When the grass roots died: finding and understanding an Australian coal mining community in the 1980s

This thesis is an analysis of a coal mining community based around a coal mine at Teralba, on the north-western edge of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. In order to uncover this community, as it is remembered in a series of oral history interviews by men who worked there, this thesis seeks to redefine the term ‘community’ in such a way as to make it an effective methodological tool as well as a descriptive term. Having considered the uses and misuses of ‘community’ in labour history, this thesis will then present a methodology, utilising a community web, as discussed by Taksa in 2000. Historiographically positioned and methodologically developed, the thesis then moves on to consider the case study of the Pacific Community during the 1980s. Utilising the community web, this community’s narratives are analysed for their lessons on working within a coal mine, but also on behavioural expectations acceptable and unaccepted by the community. Having established the inclusive as well as alienating aspects of the community, the thesis moves on to consider the influence and expectations of community members who did not work at the mine, such as female partners and union officials. The final chapters consider the changing political and social circumstances of the 1980s and the way these pressured and finally altered the community members’ expectations. The thesis will consider the concept of historicisation, where the community is not destroyed, as its narratives still exist, but it is unable to grow as those narrative are no longer able to be passed on. This thesis argues that an effective definition of community and an effective methodology for uncovering community, not only allows hidden communities to be examined, but also ensures all community members are recognised, including women and people that may not work at a mine site. It also argues that communities cannot be destroyed by outside pressures. Rather, the Pacific community case study shows that communities continue to exist as long as members have the willingness and ability to share the narratives that bind it.