Historical information

Dr Michele Matthews has been a local and social historian for nearly three decades since she first used correspondence held by the then Bendigo City Council for her Honours thesis. She is an ardent advocate for the use of local history records to tell Victorian and Australian history from a grassroots perspective. Michele’s MA thesis, ‘A forgotten “Father” of Federation: Sir John Quick 1852‑1911’ (2003), and her PhD thesis, ‘Survivors, schemes, Samaritans and shareholders: the impact of the Great Depression on Bendigo and District 1925‑1935’ (2007), both drew heavily on Bendigo and district records.

Physical description

Michele Matthews Collection: PHD Research - Relief during the great depression

This item includes the following documents:

8672.85a The document is a series of official letters dated 27–30 October 1934 concerning unemployed miners in Bendigo, Victoria, who had lost work because of the engine-drivers' strike.

The first letter, sent by the Town Clerk of Bendigo to the Minister in Charge of Sustenance, describes the severe hardship experienced by miners who had become unemployed through no fault of their own. Although many of these men had only recently returned to work after earlier periods of unemployment, the strike had left them jobless again. The letter explains that they had reportedly been ruled ineligible for government sustenance payments, despite their willingness to work and the lack of available employment.

To emphasise the urgency of the situation, the Town Clerk provides an example of a miner with a wife and five children who had no food in the house while his wife was about to give birth. The child was born while the father was away seeking assistance. The letter argues that this case reflects the broader hardship facing many mining families and respectfully requests that the government reconsider its policy and extend sustenance assistance to these unemployed miners.

The second letter, dated 30 October 1934, is the Department of Labour's response. The Assistant Minister acknowledges receipt of the Bendigo Town Clerk's appeal and states that the matter has been carefully considered. He advises that instructions have been issued to the Registrar of Public Assistance in Bendigo and encloses a copy of those instructions for reference.

The attached memorandum outlines the government's decision. It authorises a special concession allowing sustenance payments to be granted to miners who became unemployed because of the strike, provided they had been in employment within the four weeks before the strike began. These miners, together with their families, were to receive sustenance at the normal rates until they received their first wages after returning to work. However, the memorandum makes clear that this concession was strictly limited to those who had already been receiving or were eligible for sustenance within that four-week period, and that no extension beyond these conditions would be considered.

Overall, the document illustrates the impact of the 1934 industrial dispute on Bendigo mining families and shows how pressure from local government led the Victorian Department of Labour to introduce a limited but significant welfare concession for affected unemployed miners.