Truly The Land Down Under
Cold Skin takes place in the 1940s, in a tiny town called
Burruga. Nothing ever happens there except fights at
the pub every Friday night. Then suddenly the town’s
star girl Colleen O’Conner is found brutally murdered,
left by the river to die. Every man becomes a suspect,
and the main character Eddie Holding is caught in a
whirlwind of confusion and anger as he and everyone
else tries to find out who’s guilty.
The town Burruga only existed for one reason: The coal
mines. Nearly every man who came home from
fighting in World War Two worked in the coal mines.
There were thousands of little towns much like
Burruga that became ghost towns when all the coal
had been mined.
Coal mining has gotten safer
but in the 1940s the
greatest dangers were:
• The constant danger of
flooding
• Pitching seams
• High levels of methane gas
• And working with a 10 or
20 ton piece of machinery
under ground and in the
dark was just asking for
something to happen.
The first coal mined was in
April 1972
The first shipment took
place in 1980
Some of the largest coal
mines today are in
Anglesea, Beltana,
Dawson, Broadmedows,
and many more.
 Australia exports 75% of
the coal it mines, most of
it goes to eastern Asia.
 In 2000 and 2001, 285.5
million tons of coal was
mined, and 193.6 was
exported.
 Coal provides 85% of all
the energy used in
Australia
Eddie’s dad, Albert Holding,
was a mad person, all the
time. Before the went to
war he worked in the coal
mines, but after he was
home he refused to work
there and wouldn’t let his
sons work there either.
Eddie never really knew
why.
I think he didn’t want them
working there because
after he came home from
war, he blamed himself for
not being allowed to fight
on the front lines like the
other men. He also realized
how easy it really was for
someone to die and when
he yelled at Eddie for
bringing up the mine it was
because he really actually
cared. He didn’t want
anything to happen to him.

a) Old clothes from home
b) Special uniforms
Deep sea diving suits
d) Nothing
c)
a) They put a flame in the mine and waited to see if it
went out
b) They sent someone down there and waited to see if
they died
c) They put a bird in the mine and waited to see if it
died
d) They flipped a coin to see who went in first
a) Don’t slam the train cars together
b) Don’t pile the coal up in the car
Don’t stand on the tracks when a train comes
d) None of the above
c)
a) Renewable energy source
b) Fossil Fuel
c) Liquid
d) Animal
a) January 1970
b) April 1972
May 1964
d) April 1980
c)
a) Pitching Seams
b) Getting crushed by machinery
Flooding
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
c)
a) Dying
b) Lung Cancer
Drowning
d) All of the above
c)
a) Not to go into a coal mine without putting a bird in
first
b) That I could get cancer from spending long periods
of time in a coal mine
c) Mining is not hazardous in any way, shape, or form
d) Nothing