| Book a tribute to lost miners |
| By Lauren Mitchell - Bendigo Life
Digging into history
By LAUREN MITCHELL
A new Bendigo book to be launched this weekend pays tribute to the forgotten lives lost while in search of gold.
Out of the 850 people killed in Bendigo mines from 1852 to the present, almost 600 were buried in unmarked graves.
And it has taken local historian John Kelly six years to put names to the mounds.
John’s book, Bendigo’s Lost Miners, records inquest reports, mine manager’s reports, applications for graves and other documents that piece together the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The Bendigo Cemeteries Trust volunteer was driven to research those killed after being repeatedly asked about them while giving cemetery tours.
“Whenever we do the historical tours around the cemetery we always point out the graves of George Lansell and Sir John Quick and the questions sometimes arises, ‘where are the miner’s graves?’, and while there are many unmarked, earth graves, no research had been done,” John said.
The launch will appropriately be launched at the Boundary Hotel, which adjoins Hustler’s Hill, the site of Bendigo’s worst mining accident on May 2, 1914.
“Seven miners were killed leaving five widows and 10 children. After that the war started and they were in a really destitute situation,” John said.
The book outlines this incident, and another which occured on Hustler’s Hill.
Elizabeth Watson is the only woman listed in the book. The wife of a mine manager, she was killed in the mine her husband managed.
The women were always the greatest affected by any mine disaster.
“At the time of the accidents, widows may have been left with four, five or six kids and they couldn’t afford to mark the graves,” John said.
Through this book John hopes to pay tribute to those killed and is using it to gain momentum to erect a monument in their honour.
“There are some smaller monuments around Bendigo but I’m trying to get a very large one built as there was over 800 of them.”
Bendigo’s Lost Miners will be launched this Sunday, May 4 from 3pm. All interested people are welcome to attend, and are asked to RSVP to 5449 6594.
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