Francis Egan

Francis Egan and Evan Marshall disagreed on just about everything. They first met early in 1914 when they were both cooks at the Austral Cafe on Argent Street in Broken Hill – an establishment that served up thin beef stew and mutton chops to 600 hungry miners a day.  

Francis Egan, sole-parent of four children, was not a union member – she was focused on earning and on survival rather than on the politics of unionism. As an independent thinker and straight-talker, she probably had a few choice insults to hurl at an ambitious young unionist like Evan Marshall.  

Within a few months, Marshall was president of the Restaurant Employers’ Union and Egan was part-owner of the new Barrier Cafe – a business she co-owned with her brother. Soon the Barrier Cafe was providing packed lunches wrapped in oilskin for miners to put in their ‘cribs’ and take underground on shift.  

When war was declared, without the markets of Belgium and Germany, several mines were forced to close. Within six months, the number of jobs for miners had halved. If not for all the unemployed men arriving in Broken Hill looking for work, the Barrier Cafe – which had become known as Mrs Egan’s, would have been forced to close. There was no such thing as welfare for single mothers in 1915, but with young children to feed Francis Egan was used to hardship.  

The Restaurant Employer’s Union reserved the right to force businesses like the Barrier Cafe to employ only union labour, and therefore to pay a high union wage. Any business that refused was black-listed: no union member permitted to patronise it. Most of the Barrier Cafe’s customers were union members. Still, Francis Egan refused and Evan Marshall took his revenge (or so he thought) by shutting down her business. 

In desperation Francis tried to join the union but Marshall blocked her. So she invited him to visit her home to discuss ‘union business’ and, with the help of her friend Mrs Westmore, pointed a revolver at his head, brushed sticky black tar over his face, torso and arms, then ripped open a down pillow and threw the feathers at him. Marshall was then whipped and paraded through the busy Royal Hotel. 

The women were charged and a jury of local townsmen were selected to hear the case against Egan and Westmore. They found them not guilty. Furthermore, the Amalgamated Miners' Association (AMA) was ordered to pay over £2,000 in costs and damages to Mrs Egan for conspiring to deprive her of a way of earning a living. Marshall became an object of ridicule in the town. 

Francis Egan’s victory was twofold: she met radical tactics with radical justice, and she became an inspiration for the hard-working women of Broken Hill.  

Audio transcript available.