingering nostalgia for what might have been. This was an ambitious scheme to reduce Australia’s vulnerability to the vagaries of world oil supplies in the years leading up to WW11. History would show that the adventure at Glen Davis to help make Australia at least partially self sufficient in meeting demands for petroleum products was doomed from the start. Government and union interference were key factors in the demise of this under taking that filled such a vital page in the region’s - and the nations - industrial history.  Order form

Tylsdesley: the village that disappeared
tyldesley.jpgRay Christison, 2009. City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum, A4, 139 pp, 76 photographs and 13 maps and plans, $29.95. Available from Higher Ground Press
The spine of the Great Dividing Range running north from Lithgow and Wallerawang contains rich pockets of coal. Exploitation of these deposits commenced after construction of a railway line through this region from 1880. Mining commenced at Cullen Bullen in 1889 and continued in this locality for 70 years. This book tells the story of the Tyldesley Colliery that operated west of Cullen Bullen from 1904 and the village that developed around the colliery tunnel mouth.

Prospecting the Pieman: George Campbell Meredith’s logbook November 1876 to March 187
hodgson-cover.jpgAlice Meredith Hodgson, 2009.  A.M. Hodgson, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, 109 pp. illustrations index, endnotes, bibliography, maps, 21 cm, $19.90. Available from Alice Hodgson, PO Box 447, Sandy Bay, TAS 7006.
For seventeen weeks over the summer of 1876-77 George Campbell Meredith and his brother Owen prospected and trekked in the harsh country along the Pieman River on Tasmania’s west coast. The Meredith brothers made history when they pegged the first tin claim on Mount Heemskirk, a day’s tramp from the river. They worked in rock-strewn terrain, tangled bush and scrub so dense it obscured the daylight.   Review

The Gympie Gold Field 1867-2008
ferguson-cover.jpgJohn Ferguson and Elaine Brown, 2009.  Gympie Regional Council, 102 pp. PB $20, HB $40 at: www.gympie.qld.gov.au/library.
This tells the full story of one of Australia’s most productive goldfields, from the time of James Nash’s discovery through to the modern mining era.  Richly illustrated and painstakingly researched, it describes the growth of the local community, explores the prosperous eras of alluvial mining, shallow reefing and deep reefing and details for the first time modern efforts to revive gold production.  Review

Coals to Newcastle: A History of Coal Loading at the Port of Newcastle, NSW, 1797-1997
marsden.jpgSusan Marsden, 2nd edition, 2010.  Bobby Graham Publishers, xvii, 270 p., ill., map. $9.99 from Amazon Digital Services (2Mb).
The history spans two centuries since the start of mining and export by the British in Australia, and covers a wide range of themes and events, including changing technologies, drawing on information from public and private records, oral histories, newspapers and works published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Burning Mists of Time: A Technological and Social History of Mining at Katoomba
burning-mists.jpgPhilip J. Pells and Philip J. Hammon, 2009 (Written & compiled by) with contributions from Amanda Mackie, Karen Carlson and Brian Fox.   WriteLight, Blackheath, NSW, 258 pp., ill., maps, hardcover $60.
The Burning Mists of Time brings together disparate information to tell the fascinationg story of the establishment of the town of Katoomba and the present day Scenic World railway.  This book traces the people who lived here in the late 1800s, the pioneering developers who were drawn by the world’s richest oil shale deposits and associated coal seams, and the roles of those people and their works in the rise of Katoomba to touristic fame.   Review

mcgowan.jpgMining in NSW: History and Heritage
Dr Michael Pearson and Dr Barry McGowan, 2009.  Industry & Investment NSW.  A4, 246 pp, $60.  Available from the Industry & Investment NSW bookshop
This book charts the industry’s history from the first workings at Newcastle to the end of the boom days of the early 1900s.  It features more than a hundred outstanding photos, providing a compelling insight into what our early miners had to face. It also enables readers to assess a site and determine its heritage significance based on the mining of 25 different mineral groups.

burra.jpgBurra.  A Photographic Journey
Compiled by Eric Fuss and Meredith Satchell, 2009.  Burra History Group Inc.  A4, 246 pp including 64 in colour, softcover $55, hardcover $75.  Available from the Burra Visitor Centre.
Burra’s fascinating history is beautifully told in the text and photographs which show the shifting fortunes of the town which began as the mining township of Kooringa in 1845.  The famous Burra Mine, churches and hotels, businesses and bridges, floods and droughts, along with the cycle of births, deaths and marriages are presented in wonderful photographs. Review

lsmpict20.jpgA Pictorial History of the Lithgow State Coal Mine
Ray Christison, 2009.  City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum.
A4, 124 pp, over 110 images in black & white and colour, $29.95
Available from the City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum Inc, PO Box 617, Lithgow NSW 2790.  All proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards the continued operation and development of the State Mine Museum.
It contains many stories of the Lithgow State Coal Mine and its employees.

waterforgoldcover.jpgWater for Gold: The fight to quench Central Victoria’s Goldfields
Geoffrey Russell, 2009.  Coliban Water, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, ix-xii, 288 pp, 24 photographs, maps $44.00.
Water for Gold! documents the facinating 27 year long battle to slake Central Victoria’s thirst by building the Coliban System of Waterworks, an engineering marvel that still supplies Bendigo and Castlemaine today.
Review
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vines.jpgCoal Mining Heritage Study in Victoria
Jack Vines, 2008.  The Heritage Council of Victoria, 2008, A4, 288 pp, (also in CD).
This chronologically outlines major developments in the coal industry throughout Australia and contains a wealth of detail on the industry in regional Victoria.  The information is supported with geological detail, cross sections of various mines, information on transport, production data, social conditions, a plethora of photographs and summaries of the heritage value of surviving sites.  The publication will prove a boon to all those interested in researching the industry.       Download the study

gunningham.jpgMine Safety Law Regulation Policy
Neil Gunningham, 2008.   The Federation Press, Annandale, New South Wales, pp. i-1x, 291.
This book describes mine safety legislation in the “mining states” and analyses its strengths and weaknesses.  It also examines the broader policy questions of how best to design, implement, and enforce mine safety regulation.  It argues that, if further OHS improvements are to be achieved, substantial reform will be necessary not only in setting standards, but also in their implementation.      This implies substantial changes in the way the mine safety inspectorates go about their tasks and administer and enforce the law.     Review

payton.jpgMaking Moonta:  The Invention of ‘Australia’s Little Cornwall’
Philip Payton, 2007.  University of Exeter Press, Exeter, i-xiii, 268 pp.
In this gripping history of the migration and settlement of Cornish people, Philip Payton explores    Moonta and its copper-mining hinterland.  He charts the arrival of hundreds of Cornish immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century and the transplantation of distinctive Cornish cultural patterns that saw the town invent itself as ‘Australia’s Little Cornwall’.
Review

ralph.jpgBullfinch and the Yilgarn Goldfield
Gilbert Ralph, 2007.   Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia, xvi +265 pp.
This history of the the Yilgram Goldfield and the mining town of Bullfinch, from its beginnings in 1888     to the present day, is the story of one of the many hundreds of thousands similar unassuming places which, together, make up much of the mosaic which is the history of this country.
Review