Peace time sounds death knell for Australian mining

Miners battle for increased pay as demand for wartime copper dries up

The Treaty of Versailles ended World War in June 1919. Picture: contributed

HERE in Central Queensland, 100 years ago, Mr Justice Macnaughtan ruled to raise the minimum rate for Mt Morgan miners to 1s 5d per hour, "into line with the rate recently fixed for the employees of the Rockhampton City Council". The Morning Bulletin reported the Mt Morgan Company had been "carrying on at a considerable loss ever since the armistice, and the great slump in the price of copper has proved fatal to all the mines in Australia save those in Mount Lyell and Mount Morgan.”

"When the great accumulations of copper now in hand have been absorbed by civil industry there will be brisker demand, and perhaps some improvement in prices. But the renewal of the war on the former vast scale is the only event which can restore the high tide of prosperity which the industry enjoyed for over four years, and that event is unlikely, if not impossible, and highly undesirable in any case."

A Morning Bulletin special feature. Picture: alexsl

On the 'western front', last minute negotiations were taking place over the treaty which would formally end the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was eventually signed on June 28 2019 in Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which led directly to the war.

"L'Echo e Paris states that the Allies have decided to refuse the latest German proposals and will notify the Germans that they must sign or refuse to do so before the 26th instant.

"A German militarists conference at Berlin opposed the signing of the peace treaty and is attempting to organise active resistance against Allied coercion.

"The German counter proposals were printed [on May 27]. They form 120 typed folios. Sixty members of the German delegation are returning to Berlin by special train, their work having been accomplished. Some of the plenipotentiaries may depart while the Allies consider the German document.

"As a concession to Count Ranteau the Big Four are likely to allow an increase of the future German army to 140,000 men, which is the figure originally suggested by Marshall Foch and approved by the Americans, but reduced to 100,000 at the insistence of Mr Lloyd George."

Originally published as Peace time sounds death knell for Australian mining