“I never went down in the mine, but I did go over and meet my dad when he came up. The men looked like black people; their eyes were white and their faces were just black. My mum never seemed to complain about my dad and my brothers working in the mine; it was all she had ever known. Her parents both came from Scotland and her dad worked in the mines, and his dad worked in the mines. I think my dad started working in the mines when he was eleven or twelve years old. In Scotland the miners were allowed to take down helpers; he was not actually hired on the employee list, but he could help his dad. They were paid by how many tonnes they took out.

“Mining was in my dad’s blood, but when No. 8 closed down, he worked in the bush for the last five or six years before he retired. It was almost like being in a war - people who have been in wars seldom talk about it, and he never really ever talked about the mine. He never said he missed the mine, and he never said he hated it.

“I never worked in the mine, but my dad and my two brothers did. I do not think I would have worked in the mine if it had been open. When I first started in the bush I could hardly wait to get to work in the morning I liked it so much. It was right up my alley; I do not think I would have ever been a miner. I could not see myself going down in that mine.

“There were still quite a few people there when we left Puntledge, around 1953.

Some people bought their houses and relocated them piece by piece, or just moved them whole. Some were moved to Cumberland and some to Courtenay. Billy McVale, from one of the old Puntledge families, moved two houses to Black Creek, one for his parents and one for himself.