The API Network remains dedicated to publishing new intellectual works by scholars in the earlier stages of their careers. The first title in this series is Mining Wives by former New Talents author Linda Rhodes.  Future publications in the series include books on assimilation, backpacking and celebrity.

Linda Rhodes
Two For the Price of One: The Lives of Mining Wives
A mixture of poignant biography, social history and critical analysis, 'Two for the Price of One' offers a fascinating and eminently readable account of the lives of 'mining wives' across Australian history. As ordinary women, they face extraordinary circumstances, challenging the male-centred story of mining and presenting the industry as never before.

This book has had a long gestation. It was probably conceived in 1972 when, as a young bride, I left my family home in suburban Melbourne to begin the life of a mining wife 5,000 kilometres away across the continent. My husband was then a young metallurgist who had come to Australia from Chile. Neither he nor I knew much about the Australian mining industry or the masculine culture by which it was characterised when we arrived in Kalgoorlie by train, two weeks after our wedding, destined to spend the ensuing decades in its service. I had not yet heard of the label, 'mining wife', but I was soon to find out that my as yet untitled position would embody a multitude of corporate expectations and obligations, which would shape my life.

My role on the periphery of the mining industry led to me spend many years in communities isolated from the feminist discourse and lobbying in more urban centres during much of that time. It was only after my eventual relocation to Perth in 1988 -- after twenty-one changes of residence and fifteen years of transience, mobility and mining-town living -- that my eyes were opened to an alternative way of viewing my life.

Mining wives have no public profile. Outside the resources sector, they are an unidentifiable group, unseen and unheard. Within the mining context, however, they might well be perceived to enjoy an ideal existence. Married to an engineer with an excellent salary package, company car and often a company house, there would seem little room for complaint. Overseas travel, cosmopolitan social opportunities and the potential for adventure must surely provide adequate compensation for any disadvantages encountered. It must, I therefore reasoned, be my own failure to adapt which caused the unease I felt, as I realised that I had become simply a dependent spouse whose willingness to maintain male privilege for husband and company had been taken for granted for many years. As it appeared that many other wives in similar circumstances were able to accept their designated status with appropriate humility, it seemed somewhat presumptuous of me to question the status quo of the mining industry. Not only was it difficult to disagree with the belief that as far as the real business of mining was concerned -- ore recovery and profit -- wives were of little importance, it was also impossible to counter the power that was so obviously acquired by the industry through its extensive bureaucratic affiliations, corporate affluence and masculine authority. This work, however, is indeed the result of questioning the status quo.

Dr Linda Rhodes
Since completing her PhD in 2001, Dr Rhodes has worked with research teams from the Anthropology Department at UWA and, currently, the Psychology Department at Edith Cowan University. Personal research interests continue to be allied to the social impact of mining, an area still largely neglected in Australia, but one which is attracting growing interest overseas. Her New Talents debut, 'In/visible Subjectivities Partners on the Periphery: Personal Ambiguity and Unpaid Labour in the Australian Mining Industry', was published in Kelly McWilliam, Peta Stephenson, Graham Thompson (eds), Voicing Dissent, St Lucia, API Network and UQP, 2003.

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