Contributor:
TOM REARDON
“WESTERN AUSTRALIA having decided to enter the Commonwealth, it behoves everyone to bestir themselves to set their house in order and to make ready for the great change which may be expected in our affairs now that Australia has been welded into one nation.”
So went out the call to the people of Collie by the editor of the Collie Mail on August 4, 1900. The editor warned that unless the people of Collie took an interest in their own affairs the budding coal mining industry would be extinguished.
It was pointed out that so many aspects of the question needed to be considered.
Federation embraced nation building and therefore it was necessary to focus on coal mining in Collie to service the needs of Western Australia, which until this time had relied on coal from the eastern states.
Another concern in those days was the beginning of hostilities with a foreign power and if hostilities broke out, the supply chain with the East could very well be broken.
In those early days it was considered of such vital importance to capture the goldfields market and so private enterprise became interested in the project. This would lead to a direct link by rail between the port of Bunbury and Kalgoorlie which would pass through Collie.
The fact that private enterprise was bidding strongly for the trade was a most powerful lever in favour of Collie.
However, despite a deputation to the premier nothing eventuated.
As a result, it was strongly suggested that the organisation of the resources in Collie was needed and so the setting up of a chamber of commerce was mooted, as some institution able to join all the interests into one common good was needed.
It was noted that the chamber of commerce in Bunbury wielded an immense influence for good until it drifted into an ineffectual body. 
However, the editor of the Collie Mail pointed out that if a chamber was established in Collie, “there need be little fear of this happening for some time to come, as the work which will lie before it will be too important to be neglected”.
A month later a meeting was held in the health board office for the purpose of forming a chamber in Collie. All the usual suspects were in attendance. 
Mr Bedlington was appointed chairman of the meeting and it was decided on the proposition of Mr Thornton, seconded by Mr Coombes, that the meeting affirmed the desirability of establishing the Collie Chamber of Commerce.
Mr George Reading was appointed secretary, while Messrs Ewing, Johns, Coombes, Bedlington, Evans, Robinson, and Thornton were appointed as a provisional committee entrusted with drawing up the rules for the chamber.
A subscription to the Chamber was fixed at one pound and one shilling a year.
The chamber held its first business meeting on Wednesday, October 3, 1900, and immediately got down to business.
Whereas government departments usually cannot argue the case of Collie publicly it was left to such bodies as the chamber to raise issues for debate and argue the case for their members passionately.
One major concern that had not been addressed by the railway department was the lack of rolling stock to transport coal.
The argument went along the lines that even though the government had had ample warning of the expansion which was taking place in Collie mines, “it would almost seem that there has been some baneful design in the lack of provision of trucks which has been made for the accommodation of the increasing trade”. 
The editor of the Collie Mail asked: “why should the Collie be singled out for punishment in this connection and all other industries be supplied with as much rolling stock as is essential for their welfare?” 
It should be remembered that many government ministers felt that the mining companies should build and supply their own wagons.
The chamber argued that if Collie was penalised into finding its own trucks, why should not the timber industry be placed upon the same basis? 
It went on to ask a series of questions such as why should not the important mines on the goldfields be similarly embarrassed, as they were better able to afford a complement of trucks than Collie? 
Why should not all classes of the community be compelled to find what wagons they require? 
The chamber laid the blame on incompetent government departments, which allowed the industry from its inception to be embarrassed in every possible way. 
The mines never looked so well as they did in late 1900, and the town was never as prosperous, and all this was being jeopardised by incompetent administration of the railway department which left that most important arm of the public service utterly unable to cope with the increasing trade. 
It was therefore up to the fledgling Collie Chamber of Commerce to set the wheels in motion to obtain a better deal for Collie.