Linda Cuttriss salutes the women who made Wonthaggi their home and gave the town its heart. Above the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary, 1950. Photo: Wonthaggi & District Historical Society
By Linda Cuttriss
ON FRIDAYS when I was little, before I was school age, we would go into Wonthaggi for Mum’s shopping day. We’d start at the Co-op for groceries, head to the greengrocer’s then to Smith’s Bakery for pasties and eclairs to take back to Grandma’s cosy kitchen for lunch.
What could have taken an hour seemed to take all morning as Mum stopped to talk with the other women in the street. If Grandma came too, it would take even longer. Somehow, she seemed to know everyone, and everyone knew her.
It was the late 1950s and the town still revolved around the mine. Although four and a half thousand people lived there, my lasting memory of those Friday mornings is of the closeness between the women.
ON FRIDAYS when I was little, before I was school age, we would go into Wonthaggi for Mum’s shopping day. We’d start at the Co-op for groceries, head to the greengrocer’s then to Smith’s Bakery for pasties and eclairs to take back to Grandma’s cosy kitchen for lunch.
What could have taken an hour seemed to take all morning as Mum stopped to talk with the other women in the street. If Grandma came too, it would take even longer. Somehow, she seemed to know everyone, and everyone knew her.
It was the late 1950s and the town still revolved around the mine. Although four and a half thousand people lived there, my lasting memory of those Friday mornings is of the closeness between the women.
Like many of the young wives of the British miners and Italian subsistence farmers who left hardships in their homelands for work at the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi, Grandma arrived in a town with basic amenities and no family support but she worked hard with the little she had to make a home for her husband and little boy.
Grandma was of small stature, but her memory lives large in the lives of those she loved. Her name was Emily and people knew her as Em. Emily was one of the many women of Wonthaggi who made the town a home and gave the town its heart.
Grandma was of small stature, but her memory lives large in the lives of those she loved. Her name was Emily and people knew her as Em. Emily was one of the many women of Wonthaggi who made the town a home and gave the town its heart.
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Emily was 23 with a toddler in toe when she disembarked from the six-week sea journey to Melbourne in 1927. My grandfather Jack had left a year earlier to find work and “a roof over their heads” before sending for her to join him.
Jack had done his best to prepare the rented miner’s cottage, but Emily’s heart sank when she stepped inside and saw wooden crates for chairs, a hessian sack by the stove and a mattress on the floor. After a good night’s sleep, Emily got straight to work, grateful to finally be with her beloved Jack and knowing that keeping busy would ease the pain of missing her mother.
Jack had done his best to prepare the rented miner’s cottage, but Emily’s heart sank when she stepped inside and saw wooden crates for chairs, a hessian sack by the stove and a mattress on the floor. After a good night’s sleep, Emily got straight to work, grateful to finally be with her beloved Jack and knowing that keeping busy would ease the pain of missing her mother.
Display washhouse in miner’s cottage at State Coal Mine Heritage Area. Photo: Linda Cuttriss, 2026
Every housekeeping job was manual labour in those days. On Mondays the copper was fired up for washing day and after a solid boiling Emily heaved the steaming washing into the concrete trough, squeezed it through the wringer, rinsed and wrung again and pegged it all on the line to catch the breeze. Tuesday was ironing day. Thursdays she caught the shopping bus down the street and Saturday was baking day. Sunday was her day with Jack making a colourful rag rug for the kitchen floor in the tradition of coalmining families in N.E. England where they had come from.
Emily had a remarkable capacity for work. She took pride in all her jobs from how she pegged the washing on the line to chopping up the kindling with her little tomahawk. Grandad used to laugh that Grandma had been a stoker on a steamer she was so good at chopping that kindling.
Emily had a remarkable capacity for work. She took pride in all her jobs from how she pegged the washing on the line to chopping up the kindling with her little tomahawk. Grandad used to laugh that Grandma had been a stoker on a steamer she was so good at chopping that kindling.
Display kitchen in miner’s cottage at State Coal Mine Heritage Area. Photo: Linda Cuttriss, 2026
The kitchen was the heart of Emily’s home where the stove burned all day long, the kettle was at the ready and the oven always hot. Where we ate Grandma’s delicious cakes and steak and kidney pie, where she ironed the clothes, knitted our jumpers and where we sat on her lap. Emily did everything for her family and looked out for her neighbours too. She would send Jack on errands to fix a window or repair a door for the widows in the neighbourhood.
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The relative industrial peace and prosperity of the mid 1920s to 1930 must have been reassuring to Emily and the women who arrived at this time. But the feeling would be short-lived. While 1929-30 was the year of highest production in the history of the State Coal Mine and employment had never been higher, there were grim challenges ahead.
In 1932 one of the happiest moments of Emily’s life collided with a deep sense of foreboding as the effects of the Great Depression came crashing into Wonthaggi. In the months after Emily gave birth to my mother Irene at home, hundreds of miners were dismissed, and wages were slashed as cost-cutting measures by the newly elected conservative government. By October there were 500 unemployed men in Wonthaggi and Emily worried that Jack could be next.
A three-month strike in late 1932 was followed by ongoing disputes that led to the five-month long strike of 1934 and tested the resolve of every man and woman in Wonthaggi as they battled to feed their families. It eventually went down as the most successful strike in Australian history for its innovative strategy of co-ordinated committees and co-operative community involvement.
At the heart of this success was the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary (Women’s Auxiliary) a group of women who co-ordinated the relief effort, organised fundraising events and spread word across the state and beyond to gather support for their cause.
In 1932 one of the happiest moments of Emily’s life collided with a deep sense of foreboding as the effects of the Great Depression came crashing into Wonthaggi. In the months after Emily gave birth to my mother Irene at home, hundreds of miners were dismissed, and wages were slashed as cost-cutting measures by the newly elected conservative government. By October there were 500 unemployed men in Wonthaggi and Emily worried that Jack could be next.
A three-month strike in late 1932 was followed by ongoing disputes that led to the five-month long strike of 1934 and tested the resolve of every man and woman in Wonthaggi as they battled to feed their families. It eventually went down as the most successful strike in Australian history for its innovative strategy of co-ordinated committees and co-operative community involvement.
At the heart of this success was the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary (Women’s Auxiliary) a group of women who co-ordinated the relief effort, organised fundraising events and spread word across the state and beyond to gather support for their cause.
Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary, May Day March in Melbourne, c.1947. Photo: W&DHS
The women of the town rallied behind them, pitching in to ensure no family did without and sticking together until the union’s demands were met. Emily was not political, but she worried for her struggling family. For her the women’s soup kitchens, marches and protests were a domestic battle for survival of their families.
An interpretive board at the State Coal Mine Heritage Area quotes a woman (unknown):
“It wasn’t that the Women’s Auxiliary just supported men, it was our own survival we were fighting for. I tell you, it built character those struggles. When everything is in upheaval, it’s different, everyone is in it together.”
An interpretive board at the State Coal Mine Heritage Area quotes a woman (unknown):
“It wasn’t that the Women’s Auxiliary just supported men, it was our own survival we were fighting for. I tell you, it built character those struggles. When everything is in upheaval, it’s different, everyone is in it together.”
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After the strike ended, the Women’s Auxiliary went on to fight for important women’s amenities in town including a maternity wing at the hospital, a comfort station for women coming into town and a kindergarten. The women organised art exhibitions, variety shows at the Union Theatre and day trips which continued through until the mine’s closure in 1968. The Women’s Auxiliary was the first of its kind in Australia and became a model for other women’s groups around the world.
Wonthaggi women have always been ready to step in and help. Within a year of the first shaft being sunk on the Powlett Coalfields a group of women, mainly progressive, middle-class wives of mine officials and business owners, formed a Ladies Committee to help raise funds to build a hospital for the town. The initial fundraiser was such a success they decided to organise a ball.
Wonthaggi women have always been ready to step in and help. Within a year of the first shaft being sunk on the Powlett Coalfields a group of women, mainly progressive, middle-class wives of mine officials and business owners, formed a Ladies Committee to help raise funds to build a hospital for the town. The initial fundraiser was such a success they decided to organise a ball.
The 1912 Hospital Ball at the Soldiers Theatre which became the Plaza Theatre. Photo: W&DHS
The 1912 Hospital Ball at the Soldiers Theatre (Plaza Theatre) was a triumph with 400 people in fancy and plain dress dancing while another 200 watched from the sides. A huge sum of £100 was raised. In the years ahead Hospital Balls, Easter Balls and the annual Garden Party and Street Parade which ran from 1953 to 1974 were lucrative fundraisers for the hospital and important social events for the whole community.
Goldie Guthrie serving sponge cake at the hospital garden party, 1955. Photo: W&DHS
In 1929 after some mothers noticed a lack of basic educational needs and sporting equipment at the school, they formed the State School Mother’s Club to raise funds and encourage the community to support them. The first fundraiser was a banquet and such a success that the Mother’s Club promptly became caterer of choice for weddings. Through the Depression the Mother’s Club teamed up with the Teachers Federation and distributed factory footwear and clothing rejects to needy children.
The Mothers Club held an annual Children’s Fancy Dress Ball in the Town Hall and every four years organised a train trip for the school children to Melbourne Zoo and beach picnics to Cape Paterson with prizes, food and lollies. These activities created lasting memories for the children and added to the social life and community spirit of the town.
The Mothers Club held an annual Children’s Fancy Dress Ball in the Town Hall and every four years organised a train trip for the school children to Melbourne Zoo and beach picnics to Cape Paterson with prizes, food and lollies. These activities created lasting memories for the children and added to the social life and community spirit of the town.
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The Mother’s Club along with other women’s groups catered for the rescuers at the Number 20 Shaft explosion where 13 men were killed. Melbourne’s Herald newspaper of February 16, 1937, had photographs with one caption reporting that, “The Womenfolk of Wonthaggi played their part as unselfishly as the men” … When a rescue party returned to the surface at 3.30 am they found … “hot tea and sandwiches ready”.
The catastrophic explosion at Number 20 Shaft in 1937 was the worst accident at the State Coal Mine but there were other fatalities and many serious injuries over the years. Despite the miners always looking out for each other, accidents happened to even the most experienced and capable men. Safety issues were cause for many a strike and fear of accidents galvanised unspoken ties between the women.
The catastrophic explosion at Number 20 Shaft in 1937 was the worst accident at the State Coal Mine but there were other fatalities and many serious injuries over the years. Despite the miners always looking out for each other, accidents happened to even the most experienced and capable men. Safety issues were cause for many a strike and fear of accidents galvanised unspoken ties between the women.
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Harry Sainsbury was born in 1900, and his father was one of the first coalminers at the Powlett Coalfields when mining started in late 1909. In Memories of Wonthaggi, a collection of stories told by Wonthaggi residents and published to mark the town’s centenary year, Harry starts his story with a heartfelt tribute:
“I would like to thank the women of the early mining town – from tent town up to the present. The amount of work and the way they looked after us kids, with the wages of the miners at that time …. There are books with things written about the mines but there wasn’t enough said about the women for all the work they done.”
Perhaps it’s impossible to say enough about how the women of Wonthaggi gave the town its heart and strength of spirit or to explain how bonds forged through the women’s shared struggles and triumphs gave the whole town a sense of belonging.
But now a lasting tribute has been made. Radical Women a public artwork at the Union Theatre officially honours and celebrates the extraordinary women of the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary whose inspirational leadership mobilised all the women of Wonthaggi and gave the town a strength and resolve in its time of greatest need.
“I would like to thank the women of the early mining town – from tent town up to the present. The amount of work and the way they looked after us kids, with the wages of the miners at that time …. There are books with things written about the mines but there wasn’t enough said about the women for all the work they done.”
Perhaps it’s impossible to say enough about how the women of Wonthaggi gave the town its heart and strength of spirit or to explain how bonds forged through the women’s shared struggles and triumphs gave the whole town a sense of belonging.
But now a lasting tribute has been made. Radical Women a public artwork at the Union Theatre officially honours and celebrates the extraordinary women of the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary whose inspirational leadership mobilised all the women of Wonthaggi and gave the town a strength and resolve in its time of greatest need.