BROKEN HILL HISTORY PROJECTS
- Projects
In this entertaining short live show, you’re invited to step back in time to May 1919, and explore the city’s mining past as you join local actors in a ‘union meeting’ of the Amalgamated Miners Association (AMA), set on the eve of the strike action that changed Australia forever. Building on previous strikes, the ‘Great Strike’ saw the community work together in solidarity for 18 months between May 1919 and November 1920 to strike against unsafe working conditions and low wages in the Broken Hill silver mines. This action remains one of the hardest-fought industrial disputes this country has ever seen. The coordinated efforts by workers and their families paved the way for better pay, safer working conditions, and a workers compensation scheme for injured workers. These agreements formed the platform for our current national WHS and Compensation Acts, and contributed to Broken Hill being named Australia’s first Nationally Heritage Listed City in 2015. ‘United we stand’ tourist play was commissioned for the Indian Pacific off-train experiences by Journey Beyond, and has been seen by around 10,000 passengers since it’s inception in April 2017? The show has since been performed by an increasing number of local actors who have helped…
Postcards were the ‘Social Media’ of years gone by. See history come to life through the development of reproduction props, costumes, and Augmented Reality Postcards inspired by famous Broken Hill postcard photographs featuring short video clips produced locally for ‘United We Stand: Strikes Scabs and Solidarity in Broken Hill’. INSERT PIC OF one or two ACTUAL POSTCARDS OF GRAVES In the early years of Broken Hill, it was common for people to reproduce postcards to share with the community. This was done for a number of reasons. Some of the most famous examples of Broken Hill postcards were the images of mock graves and campsites captured and shared during the militant 1909 Lockout and early Picnic Days. In the lockout, Tom Mann famously unionised the workforce and helped convince the workers of BHP to strike for better wages. He then took the postcards to England to assist motivating workers to join the cause for solidarity in the labour movement there. Caption: some of the crew who helped bring history to life. Film shoot in Dec 2021. About the Project: Based on the successful United We Stand Tourist play, funding was secured for a NSW Government Heritage Grant to develop United…