In the third and final part of John Bordignon’s memoir of working life of a coal miner, as told to him by Wonthaggi miners, he relates the accidents, near misses and bloody silly pranks that were part of working life underground.
Rescue workers at the Number 20 shaft after an explosion killed 13 miners in 1937.
Photo: Age archives
Photo: Age archives
DURING the entire operation of the mines, over 58 years, about 80 men were killed – a shocking number, but when compared to coal mining throughout the world, Wonthaggi coal Mine was considered one of the safest. Nevertheless, there were thousands of accidents from cut fingers and toes to rocks coming down on you, and there were some amazing, amazing escapes.
Some of you will remember Ducky Stephenson. One day they were working in my dad’s bord at Kirrak and all of a sudden they heard this thump and knew something was going on. So Dad and Blue Boy went rushing in to the bord where Ducky was working and some others from the next bord came rushing in as well. They found Ducky, who had been trying to pull a sheet of coal down from the roof so he could break it up. He had been standing on a piece of stone trying to bring it down with a crow-bar and it wouldn’t give way, so he kind of gave up what he was doing and jumped off the rock, but at that point the slab of coal did give way by itself and it knocked Ducky to the ground. He was buried under this slab of coal, but his head landed next to the stone he’d been standing on, which took the weight of the slab and saved his head from being crushed.
Dad and the other men spent hours digging around the piece of coal, putting timber supports underneath because they were afraid the stone would crumble and crush him further. They packed and packed and packed. Then with some levers got under the slab and lifted it enough to pull Ducky out. He was still alive, but Dad thought he wasn’t going to make it. He was pretty smashed up, but he did make it, finishing up with one eye which was injured from the crush injury. He was a very lucky man to survive that.
Skippy Dalla Rosa is another: Him and his mate one time were working in one bord and there were miners working in another roadway nearby. These other miners didn’t realise that they were working very close to Skippy and his mate. And they bored an explosive charge into its hole and fired it but the blast blew through the wall between them and Skippy. Skippy had his back to the wall and the blast blew him across the roadway he was in, badly injuring him, but his mate was unfortunately killed. Skippy can remember being semi-conscious when they got him out of the tunnel and Doc Sleeman warning the family he was not going to make it, this made him very determined and he survived.
The reason he is called Skippy is because he was one of those really good miners who worked fast and hard. He would fill up his skips and then have to wait for the replacement skips to be brought in. He used to call out to the wheelers, “I want more skippy! More skippy!” He became famous for calling this out, thus his name. His wife always said of him that he was a very good provider.
Allan Birt was another one. He was a jack of all trades and master of none. If you named something for him to do, he did it or had already done it. He was the inspector of the shafts. He would go up and down in the cages and make sure everything was alright. He was saying at Kirrak the shaft gave trouble because it was crushing and would jamb the cages so they would get stuck. He had to go up and down standing on the cage with an axe and chip away at the skids in the shaft when it became too narrow. Remember the shafts were the only way in or out for the men, the skips and the ponies.
One day Allan was below, and he came up to the surface with all his tools and things and he’s stopped at ground level but the top of the brace where the skips had to go was still 60 feet up.
He said, “I stepped out of the cage with my tool bag and put it down and then spun around to pick up the other tools I’d left in the cage, but the winder driver who controlled the movement of the cage up and down took the cage away to the top without waiting for my signal. When I spun around, I had one foot ready to step into the cage and all that was there was a dirty great hole.”
He said he had only enough balance when he saw what was happening to throw himself backwards onto the ground rather than falling 1000 feet to his death. He also said that all those stories you hear of watching your life go before you are true. You can imagine what Allan had to say to the winder driver about that. The cage was never moved again without Allan’s signal being read loud and clear!
After the mine closed in 1968, Allan said people were talking about keeping Kirrak open and turning it into a tourist attraction, but he was against it because he reckoned the whole shaft was ready to collapse and they had closed it just in time.
Bob Seeber told about the day he was working on pillar extraction in 20-Shaft. Roof conditions were really bad in 20-Shaft. It was a heavy roof and sometimes when you were extracting the pillars, you wouldn’t take it all, it was just too dangerous. So, this one day, the Deputy came into see how they were going and Bob said, “I reckon we’ve taken enough, it’s time to get out.” His deputy reckoned that was fair enough if that’s what he thought and so the men downed tools, picked up their crib and went out to eat and while they ate their crib the whole place caved in. I asked Bob why he knew they had to get out. Was it sifting dust or creaking or something?
“No,” he said, “just gut feeling.” He got out of it.
Other tools the miners used were power borers. These were big electric drills, and you could drill holes a metre or two metres very quickly. One day Paddy Sleeman and his mate were in their bord and they could hear a power borer drill coming through from the bord next to them. So, they grab a great big lump of coal and when the drill comes through, they whack that lump of coal in front of it so the miners on the other side think they are still boring their hole. Eventually, the drill stops, and they pull it out of the drill hole and not long after a stick of gelignite comes through to their side. The miners, who were boring, not suspecting a thing, then begin tamping the hole they made by pushing bits of clay and stone into it from their side. But, while they are doing that, Paddy and his mate cut the gelignite off the fuse and lite it. The guys who had drilled the hole suddenly see the lit fuse coming back at them! Great confusion: “What the hell is going on here?” they yell and take off for their lives!
Yeah, they had a bit of fun down there.
Many of you will remember Dickie Keast, or Keastie, as everyone called him. He was one of the biggest, most annoying wheeling pranksters they had in the mine. He was always up to mischief. Dad’s mate, Blue Boy, was the butt of many of his pranks. (Blue Boy was called this because when he started in the mine he didn’t know what to wear so he bought a blue boiler suit to work in, thus the nickname Blue Boy) One day come crib time, Blue Boy and Dad sit down and Blue Boy takes the lid off his crib tin. Next thing Dad knows is an almighty yell with crib tin flying one way and Blue Boy running the other. While he wasn’t looking, Keastie snuck a dead snake in there. He would do things like that to Blue Boy, who just got sick of it in the end and Blue Boy got him back. One day he’d had his shower in the miners’ changing room which was a great place for catching starlings, which they called starkers. Blue Boy caught one and put it in Keasties’ crib tin so the next morning when his wife was making his crib, she opens the tin, and the bird comes flying out at her. There was an almighty chase through the house. Back at the mine Keastie has a go at Blue Boy who tells him, “Now you know how I feel, don’t ya!?”
Another time Keastie stuck a bit of gelignite in some one’s lunch box and blew the lunch up. In retaliation they got a hold of his coat that was hanging on a prop and nailed it to the prop so that when Keastie ran past at knock off and grabbed it, the coat got ripped in half. Things like that went on all the time.
One time, Ron (Pump) Motherwell, when he was young, was working on a winch that lowered the skips when they went down steep dips in the tunnels. He got pretty good at this and as he pushed the skips over the brow, he would throw the cable onto the draw hook of the skips and lower them slowly with the winch. One day, he knew that old Alf Keily, who was a pumper, was working on one of the pumps in the tunnel near the lower part of the dip.
As Pump pushed the skip over the brow he missed the draw hook with the cable and off goes the runaway skip. At this time Alf had actually got the pump going and he had settled down to have his crib. Imagine him sitting there, feet across the rails; he can't see the runaway for the heavy hessian curtain hanging to direct the air along the tunnels; neither can he hear the rattle of the skip coming down the dip because the pump is going. While he is sitting there, he just happened to look up and he saw a piece of fuse wire hanging on the prop by the hessian. He had just bought a new pair of pliers and thought to himself, “I wonder if they are any good.” So, he stood up to cut the fuse wire. This was just when the skip came flying through the hessian curtain with Pump running after it yelling, “Watch out! Watch out!” When that skip came through the hessian, Alf turned white, knowing he could have lost his legs if he hadn’t decided to cut that bit of fuse. He said it wasn’t his turn.
It seemed that John had just got going with his stories when, suddenly the Mine Whistle sounded and caused all the rapt listeners to jump out of their seats. No one had realised how much time had gone by and I believe they all would have been pleased to keep listening for another half-an-hour and that John could certainly have continued except for the fact that the kettle had boiled and tea was ready to have with Barbara Robertson’s scones.
In fact, John finished his talk by saying, “That’s only some of the things that went on in the mine. I loved hearing those stories the miners told. There is such a vast history there.”
Clearly John has not lost his fascination of coal mines and mining. In fact, there is a lot more to tell about John Bordignon and his well-known obsession. - Carolyn Landon
This essay, edited by Carolyn Landon, was first published in The Plod, the newsletter of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society.
Dad and the other men spent hours digging around the piece of coal, putting timber supports underneath because they were afraid the stone would crumble and crush him further. They packed and packed and packed. Then with some levers got under the slab and lifted it enough to pull Ducky out. He was still alive, but Dad thought he wasn’t going to make it. He was pretty smashed up, but he did make it, finishing up with one eye which was injured from the crush injury. He was a very lucky man to survive that.
Skippy Dalla Rosa is another: Him and his mate one time were working in one bord and there were miners working in another roadway nearby. These other miners didn’t realise that they were working very close to Skippy and his mate. And they bored an explosive charge into its hole and fired it but the blast blew through the wall between them and Skippy. Skippy had his back to the wall and the blast blew him across the roadway he was in, badly injuring him, but his mate was unfortunately killed. Skippy can remember being semi-conscious when they got him out of the tunnel and Doc Sleeman warning the family he was not going to make it, this made him very determined and he survived.
The reason he is called Skippy is because he was one of those really good miners who worked fast and hard. He would fill up his skips and then have to wait for the replacement skips to be brought in. He used to call out to the wheelers, “I want more skippy! More skippy!” He became famous for calling this out, thus his name. His wife always said of him that he was a very good provider.
Allan Birt was another one. He was a jack of all trades and master of none. If you named something for him to do, he did it or had already done it. He was the inspector of the shafts. He would go up and down in the cages and make sure everything was alright. He was saying at Kirrak the shaft gave trouble because it was crushing and would jamb the cages so they would get stuck. He had to go up and down standing on the cage with an axe and chip away at the skids in the shaft when it became too narrow. Remember the shafts were the only way in or out for the men, the skips and the ponies.
One day Allan was below, and he came up to the surface with all his tools and things and he’s stopped at ground level but the top of the brace where the skips had to go was still 60 feet up.
He said, “I stepped out of the cage with my tool bag and put it down and then spun around to pick up the other tools I’d left in the cage, but the winder driver who controlled the movement of the cage up and down took the cage away to the top without waiting for my signal. When I spun around, I had one foot ready to step into the cage and all that was there was a dirty great hole.”
He said he had only enough balance when he saw what was happening to throw himself backwards onto the ground rather than falling 1000 feet to his death. He also said that all those stories you hear of watching your life go before you are true. You can imagine what Allan had to say to the winder driver about that. The cage was never moved again without Allan’s signal being read loud and clear!
After the mine closed in 1968, Allan said people were talking about keeping Kirrak open and turning it into a tourist attraction, but he was against it because he reckoned the whole shaft was ready to collapse and they had closed it just in time.
Bob Seeber told about the day he was working on pillar extraction in 20-Shaft. Roof conditions were really bad in 20-Shaft. It was a heavy roof and sometimes when you were extracting the pillars, you wouldn’t take it all, it was just too dangerous. So, this one day, the Deputy came into see how they were going and Bob said, “I reckon we’ve taken enough, it’s time to get out.” His deputy reckoned that was fair enough if that’s what he thought and so the men downed tools, picked up their crib and went out to eat and while they ate their crib the whole place caved in. I asked Bob why he knew they had to get out. Was it sifting dust or creaking or something?
“No,” he said, “just gut feeling.” He got out of it.
Other tools the miners used were power borers. These were big electric drills, and you could drill holes a metre or two metres very quickly. One day Paddy Sleeman and his mate were in their bord and they could hear a power borer drill coming through from the bord next to them. So, they grab a great big lump of coal and when the drill comes through, they whack that lump of coal in front of it so the miners on the other side think they are still boring their hole. Eventually, the drill stops, and they pull it out of the drill hole and not long after a stick of gelignite comes through to their side. The miners, who were boring, not suspecting a thing, then begin tamping the hole they made by pushing bits of clay and stone into it from their side. But, while they are doing that, Paddy and his mate cut the gelignite off the fuse and lite it. The guys who had drilled the hole suddenly see the lit fuse coming back at them! Great confusion: “What the hell is going on here?” they yell and take off for their lives!
Yeah, they had a bit of fun down there.
Many of you will remember Dickie Keast, or Keastie, as everyone called him. He was one of the biggest, most annoying wheeling pranksters they had in the mine. He was always up to mischief. Dad’s mate, Blue Boy, was the butt of many of his pranks. (Blue Boy was called this because when he started in the mine he didn’t know what to wear so he bought a blue boiler suit to work in, thus the nickname Blue Boy) One day come crib time, Blue Boy and Dad sit down and Blue Boy takes the lid off his crib tin. Next thing Dad knows is an almighty yell with crib tin flying one way and Blue Boy running the other. While he wasn’t looking, Keastie snuck a dead snake in there. He would do things like that to Blue Boy, who just got sick of it in the end and Blue Boy got him back. One day he’d had his shower in the miners’ changing room which was a great place for catching starlings, which they called starkers. Blue Boy caught one and put it in Keasties’ crib tin so the next morning when his wife was making his crib, she opens the tin, and the bird comes flying out at her. There was an almighty chase through the house. Back at the mine Keastie has a go at Blue Boy who tells him, “Now you know how I feel, don’t ya!?”
Another time Keastie stuck a bit of gelignite in some one’s lunch box and blew the lunch up. In retaliation they got a hold of his coat that was hanging on a prop and nailed it to the prop so that when Keastie ran past at knock off and grabbed it, the coat got ripped in half. Things like that went on all the time.
One time, Ron (Pump) Motherwell, when he was young, was working on a winch that lowered the skips when they went down steep dips in the tunnels. He got pretty good at this and as he pushed the skips over the brow, he would throw the cable onto the draw hook of the skips and lower them slowly with the winch. One day, he knew that old Alf Keily, who was a pumper, was working on one of the pumps in the tunnel near the lower part of the dip.
As Pump pushed the skip over the brow he missed the draw hook with the cable and off goes the runaway skip. At this time Alf had actually got the pump going and he had settled down to have his crib. Imagine him sitting there, feet across the rails; he can't see the runaway for the heavy hessian curtain hanging to direct the air along the tunnels; neither can he hear the rattle of the skip coming down the dip because the pump is going. While he is sitting there, he just happened to look up and he saw a piece of fuse wire hanging on the prop by the hessian. He had just bought a new pair of pliers and thought to himself, “I wonder if they are any good.” So, he stood up to cut the fuse wire. This was just when the skip came flying through the hessian curtain with Pump running after it yelling, “Watch out! Watch out!” When that skip came through the hessian, Alf turned white, knowing he could have lost his legs if he hadn’t decided to cut that bit of fuse. He said it wasn’t his turn.
It seemed that John had just got going with his stories when, suddenly the Mine Whistle sounded and caused all the rapt listeners to jump out of their seats. No one had realised how much time had gone by and I believe they all would have been pleased to keep listening for another half-an-hour and that John could certainly have continued except for the fact that the kettle had boiled and tea was ready to have with Barbara Robertson’s scones.
In fact, John finished his talk by saying, “That’s only some of the things that went on in the mine. I loved hearing those stories the miners told. There is such a vast history there.”
Clearly John has not lost his fascination of coal mines and mining. In fact, there is a lot more to tell about John Bordignon and his well-known obsession. - Carolyn Landon
This essay, edited by Carolyn Landon, was first published in The Plod, the newsletter of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society.