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| Established | 1 May 2010 |
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| Location | 26 Hart Street Blackball, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | 42°21′51.6″S171°24′47.5″E / 42.364333°S 171.413194°E Coordinates: 42°21′51.6″S171°24′47.5″E / 42.364333°S 171.413194°E |
| Type | Social history |
| Website | www |
Blackball Museum of Working Class History (Mahi Tupuna) is a museum in Blackball, a small town on the West Coast of New Zealand, [1] [2] that opened in May 2010. The collection celebrates the role of working people in creating the nation and its wealth. [3]
The Blackball Museum of Working Class History Charitable Trust received funding in 2002 from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board, the Blackball Residents' Association and the West Coast Development Trust to investigate the feasibility of a museum. [4] [5] The feasibility study was launched in 2003. [6] While the project was under development, the trust engaged in historical work such as recording oral histories of local residents. [7] In February 2010, the museum sponsored a memorial to the 1908 coal miners' strike. [8] The museum opened on May Day (International Workers' Day; 1 May) 2010. [9]
The museum's exhibits describe the 1908 miners' strike, which led to the formation of a federation of miners, which became the Federation of Labour in 1909. There is a permanent exhibition on Blackball’s coal mining history and a changing exhibition on an issue related to the area, or on a political issue. The museum also includes a memorial wheel dedicated to those who have died at work in New Zealand, with a special section for the 29 miners who died in the Pike River Mine disaster of 19 November 2010. [1] [2] The memorial is the site of an annual ceremony to commemorate the disaster. [10] The museum also hosts an annual Mayday Ceremony and forum.
The West Coast is a region of New Zealand on the west coast of the South Island that is administered by the West Coast Regional Council, and is known co-officially as Te Tai Poutini. It comprises the territorial authorities of Buller District, Grey District and Westland District. The principal towns are Westport, Greymouth and Hokitika. The region, one of the more remote areas of the country, is also the most sparsely populated. With a population of just 32,000 people, Te Tai Poutini is the least populous region in New Zealand, and it is the only region where the population is declining.
The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. John D. Rockefeller Jr., a part-owner of CF&I who had recently appeared before a United States congressional hearing on the strikes, was widely blamed for having orchestrated the massacre.
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries where safety measures are not practiced as fully.
Blackball is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, approximately 29 km from Greymouth. Elevation is approximately 100 metres. The town was named after the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal.
The history of coal mining goes back thousands of years, with early mines documented in ancient China, the Roman Empire and other early historical economies. It became important in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was primarily used to power steam engines, heat buildings and generate electricity. Coal mining continues as an important economic activity today, but has begun to decline due to the strong contribution coal plays in global warming and environmental issues, which result in decreasing demand and in some geographies, peak coal.
Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales. A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museum and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales. The site is dedicated to operational preservation of the Welsh heritage of coal mining, which took place during the Industrial Revolution.
Solid Energy was the largest coal mining company in New Zealand and is a state owned enterprise of the New Zealand Government.
The Pike River Mine is a coal mine formerly operated by Pike River Coal 46 km (29 mi) north-northeast of Greymouth in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. It is the site of the Pike River Mine disaster that occurred on 19 November 2010, leading to the deaths of 29 men whose bodies have not been recovered. The mine and assets are currently owned by the Pike River Recovery Agency, a stand-alone ministry of the Government of New Zealand, following the liquidation of Solid Energy in 2018.
The Brunner Mine disaster happened at 9:30 am on Thursday 26 March 1896, when an explosion deep in the Brunner Mine, in the West Coast region of New Zealand, killed all 65 miners below ground. The Brunner Mine disaster is the deadliest mining disaster in New Zealand’s history.
Mining in New Zealand began when the Māori quarried rock such as argillite in times prior to European colonisation. Mining by Europeans began in the latter half of the 19th century.
The Brunner Mine was a coal mine on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand.
Two separate explosions in 1903 and 1908 at Hanna Mines, coal mines located in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States, caused a total of over 200 fatalities. The 1903 incident was Wyoming's worst coal mining disaster.
Hamstead Colliery in Hamstead, England, produced coal between 1878 and 1965, by mining the South Staffordshire 'Thick' coal seam. It suffered a major fire in 1908 in which 26 men died.
The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island following a methane explosion at approximately 3:44 pm. The accident resulted in the deaths of 29 miners.
People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationery and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in labor and political movements since that time. After the late 19th century coal miners in many countries were a frequent presence in industrial disputes with both the management and government. Coal miners' politics, while complex, have occasionally been radical, with a frequent leaning towards far-left political views. A number of far-left political movements have had the support of both coal miners themselves and their trade unions, particularly in Great Britain. In France, on the other hand, coal miners have been much more conservative. In India, Coal Miners Day is celebrated on May 4.
Bentley Colliery was a coal mine in Bentley, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, that operated between 1906 and 1993. In common with many other mines, it suffered disasters and accidents. The worst Bentley disaster was in 1931 when 45 miners were killed after a gas explosion. The site of the mine has been converted into a woodland.
The Paparoa Track is a 55.7 km (34.6 mi) shared hiking and mountain biking track located in Paparoa National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. The track was created as a memorial for the 29 miners who lost lives in the Pike River Mine disaster. The track is the tenth Great Walk to be created, and has been fully open since 1 March 2020. It was the first addition to the Great Walks in 25 years.
The Prince of Wales Colliery, was a coal mine that operated for over 130 years in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It was permanently closed in 2002 after geological problems were found to make accessing remaining coal reserves unprofitable, and most of the site was later converted for housing.
The Runanga Miners' Hall is a hall in the town of Runanga, on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. The current structure dates from 1937, and replaced an early miners' hall from 1908 that was destroyed by fire. The hall is notable for its place in the history of the organised labour movement in New Zealand, and was granted historic place category 1 status by Heritage New Zealand in 2013.
The Pike29 Memorial Track is a hiking track located in Paparoa National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. The track is being created as a memorial for the 29 miners who lost lives in the Pike River Mine disaster. The track is part of the Paparoa Track, the tenth Great Walk created. Both tracks were originally scheduled to open in 2018. Whilst the Paparoa Track has been fully open since March 2020, the Pike29 Memorial Track is still under construction and expected to open in December 2022. A memorial and interpretation centre at the Pike River Mine portal is due to be finished in April 2024.
