BEER STRIKE AT MT MORGANS
VICTORY FOR THE STRIKERS
Kalgoorlie Western Argus: 14 July 1903. – A correspondent, telegraphing under yesterday’s date from Mt. Morgans, states: A fierce and decisive battle has been fought in this town, the contest lasting exactly 48 hours. The miners, led by Captain Frampton, held a meeting on Friday night in the Main-street, when it was unanimously decided that the hotels should be boycotted until the price of colonial beer came down from 1s to 6d, and seeing that Burtville, a town over 40 miles away, rejoiced in this luxury, the resolution was a very fair one.
The men held to their guns from 9 o’clock on Friday until about the same time on Sunday. With, of course, the usual exception of a few weak minded individuals, whose entry into the various hotels was accompanied by severe hooting from the onlookers.
Procession during the Mt Morgan’s Beer Strike – Photo TROVE
Entertainments and speeches were the order of the day and night to keep the enthusiasm going, and on Sunday night, while a smoke social was being held in the A.W.A. Hall, a demonstration took place. This consisted of the appearance on the stage of the various hotel keepers. They all spoke, and from the tone of their remarks it was very evident that they were already very tired of the strike, especially as the last weekend was connected with a pay day on the Westralia Mt Morgans mine, and hardly a sovereign was divided amongst the six hotels. The battle was over, and the men had won the day. Beer and colonial wines will now be charged at the popular price of 6d per glass.
Great credit is due to the leaders and to the immovable stand the men took.
Mount Magnet Leader and Youanmi Miner – 14 February 1941, page 4
Black or Amber
Excited tongues speak full of wrath
About the price of beer,
They say a tanner’s all it’s worth,
That penny makes it dear.
For good and full ten ounces
We’ll only pay a zac,
Why should we pay that extra brown?
Declare the darned stuff “black”.
A band of staunch objectors,
Met in a goldfields town,
They stated that by hook or crook,
They’d bring the prices down.
They’d teach the pubs a lesson.
Not easy to forget,
But by a strange coincidence,
The town is drinking yet.
In spite of all that’s said and done,
The liquor trade to throttle,
Tis said that one can buy elsewhere,
At two and six a bottle.
Why study such economy?
While our defence bill grows
You’re helping our Democracy
While fast the amber flows.
by J. H. H.
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