Running the CutterPrint Page

The statue commemorates an old mining custom of buying beer and drinking them in billy-cans (the cutter) outside the hotel. It was practised by Mount Morgan miners from approximately 1900 to 1918.

At the time of this unique custom, a billycan was known as a “cutter”. There are a number of tales behind this past custom, but often the “running” of the Cutter refers to the task which was carried out by a young local daily. It is said that when a miner finished his shift, he would have a young lad run to a nearby hotel with his billycan, have it filled with beer and brought back to him as he came off shift.

Another chapter of the “running” is said to have been established by miners who wished to head home straight from work, or number of miners’ wives who tired of their husbands returning home late for meals; sending their children to fetch Dad a billy of beer and have it waiting for him at the end of his shift. It is believed that the rising cost of beer caused publicans to put an end to the billy can, and cease the tradition of running the cutter.

Location

Address:	Burnett Highway & Morgan Street, Mount Morgan, 4714
State:	QLD
Area:	AUS
GPS Coordinates:	Lat: -23.645278 Long: 150.387778 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

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Details

Monument Type:	Sculpture
Monument Theme:	Culture
Sub-Theme:	Community

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:	Saturday 24th April, 1982

Source: MA