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Employment & the Mining Industry

Voids and Geology crew working at Superpit KCGM Kalgoorlie. Courtesy KCGM.

Voids and geology crew working at the Superpit, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Kalgoorlie, courtesy of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

There were very few women associated with mining and women were not allowed to work on the mine. However, historian Norma King has recorded that Coolgardie resident Lena Green was the only woman to hold miners right, No 05644, in 1894. In a managerial role, Mrs S.A. Holman was appointed manager of the Corsair Main Reef Mine in 1898. [1]

New technologies have altered the picture. The change from underground mining to open pit mining offered new opportunities for women in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. In 2012 at KCGM, at least fifty percent of the mining workforce are women. The benefits of technology have enabled women to compete with men for well-paid work.

Mining has become safer with more concern for the environment and the community.

Women are also working as prospectors - an occupation previously only for the hardiest goldfielder. Ex nurse Di Stockdale prospects for a living with her husband, as do an increasing number of women who are aided by new satellite GPS, gold detecting equipment and better and more mobile accommodation.

Although the mining industry is a significant source of employment for many women in the district now, women continue to run hotels, businesses and work in hospitals and hospitality. Still working in her 80s, Lorna Sharp became the first licensed realtor in Kalgoorlie.

Women's Stories

Read more about women from Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Australian Women's Register.

Michelle Berryman - Manager
Lorna Sharp - Business owner and office assistant
Margherita Stefani - Business owner
Nicole Pike - Voids officer

Audio

Title: Carol Douglas discussing being a feminist at work and seeing herself as a feminist
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Carol Douglas: Mining as a great industry for women
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Early difficulties for women in the mining industry
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) policy regarding women
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Lorna Martin: Working at a boarding house aged 14
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Lorna Sharp and the importance of work
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Margherita Stefani - no days off work
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Margherita Stefani describing her working day
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Margherita Stefani describing the first takeaway spaghetti and cutlets in Kalgoorlie
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Margherita Stefani discussing her working day
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Margherita Stefani discussing work skills
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Michelle Berryman remembering the death of her miner father in the Otto Duane Mine in 1996
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Michelle Berryman: Changing mining culture, becoming more aware of the community
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Michelle Berryman: Mothers in mining
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Nevina Zadow: A change of work culture because of an influx of women
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Nevina Zadow: description of truck driving
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Nicole Pike discussing female apprentices and working in a warehouse
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Title: Nicole Pike explaining her work as part of the Voids Crew
Type: Interview
Source: Criena Fitzgerald

Images

Title: Amalfi Restaurant, Kalgoorlie Boulder
Type: Image
Date: c. 1950
Source: Margherita Stefani

Title: Di Stockdale at her prospecting camp
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Di Stockdale

Title: Di Stockdale, prospecting
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Di Stockdale

Title: Joan Heenan at work in Perth
Type: Image
Date: c. 1980
Source: Eric Heenan

Title: Joan Heenan, graduation
Type: Image
Source: Eric Heenan

Title: Lorna Sharp and children
Type: Image
Source: Lorna Sharp

Title: Lorna Sharp with her staff
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Lorna Sharp

Title: Margherita Stefani cooking at the Amalfi Wine Saloon
Type: Image
Date: c. 1950
Source: Margherita Stefani

Title: Michelle Berryman
Type: Image
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Title: Mrs Marinka, waitress at the Amalfi Restaurant
Type: Image
Date: c. 1950
Source: Margherita Stefani

Title: Nevina Zadow working in the Superpit
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Title: Nicole Pike
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Title: Nicole Pike and voids crew
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Title: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Kalgoorlie-Boulder Council

Title: Voids and geology crew working at the Superpit, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Kalgoorlie
Type: Image
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Title: Women Mining Voids Crew
Type: Image
Date: 2011
Source: Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines

Notes

Norma King, Daughters of Midas, Hesperian Press, 1988, p. 158-159. Return to text

This exhibition is a project of the National Foundation for Australian Women, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, as part of the Foundation's ongoing initiative, the Australian Women's Archives Project.

Work on this project was generously funded in 2011-12 by the Government of Western Australia, KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines) and Kalgoorlie-Boulder City Council.

Copyright © Criena Fitzgerald and the National Foundation for Australian Women, 2012
Published by the Australian Women's Archives Project
http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/wikb/employment.html