Bulli Mine Disaster 1887

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Summary

The Bulli Coal Company opened a mine in 1862 on the escarpment above Bulli, New South Wales and built cottages to house miners and their families. The first trade union in the Illawarra region was formed by miners at Bulli in 1879, and the company promptly sacked the workers. But by 1887, the Bulli Colliery was being worked by union miners alongside untrained labor. Many industrial disputes resulted in showdowns between unionized miners and “blacklegs” (scab labor imported from Sydney). A dispute over a reduction of wages, which began in 1886, was finally resolved in February 1887, only a month before the explosion. At about 2:30 pm on 23 March 1887, a gas explosion blew out of the tunnel mouth, throwing an unconscious boy about 100 yards out of the mine and killing 81 men and boys within. The explosion blew out supports and caved in parts of the mine. Other than 17-year-old Herbert Cope, there were no survivors. Some men were killed by the blast, some by rockfalls, while others were asphyxiated by the poisonous atmosphere. The Coroner's Inquest was scathing of company management.^[1]

Each year on March 23rd, the Black Diamond District Heritage Centre Museum, in conjunction with St Augustines Anglican Church Bulli, NSW, conducts a commemoration of the 1887 Disaster, which remains Australia's second worst Industrial Disaster. Please note - where March 23rd falls on a Saturday in which case it is conducted on March 22nd, or if it falls on a Sunday, in which case the commemoration is conducted on March 24th. Often local school students read out the names of the 81 victims. A local men's choir, the Arcadians Lamp Lighters often perform during the commemoration. Generally descendants and relatives of the victims attend the commemoration, and on occasions they may also speak. Reverend Hugh Walker Taylor, the Parish Minister at the time of the Disaster, is also remembered for the service he rendered in the burials, to the relatives of the victims and also to the Bulli community.

Table 1. List of Bulli Mine Disaster fatalities

To attend the annual commemoration of the 1887 Bulli Mine Disaster Commemoration - please send an email to bdhcbulli@gmail.com to be added to the Invitation list.

Research Notes

Sticker: {{Mining Disasters|text=died in the Bulli Mine Disaster|date= 23 Mar 1887}}

Draft list of casualities^[2]

Bodies identifed as at 30 March 1887

1. Louis Gorreson
2. John McBride
3. George Smith
4. John Adamson
5. Henry Thomas
6. William Lucas
7. John McCarthy
8. William Woodlands
9. Henry Graham
10. John Michael Doyle
11. Henry Hans Olsen
12. John Anderson
13. Charles Jowett
14. William Williams
15. William Snodgrass or Neal
16. Samuel Carr
17. John O'Neil
18. John McLelland
19. John Lonsdale
20. William Thompson
21. James Hay
22. Robert Browning (1863-1887)
23. William Schofer
24. Greener Brodie (1844-1887)
25. William Brodie (1847-1877)
26. John Urwin Smith (1845-1887)
27. Robert Newton
28. Jeremiah Westwood
29. Joseph Crompton
30. John Jackson
31. Thomas Melville
32. Thomas Davis (?)
33. Joseph Davis
34. John Rees
35. Lewis Williams
36. Robert Millward
37. William Walker (1847-1887)
38. William Wade (?)
39. George Stephens
40. Ernest Watts
41. Felix John Bouren (1864-1887)
42. James E Bouren (1871-1887)
43. William Attaway Bouren (abt.1834-1887)
44. Thomas Gibbons
45. George Coombs (1871-1887) aka Walker
46. John Thomas Wynn (?)
47. Edwin Bean
48. George Robinson
49. George Ralph
50. John Mackie
51. Richard Wade
52. Cecil or Phelan (?) Cavill
53. John Sullivan
54. James Hicks
55. Abel Newton (?)
56. Henry Dean
57. John Rigby
58. William Hickman (?)
59. John Bentley
60. John Crane
61. James Train (?)
62. Thomas Wishart
63. Thomas Harris Snr
64. Thomas Harris Jnr
65. Frank Harris
66. Isaiah Poppitt (1852-1887)
67. H Sprowl
68. John Marcroft or Bancroft
69. Thomas Jones
70. Thomas Mackie
71. John Galloway
72. John Ryan

Bodies not identified or missing as of 30 March 1887

1. John Robinson
2. James Metcalf
3. James Curvis
4. James King
5. Richard Wade
6. William Birch
7. Thomas Wilson
8. H Ehmann
9. William Viegel
10. William A Bouren Jnr (abt.1869-1887)
11. William Smith

Resources

• Black Diamond Heritage Centre. Bulli Mine Disaster
• 1887 'THE BULLI COAL MINE DISASTER, N.S.W.', The Pictorial Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1885 - 1895), 1 March, p. 35. , viewed 17 Feb 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225065770

Sources

1. ↑ “1887 Bulli Colliery Explosion Case Study”, NSW Government, Resources Regulator, Safety, Safety events and education programs, Learning from disasters, Learning from disasters timeline.
2. ↑ "THE BULLI CATASTROPHE", Singleton Argus (NSW: 1880 - 1954), 30 March 1887, p. 2. , viewed 17 Feb 2023, Page 6. (Article no longer available on trove, 16 June 2023.)