The 1929-30 Lockout

The following transcription made by Mélissa Martin for the Weston History and Heritage website was taken from The Pioneering Days of the Coalfields, No.2, by Brian J. Andrews for the Coalfields Heritage Centre, pp.67-76:

The Lockout is a very interesting phase of our local history and contains so many varying aspects, each of which is a story in itself. Today, we take a look at just one short period, which came a month after the famous Rothbury incident. It is a period when the police 'flying squad,' or 'bashers,' as they came to be known were active around the coalfields.  

Lights flickered on in the homes of miners throughout the coalfields on the morning of Tuesday, June 3, 1930.

From 6 till 7 am there could be heard the old familiar tramp, tramp, in the streets, and the hum of conversations as the miners hurried through the cold morning air, for a 7 am start at their respective collieries.

What made this particular morning different to any other, was that for the past 63 weeks the men had been out of work, locked out by the various coal proprietors.

Thus has ended the prolonged industrial action on the Northern coalfields, which became known as the great Lockout.

During this time the differences between owners and workers were widened even more, and the community's trust of the police force would never be the same again.

The previous evening, June 2nd, had seen all obstacles removed at the eleventh hour, allowing 7,000 miners to resume work the following morning.

The dispute, which lasted 15 months began in February, 1929, and ended in June, 1930.

This year is the 70th anniversary of that turbulent time in our history. Hopefully, over the next few months I will be able to bring to you various aspects of the Lockout story, which present and future generations should all know, and never forget. It is not just history but it is our heritage.

Eye witnesses to the events of that time are now either thinning out or getting into their eighties.                                                                                                  

INSULTS FOR THE POLICE

As the miners resumed work the number of imported police on the coalfield was reduced.

The band rotunda in today's Rotary Park, Kurri Kurri, was the scene in January, 1930, of a lively meeting of miners, address by William Laidlaw, a member of the communist party, who had migrated to Australia eight years earlier.

Among the crowd of about 1,000 were a scattering of police officers, one of whom was Constable A. Barber, of North Sydney.

Laidlaw pulled no punches in his emotional address. Constable Barber took careful note of the language used by the speaker, and as soon as Laidlaw had finished his address, he arrested him for using 'insulting words' against the police.

It was claimed he said, “There is not a man in the police force. If there is, I have never met him. Any policeman is so low, he could not get under the belly of a snake with an open umbrella, and have a bit to spare.

“The police are a lot of murderers. You know what the murderers did at Rothbury. Norman Brown did not die in vain: he died in a good cause. He was shot down by a lot of parasites, the tool of the master class – the police.”

After being arrested at the band rotunda Laidlaw was marched off to the police station.

The whole of the crowd followed the police, hooting and jeering. As they neared the Chelmsford Hotel stones began to be thrown at the police.

One stone struck Sergeant Lake on the jaw, whilst another hit Constable Walker on the left elbow, both men requiring medical aid. Herbert Gould was arrested and charged with striking Sergeant Lake.

The police then charged the crowd with batons, chasing people up and down Lang Street.

INDIGNANT KURRI KURRI RESIDENTS

Without such an abundance of uniformed and plain-clothed police patrolling Kurri Kurri, it was felt the threat of violence could be reduced. The overwhelming police presence was in itself provoking trouble.

Most of the imported police were stationed at a camp at Rothbury, where they were commanded by Superintendent Beattie.

A deputation of concerned Kurri Kurri citizens, led by Catholic priest Father J.Marshall, and businessmen Charlie Christianson and N.Kirkwood, visited the Rothbury police camp, hoping to interview Superintendent Beattie.

Unfortunately, he was absent for the day, but undeterred, they returned that evening, accompanied by several union leaders, including Billy McBlane and Tommy O'Toole.

The object of their visit, they explained, was to request the withdrawal of all police reinforcements from Kurri Kurri.

They protested against the presence of so many police on the coalfields, and felt it would be in the best interests of all if they were withdrawn.

Unless the extra police were withdrawn, then there would certainly be further bloodshed, and possible loss of life. These police were really inflaming the minds of residents, and in their absence there would be no trouble.

The delegation pointed out that the people of Kurri Kurri had always proved themselves to be law-abiding citizens. In conclusion, they complained of the unnecessary recent baton charge on innocent people at Kurri Kurri.

Superintendent Beattie, in reply, said he would only be too pleased to comply with their wishes, however, he would not promise to withdraw the police immediately, in view of the different disturbances which had taken place.

The police, he said, were receiving insults from every direction, and he wished to remind them that the police were only human, the same as other individuals. They were liable to become excited, but they were there to see that law and order were maintained.

Superintendent Beattie said the miners could go ahead and hold lodge meetings, provided there were no inflammatory speeches. However, his words were good for nothing, as events of the next few days were to prove.

“FLYING SQUAD” POLICE ATTACKS

Having been given the intimation by Superintendent Beattie that lodge meetings could be held, the miners went ahead and did so a day or so later.

A completely unexpected development occurred on Wednesday, January 15, 1930, when police with batons drawn, attacked groups of miners at Kurri Kurri and other centres.

So far as the men at Kurri Kurri were concerned, conditions were most orderly, giving no reason for the attack which followed. All they had done was peacefully discuss the situation of the hotels, which had been declared black, for providing lodgings for police reinforcements.

During the excitement which prevailed during the baton charge, women who were gathering around became hysterical, several fainting.

It appeared strange to the men that police, who had observed the morning's proceedings, made no attempt to interfere, the charge being made when the majority of the lodge members had returned home, by the 'Flying Squad,' which arrived by bus, cars and motorbikes.

Earlier that morning, at 5.30 am, the miners had assembled en masse at Rotary Park, and later moved off on a march along Lang, Alexandra, Aberdare and Victoria Streets, before returning to the park, where a combined lodge meeting was held.

Police who had followed the procession, gathered at the park, taking up positions along the fence, with no attempt being made to interfere with the proceedings, which were conducted in the most orderly fashion.

When the business of the combined meeting had been conducted, it was announced that the three lodges, Richmond Main, Pelaw Main and Stanford Merthyr, would hold separate meetings for the purpose of checking the rolls.

Positions were taken up and as the names were called, the men, after answering to their names, commenced to move of in twos and threes in the direction of their homes. Several of the police also left.

By 8 am only a couple of hundred men were left in the vicinity of the park.

It was then a powerful force of police, 100 strong, arrived from Cessnock.

In Allworth Street, near the school corner, they jumped from cars and buses, and instructed the men who were walking along the street to 'disperse.'

Men scattered in all directions before the charge, and it was not too many minutes before all the streets were cleared. This is what they called law and order.

After the melee had blown over, men gathered in little groups in the streets discussing this latest unexpected move by the police.

One man, in speaking of the matter, commented, “Only a few minutes before the arrival of the Flying Squad, one of our Lodge officers was complimented by a sergeant of police on the orderly manner in which the men had controlled themselves.

“In view of this statement,” he added, “we cannot account for the unwarranted attack made by the police on a few hundred men who were returning to their homes in an orderly manner after having attended a meeting.”

POLICE ATTACK ALL OVER COALFIELD

The police Flying Squad, in a well orchestrated move on the miners, began their attack much earlier that morning.

The raiding party of 100 police, set off from the Cessnock Police Station at about 6.15 am. Prior to that time, large contingents of miners had marched away from Cessnock to different parts of the field.

At 5 am, in accordance with instructions received from the various lodges, miners on the Cessnock end of the field formed up in large numbers in Vincent Street, for a march to unknown destinations, at least so far as the rank and file were concerned.

All that the men were told the evening before was that they were going for a march. The majority of the men therefore brought along their crib tins and food, and a few brought water bottles.

At about 5.30 am, the same time as that at Kurri Kurri, the Cessnock men, numbering about 1500, moved off out along Aberdare Road, in the direction of Kearsley.

Simultaneously, another 800 men marched out from Bellbird, headed for Paxton.

At 6.15 am the police, occupying a lorry, a commandeered bus, numerous cars and motorbikes and side-cars, set off in pursuit of the 1500 men heading for Kearsley.

The police overtook the men near the Kearsley public school and before the men had time to recover from their surprise, they were savagely bashed with batons, many being knocked to the ground. Some picked themselves up bewildered, dazed, dirty and bleeding.

Several of the men had to be admitted to Cessnock District Hospital, one in a serious condition.

Once the police attack had been made, mounted police charged their horses into the crowd, knocking down and trampling men.

The bulk of the men, when they saw what was happening to their mates, took to the bush followed by the police with batons flaying.

Hardly anyone escaped unscathed.

Following this attack the police continued on, to make similar raids at Abermain, Hebburn, Weston and Kurri Kurri.

This was just another turning point in the great Lockout saga, one that was designed to break the spirit of the men and unions, if not their bones.

Mick Frame, former councillor and leading citizen, now living in retirement at Kurri's Masonic Village, vividly recalls that morning and the bashings. He, like most others was bashed to the ground, and well remembers his assailant being none other than Inspector Mackay, later to be promoted to Police Commissioner.

KEARSLEY SHIRE PRESIDENT OUTRAGED

CR ALBERT BURNS

The next morning, Thursday, January 16, 1930, Kearsley Shire Council held a special meeting to discuss the extraordinary happenings of the previous morning, when various groups of miners were, without warning, attacked and baton bashed by police.

The Council considered the action of the police, which they described as callous, brutal and totally unwarranted.

To sum up these few days of violence on the coalfield I now turn to the words of the Shire President, Cr Albert Burns, himself no stranger to heavy handed police tactics, having been arrested and jailed twenty years earlier during the Peter Bowling Strike, of 1909-10.

Cr Burns said, “The miners have been locked out for a considerable period, and for at least nine months of that period have been peaceful – so orderly that I believe that the police court statistics for that particular nine months will compare favourably with any other nine months in the history of the coalfields?

“It only goes to show that the miners and citizens of this particular district are law-abiding.

“In my opinion,” continued Cr Burns, “there was no necessity for the Government to have sent any extra police here at all.

“I say, and I say quite frankly, that the men have been locked out, and in the words of Justice Isaacs, they (the mine owners) have broken the law.

“There was an unfortunate incident at Rothbury, and I am not commenting one way or the other because there is an inquest pending.

“There was a more recent thing than Rothbury, and that was the clash that took place on Sunday night at Kurri Kurri (the Laidlaw incident).

“There was a meeting there, and while I am not going to comment in reference to what the speaker said, or what they did, I do say this much, that the police claim they were insulted, and that the language used by the speakers was extravagant.

“If that was so, instead of the tactless manner in which the police proceeded to arrest the men from a body of possibly a thousand strong, they could have gone about it in a more sensible method, and one less calculated to cause uproar.

“It is time we, as representatives of the people, protested against these methods.”

In commenting on the Flying Squad's attack at Kurri Kurri, Cr Burns went on to say, “The meeting was held and was most orderly, and the men were dispersing and heading for home, but to my great surprise, the Flying Squad, under Inspector Mackay, came along and batoned them down.

“People were told to run, and they received a baton beating for not running.

“In view of these circumstances,” said the Shire President, “it is up to the Shire Council to approach the necessary authorities and have the police removed from the district.

“It is a scandalous thing that decent citizens can be molested with impunity by these people. I claim the police should have made some inquiries before batoning men as they were walking in twos and threes up the street.

“How did Mackay and his men know that the men had indeed not held a meeting and decided to go to work?

“I am told the police, when they made these baton attacks, used vile language to people. As President of the Council I protest against that action. I stand for law and order, but I say, further than that, that Mr Scullen (the Premier) should be asked to set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the actions of the Flying Squad.”

The police, particularly those imported by the government to maintain law and order and to protect colliery property, come out of all reports of the Lockout in a bad light.

The people of the coalfields lived in what could only be described as a Police State, where the brutal 'bashers' could do, and get away with anything.

[Transcription by Mélissa Martin for the Weston History and Heritage website]