The Waihi gold strike of 1912
Historian Mark Derby and documentary painter Bob Kerr collaborate to remember the 1912 Waihi miners' strike in words and images in a book called Waiheathens, published by Atuanui Press.
The Talisman Battery,
122 x 90. Several deafening batteries of stampers began crushing the quartz rock down to powder.Talisman.
The fun of the world.
63 x 25. At 19 Tim Armstrong was working on the railway in Raetihi when he heard of work available the Waihi goldfields. " I thought it would be the place for me, so along with a few mates we made up our minds to roll up our swags and walk to the gold fields… it was the fun of the world at times.”
Bill Parry. 180 x 45. The Waihi Miners Union managed to retain a president by paying his salary themselves, and Bill Parry proved his worth during fierce negotiations with the mining company over competitive contracting.
Marjorie Noakes
, 55 x 40. A schoolgirl and miner’s daughter who, like Zena Norton, was passionate about the principles of her father’s union. “Why should men who work the hardest get the smallest pay, and those who do not work at all get millions of money?”
The mine manager’s dream, 122 x 90. With the water level rising in the mineshafts and returns falling for the first time in a decade, industrial conflict threatens to overwhelm the diggings and the embattled mine manager sleeps uneasily.
The police inspector’s report,
55 x 40. “I beg to report that ever since the Strike commenced… not one act of lawlessness of any kind has been committed”
Hatpin Delaney, 55 x 40. The blustering strikebreaker who gained his nickname after he was chased by 18-year-old Jessie Beames, armed only with the nine-inch hatpin she pulled from her cascade of chestnut hair.
The brakes,
120 x 90. Strikebreakers were transported to and from the mine in open horse-drawn carriages, known as brakes. Sometimes a uniformed policeman held the reins. On every shift they faced a barrage of abuse from strikers and their families.
The Death of Fred Evans, 32 x 23. Evans then fled in terror through a back door and into a vacant property behind the hall. “My father always said that he survived,” says Don Boswell, “because he could run faster than Fred Evans.”
Michael Rudd,
55 x 40. The turncoat from the strikers’ ranks who compiled a list of his former colleagues. The strikebreakers worked through the list, giving each man and his family a day’s notice to be on the train out of town.
The Scarlet Runners, 120 x 40. Private Collection.
The strikers’ sweethearts, wives and sisters who ran messages through police lines and later slipped into the besieged town to distribute relief supplies.
The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.
