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A Short History of the Australasian Mining History Association (AMHA):
The First 25 Years
Beginnings
The AMHA had its origin at the Third International Mining History Conference, held in June 1994 at Golden, Colorado. Mel Davies had attended two previous International Mining History Conferences and had started to wonder why Australia, one of the major mining nations of the world, did not have a society or association devoted to mining history. He raised his thoughts with a small group of other Australians attending the conference, including Patrick Bertola, Peter Bell, David Carment, Charlie Fox, Ruth Kerr and others, and a meeting was held outside the conference hall where it was decided to form an Australian Mining History Association. Mel was elected Secretary and on return to Australia the group corresponded, held a steering committee meeting in Perth and the Association was born and incorporated.
The Third IMHC was held in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Mining History Association (MHA) and this combined conference, as well as the MHA itself, provided some inspiration and an example for the AMHA.
Newsletter and a Logo
One of the first activities of the fledgling AMHA was to develop and circulate a newsletter to the small but growing membership. Issue No. 1 of the Newsletter was compiled by the Secretary and mailed out in May 1995. As well as items of interest on conferences, mining tours and publications this newsletter listed the founding Executive of the Association, with Mel Davies as Secretary/Treasurer and a group of 12 Committee Members representing all states of Australia and the Northern Territory. At this point there was no representative from the ACT. A competition for a logo was also announced in this newsletter with the prize ‘a worthy mention in the columns of the newsletter!’. Entries were slow to arrive and a temporary image of a pipe smoking miner had to be employed until the winning (and possibly only) entry by Michael Tracey was finally unveiled in Newsletter No. 4 in December 1996. The new logo featured a ghostly, pipe smoking prospector gazing down on a mine headframe (see below).
First Conference
From the outset, the founders of the AMHA decided it was critical to instigate an annual conference so that members could meet and communicate their interests and research and also participate in a required annual general meeting (AGM) of the Association. Consequently, the first conference was held in July 1995 in conjunction with the Australian Historical Association (AHA). This conference was held at James Cook University in Townsville with about 20 AMHA attending and 14 presentations on mining history topics. A tour was organized to the Ravenswood gold mine and surrounding sites. These short tours and longer field trips were to become a popular feature of future conferences. The first AGM was held at the Townsville conference and a small executive group elected consisting of Patrick Bertola as President, Mel Davies as Secretary and Lenore Layman as Treasurer.
Temporary logo. Winning logo design by Michael Tracey, 1996.
2 Later Conferences
Following its first highly successful conference the AMHA has held a conference every year to date, except for 2020. The first eight conferences were held in conjunction with the AHA at Townsville, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide, Kalgoorlie and Brisbane. At each the AMHA had a mining related component, generally with associated visits to mining related sites. At the 4th Annual Conference in 1998 the tradition of an annual conference dinner was instigated. In July 2003, the Association held its first stand-alone annual conference at Broken Hill. In 2010 the AMHA held its first conference in New Zealand, at Greymouth on the West Coast. Subsequently, two other highly successful conferences have been held in Aotearoa at Waihi on the North Island in 2012 and at Cromwell, Central Otago in 2018. In 2019 the annual conference returned to the ‘mainland’ and was held at Atherton, North Queensland. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic there was no annual conference held in 2020, but the AGM was still held via the new technology of Zoom, with over 30 members attending from their kitchens, studies and bedrooms!
A full list of conference venues and related information is documented under Highlights and Details and on the AMHA website.
Mining Tours and Field Trips
A highly popular component of the AMHA annual conferences has been the associated visits and extended tours and field trips to historic mining sites. Many of the stand-alone AMHA conferences have been centered on historic or active mining areas to incorporate these important visits.
Attendees on mine tour at the 3rd International Mining History Conference, Colorado, 1994. The conference that inspired the formation of the AMHA. Photo D. Carment.
Barry Sykes and Wendy Carter, outside Broken Hill Mine, on Coromandel field trip NZ. Waihi conference 2012. Photo R. Both.
Preparing to go underground at the Central Deborah gold mine. Bendigo conference 2005.
Panning for gold Uralla, NSW.
Armidale conference 2007.
3 A Bibliography of Australian Mining History
During 1995 the newly founded Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame was interested in compiling a bibliography of works on Australian mining and prospecting and approached the AMHA for assistance. As the Hall of Fame lacked the finances to complete such a project it was decided that the Association would progressively build up a Bibliography of Australian Mining History. The task of compiling details on published books, journal articles, theses and dissertations was enthusiastically taken on by Mel Davies with assistance from the AMHA membership. It was planned to make the bibliography available via the World Wide Web and the first version was released in 1997 with 2,400 entries divided according to States and various sub-categories. Extended versions of the Bibliography were released in 1998, 2002, and 2020. The latest edition has more than 8,080 entries.
AMHA members at Beddomes shaft, Moonta SA. Kadina conference 2006.
Members of the AMHA at the historic gold mine of Mount Boppy NSW. Cobar conference 2016.
AMHA field trip, Merlin’s Lookout, Hill End. Lithgow conference 2009.
Inspecting Bendigo mines, Central Otago NZ.
Cromwell conference 2018.
Inspecting old compressor plant at Nymagee. Cobar Conference 2016.
Wine tasting, Clyde Central Otago, NZ.
Cromwell conference, 2018.
4 Journal
Conference proceedings were published following most of the early AMHA conferences, sparking discussion on the possibility of the Association producing its own Journal. At the 4th annual conference held in Sydney in 1998, it was decided to publish such a journal to be divided into two sections: one for refereed papers and another for lighter notes, contributions and book reviews. It was boldly hoped to have the first issue published before the following conference. Steps were taken to form an Editorial Board, initially including Peter Bell, Diane Menghetti and David Carment.
Members were asked for suggestions of a suitable journal title and responses included Antipodean Miner and The Digger, but the title finally settled on was the Journal of Australasian Mining History.
At the time the AMHA Secretary and Newsletter editor commented that ‘from little acorns mighty oak trees grow, and hopefully that will be the case with the journal which in years to come will perhaps gain a reputation as a work of interest and quality. So quietly we again move forward a step to project our discipline to the wider community’.
Cover and contents page of the first issue of the Journal of Australasian Mining History.
The first issue of the Journal had a long gestation. A call for articles was made in 1999 resulting in sufficient articles to plan for production in 2000, but due to various publication delays Volume 1 did not appear until September 2003. By 2020, 18 single issue volumes of the journal were published containing 125 refereed and 62 general articles, covering a wide range of topics related to Australasian mining history including: histories of particular mines or mining areas, the technological developments in mining and mineral processing; social histories of mining communities; and biographies of prominent mining personalities. A total of 59 book reviews were also published. Mel Davies has been the Editor of the Journal since its inception. The current Editorial Board includes Peter Bell, Patrick Bertola, Gordon Boyce, Barry Cooper, Graydon Henning, Ken McQueen, Jeremy Mouat, Philip Payton, Ian Plimer and Clare Wright.
5 The Website
In August 1997, a web page for the AMHA was included on the website of the University of Western Australia, under the Economics Business School. The link for this page changed three times over the next 10 years as the University went through a series of restructures. A separate, stand-alone website was constructed in early 2008 by Judy Rechner of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland with Judy as the Webmaster and the domain name amha.asn.au. This site was short-lived, being replaced in late 2009. Greg Drew was instrumental in establishing the new site through one of his contacts, Peter Mariner of Smartsite, a small Adelaide based company. The site had the new domain name of mininghistory.asn.au and was hosted by Jumba. Greg acted as Webmaster until 2012, when Stephen Imrie took on the role.
In 2016 it was decided to upgrade the website, add extra content, and provide digital access to the Journal of Australasian Mining History. Repeated, but unsuccessful enquires were made to SmartSite to ascertain whether data storage on the existing site would allow for expansion. It was concluded that the site was non-functional for the requirements and the decision taken to construct a new site with improved functionality. The task of establishing this site was taken on by Ken McQueen, who embarked on the steep learning curve of finding a suitable website host and builder, as well as overseeing the format and construction of the site. MelbourneIT built the site with Netregistry as the host. Fortunately, it was possible to keep the same domain name. After numerous tribulations and a protracted period of development, the new and current website went live in February 2018. The site is now maintained by a Website Administration Group comprising members Ken McQueen, Jenny Scott and Stephen Imrie. Updates and improvements have been made by Canberra based IT company FutureTheory.
Growth of the Association and a change of name
By the end of its first year in 1995, the Association had 63 members. Membership grew quickly to 117 in 1999 and to 155 by 2001. At the Hobart conference in 1999 members of the Australian and New Zealand Economic History Society attended the AMHA conference, a vanguard that led to a small group of Kiwis joining the AMHA. Their number and interest increased over the following years. In line with the widening geographical field of interest of the AHMA it was decided in 2012 at the annual conference held in Waihi, NZ, to change the name of the Association to the Australasian Mining History Association. The new title was ratified by the Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Western Australia on 17th December 2012. By this time membership of the AMHA had grown to 223 with an additional 14 institutional members.
Our Patron
In September 1998, Professor Geoffrey Blainey graciously agreed to be the official Patron of the AMHA. Well known for his contribution to Australian mining history, particularly through his acclaimed and popular books, The Rush that Never Ended, The Peaks of Lyell, The Rise of Broken Hill, Mines in the Spinifex and The Golden Mile.
Professor Blainey has inspired many to take an interest in mining history. Geoffrey has maintained a keen interest in the AMHA and provided support and assistance to our activities to the present. He has also contributed to our Journal.
Professor Blainey (left) at the Queenstown AMHA conference, 2008. Photo R. Both.
6 AMHA Awards
Student Travel Grants
As membership of the AMHA grew and its profile developed, the importance of attracting and supporting younger historians became apparent. At the 2012 conference in Waihi, New Zealand a small group of members including Brian Hill and Ross Both proposed that the Association set up a scheme to offer two student travel grants per year to assist students to attend and present at the annual AMHA conference. Brian commented that he had observed a similar award at the American Mining History Association which seemed successful in attracting some younger members to the MHA. It was decided to offer the travel grants to postgraduate, Honours or final year undergraduate students with a grant of $1000, plus free conference registration, including all activites, and free Student Membership of the Association for one year.
The first two Student Travel Grants were awarded in 2013 to Samantha Killmore, University of Sydney and Trevor Rootes, University of Tasmania to attend the annual conference in Beechworth, Victoria. A full list of awardees to date can be seen under Highlights and Details and on the AMHA website. To date the scheme has had only modest success in attracting younger members to the AMHA and in 2020 it was decided to reduce the number of Travel Grants to one per conference and introduce a new award for the best paper published in the Journal of Australasian Mining History by an early career historian.
Early Career Journal Award
This annual award was introduced at the 2020 Annual General Meeting of the AMHA. It offers a prize of $500 and one year of free membership of the AMHA to an early career historian publishing in the Journal of Australasian Mining History. The award is for the best paper published in the refereed section of the Journal by such a candidate, the winner being selected by the Editorial Board.
Details of both these awards are available on the AMHA website.
Informal Awards
Over the years the AMHA has made a number of informal awards at the annual conferences. These light-hearted awards have been for unusual or humorous contributions and performances by members attending the conference. Some are highly sought after and fiercely contested. Details can be seen under Highlights and Details.
A Facebook Group
At the AMHA annual conference held in Cobar in 2016, Robert Barnes suggested that a facebook group be established to publicise the activities of the Association and further promote interest in mining history. The Facebook group was duly established in 2017 with a link to the new AMHA website. By 2020 this group had 390 members. The AMHA Facebook page has provided a venue for members to post mining history related articles and images, as well as provide another forum for discussion of mining history in all its facets.
International connections
The AMHA has always maintained international links since its conception at an international venue.
A small contingent of AMHA members has attended most of the International Mining History Conferences (now Congresses), as well as numerous meetings held by the Mining History Association (MHA) of America). In 2014 the AMHA co-organised the 10th International Mining History Congress at Charters Towers, Queensland.
The AMHA has a small number of members (currently19) from countries outside Australasia, including Canada, the UK, USA, Japan, South Africa and China, Other non-member mining historians have attended the annual conferences, including from Japan, Portugal, the UK and USA.
Two representatives from the Salt Works Museum in Wieliczka, Poland, attended and presented at the Atherton conference in 2019.
7 Acknowledgements, references, and sources
This short history was compiled by Ken McQueen and Nick Williams with assistance and input from Mel Davies, Ross Both, David Carment, Greg Dickens, Brian Hill, Ruth Kerr and Bev Phelts. Sources of information included the Association Newsletters and Annual General Meeting minutes.
Appendix 1 Executive Officers of the AMHA
Presidents
1995-2001 Patrick Bertola 2001- 2010 Peter Bell 2010-2014 Ruth Kerr 2014-2016 Ross Both 2016-2018 Ken McQueen 2018-2020 Nic Haygarth 2020 - Nicola Williams
Vice Presidents 2009-2010 Ruth Kerr 2010-2014 Ross Both 2014-2016 Ken McQueen 2016-2018 Nic Haygarth 2018-2020 Nicola Williams 2020 – Nic Haygarth
Secretary
1995-2020 Mel Davies
Treasurers 1995 Mel Davies
1995-1997 Lenore Layman 1997- 2020 Mel Davies Appendix 2 Editors
Newsletter Editors 1995-2019 Mel Davies 2020- Jan Wegner
Journal of Australasian Mining History Editor 2003-2020 Mel Davies
See Highlights and Details for full lists of previous Executive and Advisory Committee members.