A Disgrace to our Australian Civilisation: Mothers, Miners and the Commemoration of Mortality in New South Wales

H. Lee, University of Wollongong

Abstract

This article compares deaths and death rates for women giving birth with those for mine workers, mainly in coal, in New South Wales (NSW). It focuses on the period 1875–1914, and asks why maternal mortality, which far exceeded mining fatalities, was largely ignored by contemporary legislators and others in a position to reduce an unnecessarily high death toll. It also asks why Australian historians, particularly feminist ones, have ignored the subject just as comprehensively.

Citation

Lee, H. (2004) "A Disgrace to our Australian Civilisation: Mothers, Miners and the Commemoration of Mortality in New South Wales," Illawarra Unity - Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/unity/vol4/iss1/1