Collinsville Miners Memorial WallPrint Page

Memorial wall commemorates the 45th anniversary of the Collinsville State Mine Disaster in which seven miners lost their lives in 1954.

At the time, Collinsville`s Oct 13, 1954 disaster was considered the worst in Queensland`s history. Alexander Parkinson, Henry Peterson, Frederick Walker, Arthur Shrubsole, Peter Miller, James Logan and Herbert Ruff went to work but didn`t return, dying of asphyxiation when carbon dioxide gas sucked the oxygen out of the mine shaft and their lungs.

A mass funeral was conducted this afternoon for the seven men who lost their lives in yesterday's mine disaster at Collinsville. Throughout the day the little town, with a population of 2300, was in deep mourning for the dead men. All business houses were closed for the day and the schools were closed at lunchtime. Five nearby coal mines did not work today out of sympathy for the families of those killed in the disaster. The mines were Bowen Consolidated, New Ebbwvale, Haighmoor Extended, Mount Mulligan and Ogmore. Waterside workers at Bowen also did not work today as a mark of respect for the seven victims who lost their lives during the inrush of black damp as they worked underground mine from the tunnel entrance. 

The men were buried in separate graves side by side in the Collinsville cemetery after a mass service in the Anzac Hall. More than 2000 people attended the funeral, which was more than a mile long. Six hundred cars and trucks were used to carry the mourners and 35 miners and 150 other unionists marched with the funeral for half of the mile and a half journey to the cemetery. They rode the rest of the way on trucks. 
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld), 15 0ctober 1954.

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