MARK Galton was one of four mine workers remembered at an annual Memorial Day service in Cessnock on Sunday.
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Mark’s name was added to the Jim Comerford memorial wall at the Northern Mining and NSW Energy District office alongside 1800 mine workers who went to work and never came home.
The Burrill Lake businessman and former Ulladulla Boardriders Club president was killed at a coal mine at Boggabri near Narrabri in May this year.
Working as a contractor on the site, he was in the cabin of a cherry picker about 15 metres off the ground when he was crushed by an overhead metal structure.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union district president Peter Jordan told Sunday’s gathering it had been a tough year for the mining industry with three men killed and the first woman added to the memorial wall.
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten likened the victims’ courage to the Australian men who fought for freedom during World War I.
“More than 100 years before the shots of the First World War, men and boys were mining coal beneath the soil of this nation,” he said.
“The lives referred to behind me are just as full of quality and meaning as the ones that laid down their lives for their country in foreign countries.”
Mr Shorten, the sixth ALP leader to speak at the ceremony, laid a wreath in their memory.
“You do not walk alone today and you never will,” he told the families.
“We are mates, we are family.”
Mr Jordan said the industry was working on safer work standards.
“The coal industry must never be satisfied with the level of health and safety until there is never another name added to this wall,” he said.
“The passage of time never truly diminished the grief of those affected by the loss of a loved one.
“An inquiry or an inquest may mark the end of proceedings for some but for the next of kin it will never be over.”