People Australia

Col McDonald, n.d.

Archibald Colin (Col or Colin) McDonald (1912-1973) coalminer and trade union official

Birth: 6 January 1912 at Oakey, Queensland, son of native-born parents Donald McDonald (1864-1932), farmer, and Isabella Harriet, née McCalman (1868-1939). Marriage: 2 March 1935 at Toowoomba, Queensland, to Queensland-born Bernice Mary Morgan (1916-1997). They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 29 May 1973 in St Vincent’s Hospital, Toowoomba, Queensland. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Coalminer at Sugarloaf mine, Darling Downs, Queensland.
• From 1943 was a Queensland delegate to Miners' Federation national convention. He and Steve Morgan were the only members of the Sugarloaf branch of the Miners' Federation to remain on strike during the 1949 coal strike.
• After the strike, with Morgan, he set out to change branch leadership, becoming chairman and retaining position until 1959.
• Darling Downs representative on Queensland District Board of Management; leader of two-week staydown strike at Sugarloaf January 1959 but was subsequently retrenched.
• Worked at Moura until retirement.
• Cause of death: acute-on-chronic respiratory failure (2 days), emphysema (6 years) and recurrent bronchitis (20 years).

Sources
Pete Thomas, The coalminers of Queensland: a narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union. Volume 1 Creating the traditions (Ipswich, 1986).