Think coal mining, and most likely you think men. This book tells a very different story. Women have long been the backbone of the coal mining industry. As wives and mothers they've fought battles for better working conditions; established women's auxiliaries; distributed food to strikers and their families, and stood on picket lines. In recent decades they've started working on trucks and in the mines. David Peetz and Georgina Murray spoke to more than 100 women, from southeast Queensland coal mining towns like Collinsville, Moranbah, Dysart, Tieri, Middlemount and Biloela, who shared their inspirational, moving, and often painful stories. Women of the Coal Rushes is a unique and very personal account of some of the women who have played such an integral part in the production of Australia's black gold.