Percy Brookfield
Percival John (Percy) Brookfield, the son of an English policeman, was born in Liverpool in 1875. He spent some time at sea as a young man before arriving in Australia in the late 1890s where he worked the mine fields of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.
Percy Brookfield came to Broken Hill in 1914, a time of frustration and unrest on the Barrier. Working conditions in Broken Hill’s mines were dangerous and toxic - miners died regularly of lead poisoning and tuberculosis. Miners bitterly resented Broken Hill Proprietary’s [BHP’s] refusal to honour the 1906 Agreement between unions and mining management, resulting in the BHP lockout of 1908-1909.
Brookfield was a natural leader, and he had a social conscience. He was soon vice-president of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association (A.M.A.). He fought for the working man during the 1919-1920 Strike that resulted in improved working conditions for the miners of Broken Hill, including securing the 44-hour week for underground miners. He vehemently opposed conscription during World War 1. In 1916, with the Red Flag flying, he addressed ten thousand people in the Central Reserve [Sturt Park] and was arrested and jailed for making defamatory public statements. His popularity only increased and, following his release, he was elected Labor State Member for Sturt [Broken Hill]. Brookfield was later expelled from the Labor Party because of his strong socialist views, but his charisma saw him re-elected to represent Broken Hill.
Percy Brookfield was shot by Koorman Tomayoff, a Russian gunman, on the railway station at Riverton South Australia on the 22 March 1921. Both men had travelled on the overnight train from Broken Hill to Adelaide, which stopped for breakfast at Riverton. Tomayeff fired into the crowded platform and, in the panic and terror that followed, Brookfield tried to wrestle the rifle from the gunman. He was shot twice and died later that day in Adelaide Hospital. Eight thousand people attended his funeral in Broken Hill.
An Australia-wide union appeal raised funds to erect the magnificent monument in the Broken Hill cemetery that honours Percy Brookfield. One inscription reads: workers of the world unite, a phrase he was heard to repeat many times. As the memorial was unveiled on Good Friday 14th April 1922, the band played the worker’s song: ‘Solidarity’.
Audio transcript available.