The 29th Annual Australasian Mining History Association Conference will get underway in the Silver City on Sunday Night and run through to September 6.
On the Friday morning of the event, author Geoffrey Randall will be in town to launch his book Characters and Institutions of Early Broken Hill, 1876-1910 and take part in a panel discussion on the history of mining in the region.
The book focuses on the characters of the mines, and those who played pivotal roles in shaping the town.
Included in the book are tales about the Lord Family and Julius Nickel and their work at Thackaringa, as well as Dame Mary Gilmore.
But Randall also had lots to say on a different author.
“Among the characters that I’ve dealt with is the famous Australian author Ian L. Edris,” Randall said. “He grew up in Broken Hill and qualified as an assayer and on the very day that he qualified, he came down with typhoid.
“Unfortunately, his mother did her best to nurse him but, in the process, got typhoid and died.
“He recovered but I think he was so traumatised by that experience that he left Broken Hill almost immediately afterwards.”
According to Randall the 1892 miners’ strikes were pivotal in shaping Broken Hill, both as a town and as a mining site.
The author also shares his own experience when he travelled to the Silver City with his father in 1968.
“I visited Broken Hill in 1968,” said Randall. “If you mention BHP, you were lucky if you got away with a curled lip.
“Other companies were prepared to negotiate with the unions, but BHP’s attitude was strictly adversarial and confrontational.”
Randall has now written multiple books about mining, and his interest comes from his wife.
Before they were married, Randall and his wife were on a farm when she mentioned there could be gold at the bottom of one the hills on a relative’s property.
“Now, she started boring a hole from the top of the hill,” Randall said.
“Unfortunately, she hit two big seams of quartz which intersected at an angle of about 60 degrees. I’d never met a girl who was a real gold digger, so I thought I better marry this one.”
