The History & Coal Resources of Newcastle from 1830 - 1889

from a series of articles published in the Newcastle Morning Herald covering the period 26th September, 1889 to 21st November, 1889

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THE NEWCASTLE COLLIERIES
THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS
[No X1]
The Great Northern Coal-mining Company

Published 13th November, 1889
The Great Northern Coal-mining Company was formed in the year 1886, with a capital of £60,000 of £1 each. They obtained 2000 acres of the Quigley estate on a mineral lease, agreeing to pay a royalty of 1s per ton for round and 6d per ton for small coal to the trustees, Messrs. Quigley and Black. The estate is situated on the shores of Lake Macquarie in and around the township of Teralba, which is twelve miles by rail from the port of Newcastle. Shortly after its formation, the drove a tunnel into the outcrop some thirty chains from the Newcastle-Sydney railway, and have since been drawing out large quantities of coal. This tunnel is 10ft wide, 7ft high, and runs in a southerly direction at an inclination of 1 in 16 for 1200 yds. The underground haulage is accomplished by horses as far as the main engine planes, where a main wire rope, controlled by two surface engines of 25 horse power and 18in cylinders, draw the full skips to the screening floor at the mouth of the adit. Steam is supplied from a shell boiler 25ft long and 6ft in diameter, which is set in brickwork under the main colliery building. The coal, after it reaches the raised floor at the mouth of the tunnel, is tipped over one of the three sloping parallel iron bar screens into the railway waggons, the small passing through into separate hoppers. When the supply of stack exceeds the demand, it is stored in a substantially constructed wooden hopper of the usual kind, which is capable of holding 1000 tons.

The seam now being worked in the Great Northern Colliery is one peculiar to the Lake district, and is known as the No. 1, or upper-most strata, although of late it has taken the name of the mine. It overlies the Borehole which has been found to exist in a payable quantity some 800ft below the surface. When the mine was first opened, the coal received anything but a favourable reception at the hands of the buyers; but it has since abundantly proved itself to be an excellent steam and coke producing article. Although not so bituminous as that in the Borehole and Great seams, it is bright and lustrous in some places stained with oxide of iron, and when burnt leaves a light grey ash. An analysis of the coal gives the following results - Moisture, 3.81; volatile hydro carbons 30.22; fixed carbon 54.44; ash 8.52; sulphur 3.01; the specific gravity being 1.290; the whole producing 62.96 per cent of dense bright coke. The seam is a peculiar one, having a thickness, inducing bands of 2ft; but the top portion is of inferior quality to that at the bottom, being hard and splinty. At present some 8ft of the bottom portion containing only two thin bands is worked on the usual pillar and bord system. The winning headings in this mine are laid off with mathematical regularity, a light placed at one end being visible at the other, a distance in many instances of over 500 yards.

Although the Great Northern Colliery was only opened in the latter part of 1887, its output for the first part of this year was 500 tons per diem, but this excellent result is in a great measure due to the impetus which it received during the general strike in 1888. When all the other mines in the district were closed, Mr. J.C. Ellis of Newcastle, obtained a year's lease of the colliery, and conceding to the demands of the miners, quickly had the mine in full working order. The price of coal was high, and during the three months of the strike he found no difficulty in securing a good market. While the output in 1887 was only 5347 tons, in 1888 it was 61,479 tons, and the lessee contracted with the company to raise 100,000 tons during his lease. The term expired on the 2nd of September last, and for the twelve months some 102,000 tons had been won. Since the company took it over the output has somewhat decreased, but at present it is between three and four hundred tons per diem. The colliery finds employment for 250 men and boys.

The workings are ventilated by a furnace placed at the bottom of a shaft 126ft deep and 9ft in diameter, and situated 450 yards south of the tunnel. This furnace is capable of drawing 70,000 cubic feet through the mine per minute, but half that quantity suffices. The workings are fairly free from water, being kept dry by a small Tangye pump placed at the furnace shaft. When the mine was first opened the company erected ten coke ovens, patented by Coppee Evence & Co (?), each 15ft long, 7ft high and 2ft wide.

They are of a peculiar construction, and are fired from underneath the heated gases and flames passing through flues on each side of the oven over the oven crown, and from thence into the main flue. Apertures are left in the sides of the ovens to allow the coal gases to escape when they become ignited, and so assist the furnaces. The main principle is that the coal is not fired as in other ovens, but retorted as in the making of gas. The change does not take longer than 50 hours, and the coke turned out is of excellent quality. Owing however, to the mine being held on a lease, and the coal being in large demand, the company have not had a chance to make much coke, but if the ovens are a success it is their intention to erect 40 additional ones.

The coal from this colliery is all taken to the part of Newcastle, some 12 miles distance, the hauling being done by the Government at a fixed rate of 14d per ton. The company have a private siding from the Government railway running right under the screens, and at present 164 steel and wood hopper waggons are in constant use. Soon after the company was formed the Government resumed some thirteen acres of the estate for the Homebush-Waratah or Newcastle railway, but the trustees refused to accept the price put upon the land, claiming not only a higher surface value, but also for the coal under the resumed area. The western portion of the company's leasehold was also cut off from the colliery, and for this a further claim for severance was put in. The dispute was referred to arbitration, and, after a long sitting, the plaintiffs were awarded the sum of £1500 in place of some £1400 offered by the Government. They were however, dissatisfied with the award, and under the Railway Act commenced an action in the Supreme Court. The Government contended, among many other things, that prior to the railway being constructed the coal under the land was valueless, inasmuch as there was no means of getting it to market. This contention was met by the plaintiffs who endeavored to show that the Lake could have been made the outlet, and would have been had the line not been constructed. The case occupied some time, and a verdict was given for the plaintiffs for over £1700, the Railway Commissioners giving plaintiffs the right to drive the winning headings under the railway, subject to certain conditions at the expense of the Government. The point was a most important one, as the Chief Justice who tried the case said that in his opinion the Government had no right to prevent collieries from reaching coal land which had been subdivided by the construction of roads or railways, provided the danger of subsidence was entirely averted. As a matter of fact, the case is still sub judice, as the defendants reserved several points for the Full Court. The plaintiffs, also claimed for the coal in the Borehole seam, which was shown to exist under the resumed area at a depth of between 800 and 900 feet, but this point was abandoned by them, as his Honor said that it was at the time of the resumption of the land to all intents and purposes valueless, and was even at the present of unknown value. At that depth too, expert evidence showed that the coal could also be worked out without injury to the surface.

The chief market for the Great Northern coal has been intercolonial and local, a great quantity being sold in New Zealand, but of late a foreign market has been developed, several shipments going to California. Mr. J.C. Ellis conducts the shipping arrangements in Newcastle, the head office of the company being in Sydney. Mr. W.G. Bedlington is the colliery manager, a position which he has held since the commencement of operations.

There are two or three other collieries on and around the shores of the Lake, but their present operations are insignificant, and will be until the entrance from the ocean is deepened sufficiently to allow vessels to enter. At present the depth of water does not exceed six feet at high water, while the channel is extremely intricate and tortuous. The Government have, however, voted a large sum of money to the work of dredging the entrance, which is at present being carried on. The Lake itself is a magnificent sheet of water of immense area, excellently suited for shipping, and many persons consider that within a few years it will become the shipping port for large quantities of coal.