For as long as coal has been pulled from the earth, miners and their communities have turned to poetry to capture their experiences.
Through verse, they have documented the hardships of underground labour, the dangers of life below the surface, and the environmental changes that came with the shift to open cut mining. These poems do more than preserve history, they give voice to the miners’ struggles, resilience, and connection to the land they worked.
One of the most well-known mining poems in Queensland is ‘The Coal Miners’ by Eric MacKenzie. His words paint a haunting picture of the toll mining takes, not just on the body, but on the soul. MacKenzie’s imagery speaks to the exhaustion, confinement, and deep reflection that comes from years spent below ground.
They shuffle out, darkened by need,
a minstrel show of faces, fake.
Whites of eyes, rehearsed, encircle
nothing of the miners’ deeper pits
as though we might belong below the surface.
Some say mining poetry faded when large scale open cut operations took over in the 1980s, but the reality is that the themes simply evolved. Early poems often focused on the miners, their struggles, their mateship, and the dangers of working underground. Later works began to turn their attention to the scars left on the land and the changing identity of mining communities.
Blair Athol, one of Queensland’s most significant coalfields, has inspired poets who captured these transitions with raw honesty. Among them is Bernie Bettridge, whose works in Bottle Trees and Bougainvillea: Memories of Blair Athol, Clermont and District give voice to both the miners and the landscapes reshaped by progress.
Bettridge’s poetry brims with nostalgia and reverence for the old ways, preserving stories that might otherwise have been forgotten. His poem ‘The Last of the Underground’ captures the fading of an era as underground mining gave way to open cut operations. It paints vivid pictures of men working by the dim glow of carbide lights, wielding picks and shovels in the suffocating heat, only to witness their world transformed as the last skips came up.
I have tried to piece together a story of the time,
When men were working underground at that old Blair Athol mine.
Nineteen forty-six, it was just after World War two,
When I started working on that field at a mine called No. 2.
They would fill those skips and wheel them out along the line,
To where the horses and their drivers were passing all the time.
Because they’d collect those rakes of skips from way down in the mine,
To be brought to the Pit Bottom a dozen at a time.
Deep in the shadows of those tunnels, where the glow of a miner’s lamp barely pierced the darkness, men worked side by side with their loyal pit ponies. These animals, whose service was as vital as it was heartbreaking, lived and died underground. Bettridge’s Their Last Long Spell pays tribute to the ponies who spent their lives hauling skips through the blackness, only to meet a tragic and undeserved end.
It must have been a life of misery for those horses down below,
Ever listening and wondering when that black roof might let go.
Their only light a Carbide light, just a small dull yellow glow,
Hanging from their Driver’s cap, to show them where to go.
Along those tracks they knew so well, even though they could not see,
Yes! They knew the dangers of the underground and lived in constant fear.
But those noble beasts would carry on, in the tunnels of that deep dark hell,
Working there for seven years, before they were brought up for a spell.
Bettridge’s “When the Last of the Skips Come Up” adds another layer of reflection. It tells the story of himself as a young boy, eager to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother, waiting for the day he would go underground. But just as he was ready to take his place in the pit, open cut mining changed everything.
As a lad he stood by the pit top, his billy can in his hand.
Wondering about the day when he too would go underground,
He watched those miners light their lamps and fit them to their caps,
As they waited for the whistle, those underground mining chaps.
He wished he was among them as he watched them go below,
Hurrying now to be off first, as they heard the whistle blow.
But he had only just turned sixteen years, too young to go below,
And he would have to wait another two before they’d let him go.
Mining poetry has never been about nostalgia alone. It has always reflected the reality of the industry and its impact on the people who lived it. The shift from underground to open cut mining marked not only the end of an era but the beginning of a different kind of story, one where machinery replaced human hands, and the scale of operations grew beyond imagination.
Poetry has long preserved the stories of mining life, capturing the raw realities and dangers faced by those who worked beneath the earth. This is reflected in “Only a Father Would” by Billie Pelling, which was read during the Miners Memorial Day service at Redbank in 2022. The poem honours the sacrifices made by miners and their families, during the Mount Mulligan disaster of 1921.
Mt Mulligan mine was blown away,
An explosion that changed many lives that day.
All those mining families shocked and bereft
Knew though they prayed that there was nothing left.
Rescuers knew their comrades were lost.
Still they hoped as they toiled, never counting the cost.
They never gave up, they never gave in.
Though this was a battle they could not win.
Mining poetry, whether reflecting on the hardships underground or bearing witness to the changes brought by open cut operations, remains a powerful record of an industry that shaped Queensland’s communities. These verses ensure that the grit, sacrifice, and enduring spirit of those who built the mining legacy are never forgotten, echoing through time, as enduring as the coal beneath the ground.
| Only a Father Would” by Billie Pelling can be found on the AWU Queensland Branch website: Miners Memorial Day 2022. For those interested in exploring more mining poetry, Bottle Trees and Bougainvillea: Memories of Blair Athol, Clermont and District by Bernie Bettridge offers further insight into the poetic storytelling of the region. Bettridge’s work is also displayed at the Clermont Museum, where visitors can experience a deeper connection to the stories of miners and pit ponies through his evocative words. |
