Macetown children, 1902

Macetown children, 1902

Drinking alcohol is an activity usually associated with miners – but their wives and children also indulged. In isolated mining settlements such as Macetown, in the hills near Queenstown, many held the opinion that alcohol was a medicine. The patent medicine ‘Painkiller’, which was high in alcohol, was much relied on, and some Macetown miners became addicted to it when no other alcohol was available.