On a cold, rainy Thursday evening close to 200 people gathered at Windy Gully in the bush above Mount Kembla, just as they have for more than 120 years, to remember the 96 lives lost in Australia's worst mining disaster.
In the still of the evening, with light rain falling, a lone piper, accompanied by miners, set the chilling scene for the moving ceremony, paying tribute to the men and boys who lost their lives on the afternoon of 31 July 1902. Thirty-three of the victims are buried in the cemetery at Windy Gully where the moving commemorative event took place.
Master of ceremonies Mark Matthews, a familiar voice to Saturday morning early risers on ABC Illawarra, said the events on that fateful day have been described as Australia's worst industrial accident. "This was no industrial accident. It was our worst mining tragedy, a mining disaster; it should not have happened," he said.
Children from Mount Kembla Public School, not much younger than some who died in the tragedy, opened proceedings with the national anthem before tributes from local parliamentarians, MPs Ryan Park and Paul Scully, Lord Mayor Tania Brown, and Mining and Energy Union representative Andy Davey, and the general manager of Dendrobium Mine, Simon Thomas.
During a minute's silence, those who attended remembered the 261 miners who were working underground at the time of the explosion. Ninety-four were killed in the blast and two rescuers also lost their lives when they were overcome by gas.
Entire families were impacted by the tragedy. Twenty-two young men and boys aged 21 and under perished. Amongst them were 17-year-old Henry Morrison and his 15-year-old brother Sandy, whose headstone stands within metres of where the moving annual ceremony takes place.
Thirty-three widows and 120 children under 14 were left behind on 31 July 1902.
Local playwright 92-year-old Wendy Richardson, who is best known as the author of Windy Gully, wasn't able to attend this year's ceremony, but the reading of her poem captured the solemn mood of an important local tradition that will never be lost.
Wollongong's former lord mayor, Rev Gordon Bradbery, led the vigil and the lighting of 96 candles, one for each of the men and boys who died. Each of their names were read out, including Charles Woodroof, aged 33, who was carried from the mine alive but died from his injuries five weeks later. The youngest victims were local boys, William Silcock and Frederick Smith, both aged 14.
Despite denials from the company running the mine at the time, it was a known fact that gas was present in the Mount Kembla coal mine, yet miners strapped on their helmets with a naked flame burning bright. Mark Matthews was correct. This tragedy should never have happened.
History shows that those 96 who lost their lives did not die in vain. The Royal Commission that followed the disaster handed down many recommendations, including more testing for gas, better ventilation, improved shot firing practices and the abolition of naked flame lights. Inexplicably, it wasn't until 1925 that the ventilation system at Mount Kembla was replaced, and it was years before naked lights were finally banned.
Lest we forget.