Former university lecturer Dr Rae Norris has spent the last year researching Coal Miners from the Howard district. The lack of information about their work and lives inspired her to begin her project. As part of the Local History talk series Dr Norris introduced her initial findings. She has managed to add four more names to the Miner Memorial found at Burrum District Museum , bringing the total to thirty.
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| No 4 Mine Burgowan. Source: David Proctor Collection |
Dr Norris utilised free access to Ancestry.com and Find my Past from Libraries located in Maryborough, Howard and Hervey Bay. Using clues she gleaned from these sites, she then went to the cemetery to find their graves. She was surprised to find few headstones. A major explosion in Torbanlea in 1900 killed five men and she located a grave that had both father and son killed in this event. She used the Fraser Coast Council's online Cemetery data bases to discover more information about the miners and their families. Dr Norris's full talk is available on Fraser Coast Libraries Youtube page here
Pit pony hauling a coal wagon at QC Gauchalland Mine, 1920.
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