The Worker – a verse

The Worker

The oilrag is the labour toff, he holds the miners dirt,
The trucker would not dare to touch a miners dirty shirt,
The if the mullocker presumes, the truckers gets annoyed,
And all persons a lofty scorn for Boulder’s unemployed.
Supposing, lads, we sling this pride and try another plan,
And institute a better code, the brotherhood of man.

by Temora (anonymous poet) 1905

The machine miner, working on the outer extremities of each stope commanded the best income. Next came the Trucker or Bogger who shoveled the ore into trucks and wheeled it to the ‘plat’: then the mullocker working around the plant on the surface in the ore roasting and auxiliary tasks. The only exception to this graduated scheme of salary and skill was the ‘oil rag’: the boilermakers, fitters and turners and the like who maintained the equipment in all aspects of the mines operation. Their skills placed them in a different bracket, as explained in this poem by ‘Temora’ (an anonymous poet) and was published in the Sun in 1905. This fragmentation of labour was partly conditioned by mining tradition and partly by management practices, but was subject also to the particular conditions in Kalgoorlie.

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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