Cobbers of Mine and the Mining Magnate
by The Axeman, Alfred E. Wallace
ISBN 978-0-85905-735-6, (New, 2019), A4, 47 pages, 140 grams, $22.00* + POST
Alfred Wallace died of silicosis in 1924. He was an axeman in the forests and an underground miner on the Murchison. His verse was in demand for local celebrations and the regional newspapers. Few modern poets have had the acclaim of the public that the Axeman had.
His collection was reprinted for many years by the Northam newspaper. Some of his satirical verse such as The Bush Geologist, and The Mining Magnate was still being circulated in mining circles in the 1980s.
Places he versifies, such as Barney Murphy's Bungalow Hotel, and the mines where he worked, were part of my wanderings fifty years ago, and my grandfather was also at Wooroloo sanatorium for TB that he got in France. PJB