Death by Misadventure during the Rothbury Riot

Abstract

The death of coalminer Norman Brown at Rothbury was the result of a ricocheted police bullet amidst a chaotic scene between police and workers during a bitter industrial conflict. Heavily outnumbered police, prone to panic, indiscriminately fired weapons at Rothbury on 16 December 1929. A flawed coronial inquest was conducted into Brown’s death; it disregarded miners’ evidence about the police shootings and no concerted effort was made to unmask the culprits. After the Rothbury riot, violent and brutal clashes erupted on the Northern NSW coalfields. The enraged mining communities blamed the ‘basher gangs’ or ‘outside’ police for the repression and violence. As the state government championed the police actions, there was no public inquiry into either Brown’s shooting or police violence on the Northern coalfields.