Live Author reading of Coal Town -
Coal Town is the story of the glorious rise and fall of an Australian mining community.
It is a tale of hardship and danger, accidents and disasters – strikes, riots, the suffocating and sometimes dangerous power of unions. At the same time, it is a chronicle of colonial Australia’s working-class march forward.
In Coal Town, the pub took the place of church. Gambling, fighting, and drinking were as natural as breathing, mateship stronger than marriage. Women held little sway – their responsibilities limited to feeding a hungry miner, breeding and nurturing children, catching fallen pride.
And yet Coal Town was given the almost overwhelming responsibility of powering a new nation into a bright future.
