Paddy O'Neill

Eugene Patrick O’Neill, founder of the Barrier Industrial Council, was considered one of Australia’s greatest trade unionists. He knew about the life of the working man because in his professional life he was a sanitary carter, a miner, shearer, bullock driver and dam-sinker.

Paddy O’Neill, one of nine children, came to Broken Hill from Wentworth in NSW in 1907, when he was twenty. Like his older brothers, Paddy worked in the mines: BHP, North and Central. He joined the biggest miners’ union: the Amalgamated Miners’ Association (A.M.A) and, in 1908, became secretary of the South Broken Hill branch of the A.M.A.

Paddy O’Neill witnessed several miner’s strikes in his lifetime, starting in 1909 with the infamous Broken Hill lockout, triggered by the ending of a two-year miners’ wage agreement. Conditions in the mines were poor and wages were low, but since other work was hard to find, the mining companies had leverage. When BHP pushed for a 12% wage drop at the end of the agreement, there was strong resistance from the A.M.A. and endless arbitration. No new agreement could be reached between the mining company and the union, so BHP locked out union members and brought in scab labour. Expecting trouble, the company directors also requested, and were given, police reinforcement from the NSW State Government. Paddy O’Neill preferred bargaining over arbitration even before the lockout, but over this period he began to hone his skill for rhetoric and soon had a reputation for being a formidable negotiator.

O'Neill represented the union on the local section of the Australian Labor Federation and on the Barrier Labor Federation. But his most significant contribution to Broken Hill unionism was the formation of a new and powerful union body. In 1923, the Barrier Industrial and Political Council, now the Barrier Industrial Council (BIC) was formed. O’Neill was made BIC leader and held this position until 1949. In his retirement, Paddy O’Neill was lauded as the ‘uncrowned king of Broken Hill.’

Audio transcript available.