Ernest Wetherell

Ernest Wetherell was the man who brought water to Broken Hill. He was a miner, journalist, long-time editor of the Barrier Truth, and an innovative Labor politician. In his influential political career in the State Parliament of NSW he held ministries for Education, Transport and Conservation.

Ernest Wetherell was born in the historic gold rush town of Mt Edgerton in Victoria. By the time he was 14, he had lost both his father and brother to mining accidents, yet he still became a miner himself. This was the life he knew. He followed the work to Ballarat and Tasmania before he arrived in Broken Hill in 1911.

In 1911, Broken Hill had a population of over 30,000. The Barrier Truth, a union-owned and left-leaning newspaper, had become a daily. This was where Ernest Wetherell landed his first job outside of the mines. He started writing while he was still a miner, becoming a journalist for the Truth soon after, and then an editor in 1919. He reported during the Big Strike, an eighteen-month standoff between the miners and the mining companies that created greater hardship in the town than ever before. The Truth was the miners’ news, sustained by a mandatory subscription from union members. Wetherell soon became a managing editor of the paper from 1937, seeing it through during WWII, until 1949.

Historically, the most pressing conservation issue for Broken Hill was water. Stephen’s Creek and Umberumberka were the city’s water reservoirs. Low rainfall sometimes necessitated water being transported by train from Menindee, 60 miles away. One of Ernest Wetherell’s lasting legacies during his office as Minister for Conservation in State Parliament was backing the Menindee Lakes Water Storage Scheme, which resulted in a more reliable water supply for the town in 1952. The mining companies paid for a pipeline to be built from Menindee to the nearby Stevens Creek reservoir.

Since 2019, Broken Hill’s water has come from the Murray River.

When he retired, Ernest Wetherell wrote a history of the miner’s strike from his unique perspective as a miner, a journalist, and a politician during the years that the town experienced its greatest hardship. His stewardship through these years is part of the success story of Broken Hill.

Audio transcript available.