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Mining in the Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW) is significantly connected to the history of Newcastle as the development of Newcastle occurred simultaneously with the opening up of the Hunter. The Hunter region has long been of vital importance to the NSW mining industry and is the largest coal producing area in NSW today.
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After Newcastle was settled as a place of secondary punishment for renegade convicts, the Hunter Valley was gradually opened up to development. Access to the Hunter Valley in the early years of the nineteenth century was almost uniquely by sea, until a rudimentary path was made from 1819-20 by John Howe, the Chief Constable at Windsor. In 1826 Hunter Valley settlers petitioned the government for a road linking the Hunter with Sydney and so it was that from 1826 to 1836 the 250km (Old) Great North Road was built by teams of convict labourers.
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In 1843 the Brown brothers (J and A Brown, later Coal and Allied) began mining coal at Four Mile Creek near East Maitland. Production was so successful that they put in a tender to provide coal to the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company, who accepted the tender. However, the Brown brothers’ mine was contested by the AA Company who held an agreement with the government for a monopoly on the production of coal. The subsequent court case found against the Brown brothers, however the AA Company voluntarily extinguished its monopoly in 1847. Meanwhile, the Brown brothers had continued providing coal to the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company through a partnership with John Eales. The Brown brothers sustained their dominance of the coal industry, opening a mine at the Burwood estate near Newcastle in 1852 and acquiring the Minmi mine in 1859, which had commenced operations in 1853. The Minmi mine increased its production levels from 44,000 tonnes in 1860 to 111,000 tonnes in 1862. [1]
In 1854 the Hunter Region Coal Miners’ Protective Association was formed. This was one of the first organised unions in Australia.
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In 1857 the first section of the Richmond Vale Railway was opened extending from Hexham to Minmi. This was of great importance to the mining industry as the railways allowed for the improved transportation of coal and other minerals to the wharf. In 1904 the J and A Brown Company further extended the railway to the Richmond Main Colliery and to the Pelaw Main Colliery near Kurri Kurri.
Early coal train
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In the early twentieth century the Northern district, comprising the Hunter region and Newcastle, was by far the biggest producer of coal, not only in NSW, but Australia-wide. The Northern district in 1908 produced 6.5 million tonnes of coal, out of NSW’s 9.1 million tonnes. [2]
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The early mining industry lacked the safety and technology of the contemporary industry. In 1898 an underground explosion rocked the Dudley mine, killing 15 people. The explosion was caused by methane gas ignited by naked lights. Subsequent fires that year meant that the mine was untenable and it was sealed shut. However, the mine was reopened the following year and worked until 1940. Only a few years later in 1905 there was an explosion at the Stanford Merthyr mine, which killed six men. In 1923 the Bellbird Colliery explosion killed 21 men. This explosion led to the government passing the NSW Mines Rescue Act in 1925. Although there had been a rescue station in the Hunter since 1912, the Act was significant as it put mine safety into legislation. Despite this, conditions in mines remained hazardous, and in January 1926 there was an explosion at the Redhead Colliery, which killed five people.
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The economic downturn of the 1920s severely affected the Hunter Valley coal operations. NSW Premier John Thomas Lang reportedly stated; “one of the fallacies about the depression is the widely held view that it started with a fall in wool and wheat prices. That is not so. The first impact occurred in the coal industry. It registered the first mass misery and suffering in this country for a third of a century.” [3]
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Maitland was settled in the early 1800s and in 1829 the population was recorded as 150. [4] In 1887 the coal seams of the Hunter region were examined by Professor Sir Tannat William Edgeworth David. His discovery of the Greta coal seam was significant in the subsequent exploitation of the South Maitland coalfield. Collieries were established in the 1890s in localities like East Greta, Stanford Merthyr, Pelaw Main, Abermain and Aberdare.
In the 1949 Miners Strike the Prime Minister Ben Chifley sent in troops to work the South Maitland mines such as at Minmi, Muswellbrook and Ben Bullen, followed by others. This was the first time in Australia’s history that the military was used to break up a trade union strike, setting a precedent for later strikes. Two weeks after the military was introduced, the miners returned to work, their modest conditions unmet.
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Richmond Main Colliery was a significant mine in the Hunter Valley. It is one of the few sites where a township did not accompany the development of the mine. Richmond Main Colliery, located in the South Maitland coalfield, was initially owned by the Richmond Vale Company. The Colliery commenced operations in 1890 but production ceased just two years later. Richmond Vale was taken over by the J and A Brown Company in 1897 although it was not until 1913 that commercial production re-commenced following the introduction of a train line. This mine is purported to have once been the largest vertical shaft mine in the southern hemisphere. [5] The mine also held the record for coal production in a vertical shaft mine, with 3,482 tonnes wound up a single shaft from the Holmesville seam. [6] During peak production the mine employed 1200 workers and also used 200 pit horses. [7] However the economic downfall of the 1920s and 30s affected the mine, resulting in a decrease in production post World War II. The mine was finally closed down in 1967, having produced 14 million tonnes of coal over its lifespan. [8]
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Cessnock was settled by European pastoralists in the 1820s and in its early period the town was predominantly centred on agriculture, followed by viticulture from the 1840s. By the 1850s the town had further developed, largely due to its positioning on the Great North Road between Sydney and the Hunter Valley.
Coal near Cessnock was discovered in 1856 by the Examiner of Coal Fields and Mines, William Keene, however the potential of the coal was not realised at that time. It was not until 1886 when Professor, Sir Edgeworth David, further explored the Greta coal seam that the potential for coal production was understood.
Coal mining became the dominant industry in Cessnock in the early twentieth century following the establishment of the South Maitland coalfields. Coal mining in Cessnock contributed to the development of the town and to the entire Hunter region, providing a source of employment and improving transportation.
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The Hunter Valley Rothbury mine near Cessnock was the site of an infamous lockout in 1929. Due to difficult economic times, the mine owners operating in the Northern coalfields of NSW had decided to reduce miners’ wages. However the Miners Federation did not agree to the terms and the mine owners subsequently closed down the Northern NSW mines. Eight months into the lockout the Rothbury mine was opened using scab or non-union labour which the union-miners opposed. A purported 10,000 protesters attempted to confront the scab miners but were hindered by police, called in to break them up. In the ensuing debacle, one miner was killed by police gun fire and many more were injured. The miners finally accepted the pay cut in May 1930 and returned to work. The lock-out and confrontation became known as the Battle for Rothbury. [9]
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Gloucester was surveyed in 1826 by Robert Dawson from the AA Company which marks the origins of its European settlement. The original township centred on sheep farming, which progressed to timber, cattle farming and coal. The mineral rights to 500,000 acres from the Karuah River to the Manning River were awarded to the AA Company. However in the 1850s it was decided that a rail-line would be impractical to build which thus impeded the development of the mining industry as coal mining could not have progressed without an accessible transport route. It was not until 1995 that Gloucester Coal began mining operations in Stratford, a town 12 kilometres south of Gloucester.
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Chief Constable John Howe was the first European to explore the area of Muswellbrook in 1819. The first mine to open in Muswellbrook was in 1907 and the area became known for coal mining, particularly with the expansion of the industry in the later part of the twentieth century. Muswellbrook is just north of two coal-fuelled power stations, Liddell and Bayswater.
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ABS (1910) History of Coal Mining, Year Book Australia, Series no. 1301.0
Darnbrough, J. Devastation, Disasters and Coal Deposits, Australian Mining, 17 March 2008
Hunter Valley Research Foundation, Hunter History Highlights, Retrieved online 13/04/2009: http://www.hvrf.com.au/images/HVRF_Publications/Newcastle__Hunter_Region/
hunter_history_highlights.pdf
James, B. Origins of the Hunter Labour Movement, Last modified 10/03/2002, Retrieved online 13/04/2009: http://www.takver.com/history/hunterlabour.htm#scenefour
Maitland Visitor Information Centre, Maitland Hunter Valley
Maitland Visitor Information Centre, History Maitland
Michael, D. The History of the Great Australian Lockout in 50 Minutes, Labour History, Vol. 92, May 2007, Retrieved online 14/04/2009:
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/92/michael.html
Parliament of New South Wales, Hunter Coal Industry, Hansard and Papers, 11 November 2004, Retrieved online 14/04/2009:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/HansArt.nsf/V3Key/LA20041111025
Turner, J.W. (2006) Brown, James (1816-1894) Australian Dictionary of Biography- Online Edition, Australian National University, Retrieved online 08/04/2009:
http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030240b.htm?james%3Bbrown
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1. Turner, J.W. Brown, James (1816-1894), (2006) Australian Dictionary of Biography – Online Edition, Australian National University
2. ABS (1910) History of Coal Mining, Year Book Australia, Series no. 1301.0
3. Darnbrough, J. Devastation, Disasters and Coal Deposits, Australian Mining, 17 March 2008
4. Maitland Hunter Valley, Maitland Visitor Information Centre
5. Maitland Visitor Information Centre, History Maitland
6. Maitland Visitor Information Centre
7. Maitland Visitor Information Centre
8. Maitland Visitor Information Centre
9. Michael, D. The History of the Great Australian Lockout in 50 Minutes, Labour History, Vol. 92, May 2007, Retrieved online 14/04/2009: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/92/michael.html
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