Following their dismissal, the mine workers commenced a protest line in early October 1997, which was to continue for 22 months, until August 1999, becoming Australia's longest running black coal dispute.

The Gordonstone Coal Mine sat idle and in February 1998 the AIRC found that the dismissals had been unfair and ordered ARCO to pay compensation.

The workers were awarded Australia's largest unfair dismissal ruling, leading to a payout of $4.6 million to 282 of the retrenched employees who brought applications to the AIRC.

The CFMEU argued that Rio Tinto should re-engage the entire workforce that had previously been dismissed by ARCO, with proceedings commencing in the AIRC to obtain such a result.

It was during protracted legal actions that the members of the protest line decided that a reminder of its struggle was in order and set about designing and building a monument.

The construction of the monument also served to assist the protestors in overcoming what was increasingly a frustrating and tedious daily existence as the legal battle associated with the retrenchments was being carried out in the AIRC and the Federal and High Courts.

Members of the protest line gathered the materials for the monument, including stones and petrified wood, from the surrounding area.

Initially, the local Roman Catholic priest was approached to undertake the blessing; however, he declined as the congregation was divided in its opinion over the Gordonstone mine issue.

[1] With the contract of purchase completed on 10 February 1999, Rio Tinto took over the control of the mine and immediately reopened it using a "scab" workforce (a derogatory term given to a person or employee willing to cross a picket line).

This action aggravated the protest line and through the assistance of families, friends and associated groups and Unions, the numbers on the Lilyvale Stand (as it became known) increased once again.

The protest line attempted to stop the non-union workforce entering or leaving the mine site - resulting in over 280 people being arrested over the next four months, including Labor MLA Jim Pearce, a former coal miner.

The Lilyvale Stand Monument, constructed in 1998, is significant as a physical reminder of Australia's longest running dispute in the black coal industry with a protest line that continued uninterrupted for a total of 22 months, from October 1997 until August 1999.