Domestic Dirt in the Coal Rush: Women’s struggle for home and community

Abstract

Domestic Dirt in the Coal Rush: Women's struggle for home and community Abstract This paper deals with the historical role of house and community as 'home' for mining women and men and the roles that women have played in the fight to make their towns liveable places. It includes discussion of life in the 'early days' of the towns, encompassing such matters as early housing, health, facilities, family life, town life, wages and conditions, the treatment of single women and the role of wives; and the role of women in two major housing-related disputes - the Moura housing strike of 1963 and the housing tax strike through most of the Bowen Basin in 1980.