Beneath Black Skies

The Illawarra, South of Sydney, once held a reputation for the dustiest and gassiest coal mines in Australia. In 1887 the miners at the Old Bulli Colliery were on strike to better conditions and increase their pay, but a train load of ‘scab’ (non union) labour was being brought to the Old Bulli Colliery to replace striking miners. It was the women who stopped the labour getting to the pits as they stood in front of a moving train and with their babies pleaded for the non union men to return home... two months later the Bulli pit blew up killing 81 men and boys.