When working the many industries around the West Coast, the mining men of the region spent their downtime like many: playing club footy.

Two West Coasters who played for Queenstown City and Rosebery were John Carswell and Tony Newport, respectively.

Both played for their clubs amid a boom of mining in the region during the 1960s and early '70s.

"I grew up in Queenstown in the boom times for economy and football competitions and was heavily involved in football," Carswell said.

Carswell left the region before returning in the '80s, as an economic downturn began creeping into the region.

Subsequently, he noted the decrease in the presence of club football as well.

A decade ago, however, was the point at which both Carswell and Newport observed the history was disappearing along with the people leaving the region and decided to do something about it.

"Ten years ago, I saw much of the history of the West Coast was being lost and people were retiring, moving on and [I] thought it would be good to record some of that history, and one area in which I could do that was about football," Carswell said.

Newport and John's brother Chris Carswell jointly wrote Gravel and Mud: a collection of stories the delve deep into the 130-year history of the West Coast's football heritage that saw the rise and fall of 75 teams.

The title: Gravel and Mud, refers to two famous ovals known for their bizarre terrain.

"The 'gravel and mud' title of the book kind of plays against one another - John and I had poisoned legs a couple of times," Newport said.

"Most things you got from Rosebery, because it's built on a swamp - the Rosebery ground's built level with the Stitt River.

"It was built in a rainforest and you had four footy teams train there plus hockey teams.

"It was a beautiful field in summer, but in winter it was just mud and your legs would get infected."

Of course, the 'gravel' component of the title refers to the hardcore Queenstown Oval.

"Queeny was pretty rugged as well - you didn't worry about it," Newport said.

"Some people would get their knees scarred at the beginning of the year, and they wouldn't heal for the whole footy season.

"We didn't think much of it, it was worse if you whinged because you became a bit of a target then - you couldn't afford to show any fear."

In the four years it took to write Gravel and Mud, its authors sought the help of about 13 contributors as well as three principal editors.

"Now that we have the book out - it's been such fun to connect with people even as recently as Wednesday, I got a couple of connections from people that I hadn't heard from in 40 years," Newport said.

"John and I have spent a fair amount of time in the car driving backwards and forwards, mostly to Queenstown and other places [nearby].

"It's been terrific, it really has and we've been fortunate to catch up with icons of West Coast football who've since passed on.

"I think we realised how timely it was, we probably would've gotten a lot more better stories if we started 10 years earlier than we did."

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A truly unique trait to the area was the make and names of teams that owed themselves to their geological surroundings.

"There were make-up games between work groups, like the Carters and Lumpers at Trial Harbour," Carswell said.

"The Carters were the ones that carted ore, hydrate not concentrate, from the Heemskirk tin fields down to the coast.

"The Lumpers were the guys who packaged it up into different grade lumps of ore and shipped it off to a concentrating plant.

"Throughout the history of football, the teams generally started out as a group of men who worked in a particular area."

Not only men, but the women of the area also had their fun in the gravel, with multiple teams and games drawing considerably large crowds.

This included a match at Queenstown in 1953 between married and single women in the town.

Minerals weren't the only thing being dug up in the area, with many diamonds in the rough being found in the form of footballing talent.

From local legends such as Ian Stewart, Darren Cresswell and Lions coach Chris Fagan, to those who were drawn to the West Coast such as Victor Barwick and Arthur Hodgson.

"We've got one chapter in the book called 'sons of the west' - those were footballers who learnt to play football on the gravel or in the mud at Rosebury who then went on to play at a higher level," Newport said.

Like all who called the coast home, these big-name players had their fair share of notable stories in the gravel and mud.

"Fagan - he started his football on the gravel - there's a great photo of him in a reserves team, he's 16 years old sitting down at the front of this team, and they won the premiership in 1976," Newport said.

"He won that same club's under-19 best and fairest - he would've played both (reserves) most weekends."

Other non-AFL players spent their time kicking it among the miners.

This included noted historian and author Professor Geoffrey Blainey.

"He played Smelters reserves, but he's written a piece for the book - that's [Queenstown] where he got his first big break when he wrote The Peaks of Lyell," Newport said.

And while he preferred the media and politics in the long run, former state Liberal leader Bob Cheek also had his time in Queenstown.

His talents earning him $6000 from the Queenstown club, which saw him receive the nickname 'the six million dollar man'.

"He [Cheek] comes up to Queenstown - he's retired [from football], he's 31, he's just starting as a journalist - but the club's trying to entice him to play, they offered him $1000 per game," Newport said.

"He writes about his first game and how he foolishly dives on his knees to take a mark and gets barreled up onto the bike track and breaks his nose.

"It's actually quite funny, many people from outside come along and give a better version of how hard the gravel surface is than those who played there.

"Because when you front up every week, you just get used to it."

But Aussie rules wasn't the only code played in the mountains, with a rugby following also manifesting on the coast.

"A lot of professional mining staff that came to the West Coast ... came from states like Queensland and New South Whales," Carswell said.

"And a lot of them played Rugby Union - there was enough of them to set up a team."

One story told to Gravel and Mud's authors was of Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones' aid to the Zeehan rugby team which faced collapse.

"They actually went into the white pages and found Farr-Jones, rang him and he answered saying 'what can I do for you?'," Carswell said.

"He brought down 20 copies of his book, sold the book for $20 each ... they went to give him the $400 and he said 'that's for the pot'.

"Then he proceeded to drink every single one of them under the table."

You can learn more about Gravel and Mud at gravelandmud.com.

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