© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Coalmining

Read more about the article King Coal wants it all his way

King Coal wants it all his way

KING Coal is an outlaw, of the worst kind. The coal industry is so quick to invoke the letter of the law when it comes to stopping people protesting against the worst of its destructive activities, or taking over other peoples’ lives and land. But when it wants to steal water, or rip off taxpayers or ignore the occasional court decision that somehow doesn’t go its way, the law can get stuffed. You can quickly and easily make a long list of shocking examples of coal companies in Australia behaving with disregard for the law. But…

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Read more about the article When Killingworth Colliery blew up
Killingworth Colliery before the explosion. From an old postcard.

When Killingworth Colliery blew up

Thanks to Brian Robert Andrews for correcting and informing this text. At 5.25am on December 7, 1910, people who lived near Killingworth, NSW, were awoken by a huge, ground-shaking explosion. As they looked outside, they saw a great black cloud of dust over the area of West Wallsend-Killingworth Colliery and immediately guessed what had happened. The colliery had exploded, hurling dust and debris about 300m into the air. Fortunately the mine was not working at the time. It had been in care and maintenance for two months, and the deputies and maintenance men who were due…

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Read more about the article Stop trying to think outside the square: a presentation for young journalists

Stop trying to think outside the square: a presentation for young journalists

IN 2005 I was invited by my union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, to give a presentation to young journalists on "thinking outside the square". I suspect the attendees may have been rather bemused by what I offered them. Reading it again, 15 years later, there isn't much I'd change, however. "Thinking outside the square": it's a piece of jargon from those awful new-age management seminars of the 80s and 90s where they used a pat routine of clever tricks and illustrations to show people that their thinking was constrained. It’s become a cliché. Inside…

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