The Women's Brigade was a labour protest organisation for women formed during the first of several strikes to occur in the mining town of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, NSW, Australia between 1889–1920.

History

Precedents

As early as 1874, Australian women were engaging in direct action in mining disputes in Australia. During the 1874 strikes at the Wallaroo and Moonta mines in South Australia, women entered the mines armed with brooms, forced the men out and closed down the engines.

The First Meeting

The notice for the first meeting read:Kearns, R.H.B, 1982.Broken Hill, A Pictorial History, Broken Hill Historical Society, Broken Hill, NSW, p154.

A number of Broken Hill Women are very anxious to do something towards supporting the men now out on strike and a meeting for women only will be held at the Masonic Hotel tonight, at 7:30. The president will be the chair. Mr T.C. Tait, the proprietor of the Masonic Hotel, has kindly given the use of his new hall, erected at the site of the hotel, for the use of the women's brigade. All matrons and maids who are in sympathy with the union are requested to attend.

Conditions

According to Unbroken Spirit, 'Poor living conditions and negligent managerial policy on the mines at Broken Hill fed into a strong union presence from the very early days'.Unions and Politics, Unbroken Spirit, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2009, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/bh/unionspol.html Women and children found life in the mining town harsh, yet fought alongside the miners in favour of the union goals despite the hardship prolonged strikes caused to family welfare. According to Carroll (1986), and Blainey (1968) there was particular concern in the town regarding

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...

from the mine dust. Due to a long delay in developing the technical process for extracting value from the low-lying ores that were mined at Broken Hill, 40 ft high hills of toxic tailings were created about the mines and left without processing until the opening of the

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

BHP Steelworks BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

in 1915.

Activism

1889

Broken Hill's first mining strike occurred in 1889 as a result of the trade union ultimatum that members not be made to work with non-unionised workers. The strike lasted a week and during this time the Women's Brigade was formed. By the time of the arrival of BHP directors from Melbourne on 13 November, the Women's Brigade had set up as 'sentinels' in order to catch any non-union labour, including shift bosses who were 'tarred and whitewashed' the following day while the 2500 miners met to negotiate the dispute with the directors.THE BROKEN HILL STRIKE. (14 November 1889). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889-1931), p. 5. Retrieved 15 April 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24488285Broken Hill Strike. (14 November 1889). ''The Brisbane Courier'' (Qld. : 1864-1933), p. 5. Retrieved 15 April 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3503893 A small number of men were injured by the Women's Brigade on 14 November. As a result of this

Richard Sleath Richard Sleath (3 October 1863 – 10 October 1922) was an Australian politician. Born in Ceres, Fife to ploughman Richard Sleath and Mary Fernie, he migrated to Queensland in 1877, becoming a shearer and prospector. In 1882 he moved to Sydney ...

on behalf of the union distanced himself from their actions while mentioning the resolve of the women who had a week's worth of provisions and that they intended to remain on picket for the week. An appeal was made for the miners to use their influence with the women to calm their behaviour.

The brigade now numbers 400 members, many of whom took part in the famous sweeping affair at the Moonta and
Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'', and not a portmanteau of the words "kangaroo" and "wal ...
mines 15 years ago. Two hundred women spent the night in the mines and two of them have been locked up for trespassing.

1892

The Women's Brigade was very active in using direct action methods against the imported contract labour during the

1892 Broken Hill miners' strike The 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike was a sixteen-week strike which was one of four major strikes that took place between 1889 and 1920 in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia. During the four months from July to November 1892, both local miners and ...

. According to Bloodworth (1996), there were daily mass rallies and the Barrier United Females' Strike Protest Committee was formed in the initial weeks. The 500-strong Brigade passed a resolution to join the 24 August union demonstration but this was later abandoned in favour of a women's rally on the 25th.Bloodworth, S. (1996) The Rebel Women of Broken Hill in ''Militant Spirits'', La Trobe University, Melbourne. retrieved at http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/rebelwomen/militant.htm Prominent suffragette, Mary Lee publicly supported the women of Broken Hill claiming 'that the women of Broken Hill are the first great body of working women who have raised their voices in united protest against the glaring injustice that ''the present constitution will not allow them a voice in framing the laws''...' and that this rendered the

'more profoundly interesting' than any before.

1919-1920

The womenfolk that evening at least got some of their own back, for wherever a 'cop' was observed during the march, he either received a 'back-hander' from a woman on passing or was spat upon. This happened not once, but hundreds of times during that memorable tramp through the city's streets. And, under the circumstances, show to me the workingman that did not, and does not, applaud such acts, and I will show you a creature who lives but to creep and to cringe, and knows but little of the history of his class, or the damnable actions of its historic enemies.Dale, G in Kearns, R.H.B, 1982. Broken Hill, A Pictorial History, Broken Hill Historical Society, Broken Hill, NSW, p160.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Brigade (Broken Hill) Feminist organisations in Australia History of Broken Hill Economic history of New South Wales History of mining in Australia