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 II]
The A.A. Company

(By Atramentous)

Published 22nd October, 1889
The Australian Agricultural Company, which at the present have the second largest output of coal in the southern hemisphere, was formed in November, 1824, in London, for the purpose of taking up land in the Australian Colonies. The following interesting information on the early history of the company is from an article written by Mr.H.W.H. Huntington, of Newcastle:-

"In December, 1829, the Government coal works became the property of the Australian Agricultural Company under singular circumstances. The prospectus of the company, dated November 26th, 1824, set forth that the sources of profit were to be wool, cattle and live stock, tobacco, silk, olive oil, wine, opium, flax, and the general increase of values by influx of population. The capital of the company was one million sterling, in 10,000 shares of £100 each. Karl Rathurst granted the company one million, of acres in fee-simple between the Hastings and the Coal River (now known as the Hunter).

The first meeting took place in January, 1825, at which Mr Robert Dawson was appointed the Company's agent, with a committee of five Sydney residents to direct him, and with him came agriculturists, seri-culturists, and vine-dressers. Large establishments were built at Stroud and Gloucester, but from droughts and seasons of depression in colonial trade the company saw little or no dividends. The company soon discovered that Mr Dawson had made a mistake in his flourishing account of the country behind Port Stephens, and that the Newcastle coal field presented a good opening for investment. In 1829-33, Sir Edward Parry, the company's agent, succeeded, after some demur from the Colonial Government, in abandoning the scrub land about Port Stephens, retaining merely 464,600 acres, and occupying a richer and more open country at the head of the Namoi and Mooki, hence the origin of the Peel River and Warrah estates granted by Lord Goderich, because the company had spent £250,000 in eight years in the colony. With respect to the coal works of Newcastle, the company obtained a grant of 1,960 acres in access of the promised million and a monopoly, or rather a lease, of the coal trade for thirty-one years, subject to the following conditions: One twentieth of the coal raised to be allotted to the Crown; the company to purchase the coal, or any part of it, at the pits's mouth at the market price, provided the Crown deemed it advisable to sell the same to them; and, further, one-fifteenth to be reserved by the Crown. In 1831 Sir Edward Parry reported that two shafts were sunk, an adit driven, a steam-engine erected, and a wharf 13ft above high-water mark, at which vessels could load. In 1840 the company sent miners from England to work their mines. Captain King, their commissioner, wrote that there between two and three thousand tons of shipping in Newcastle harbour waiting for coals. As showing the rapidity with which the coal trade grew, the quantity and value of coal raised between the years 1830 and 1843 was 239,328 tons, valued at £135,000. Notwithstanding the company's contention that they held the exclusive right to mine for coal in the colony for a period of thirty-one years from 1829, the Rev. Mr Threlkeld opened a colliery in 1841 or 1842 on his property at Lake Macquarie, and within a few years later several mines were commenced by Messrs. Brown, Turner, Eales and others in the Newcastle district.

In 1847, with the concurrence of the company, the monopoly was terminated, and in 1851 the Supreme Court decided that is was quite illegal at the outset. From that date coal-mine operations exhibit a rapid increase, and the coal trade has become one of the most important industries in the colony. Indeed, it was not until 1849 that the item of coals was for the first time deemed of sufficient importance to have a table assigned to it in the annual statistics of the colony. In that year it was shown that six coal mines had been worked, producing 48,416 tons, of the declared value of £14,647.

The present capital of this great company is £500,000, in 20,000 shares of £25 each, as part of its grant was taken by a separate company, and some idea of its rapid development may be had from the fact the the present price of the shares on the London Stock Exchange is often as high as £100. Previous to the year 1855 when the railway was opened, the coal trade of this district was almost monopolised by the company, the only other mines being those of Messrs. Brown, Donaldson, and Nott. The coal raised from the mines owned by these gentlemen was brought to the port in drays, but when the Maitland line was opened they erected shoots adjoining those of the A.A. Company. At the present time the company ranks next to Wallsend in the output of coal, raising for the five weeks ending September 28, 1889, the large quantity of 30,760 tons. Last year 270,976 tons were taken from their three mines, but owing to the strike they were lying idle for three months of the time. There are at present three working pits, namely, No. 2 or the Borehole, the Hamilton mine, and the New Winning shaft, better known as the Sea Pit. The three mines are capable of putting out, when in full working order, over, 400,000 tons of coal per annum, and the output for the present year is expected to be over 300,00 tons.

Owing to the late lamentable accident in the Hamilton pit the output has been in a measure decreased, as only some twelve pairs of men, in place of over fifty, are now at work in that mine. The No. 2 and Hamilton pits are, properly speaking, one colliery, as their workings run into each other. They are about 200 feet deep, and the former is one of the oldest pits in the district, having hundreds of acres of goaf or worked-out land. They are situated about two miles from the city, and are connected with the harbour by a private railway, leading to the private wharf.

The New or Sea Pit is close to the city, and is 260 feet deep. It is undoubtedly one of the finest mines in the colonies, and is a separate and distinct colliery from the others, a barrier of five chain being left between its workings and those of the Old Borehole. The seam wrought in all the pits is well known as the Borehole seam, and varied from 12ft to 18ft in thickness, lying very regular and free from faults. The mines are situated on the company's estate of 2000 acres, and notwithstanding the large amount of coal already won from the land there is still sufficient to keep the pits going for many years. The company have also obtained the right to mine from the new pit an area of four square miles under the ocean, and therefore this mine will not be extended for nearly a century to come. Great care has been taken in opening it out, and at present headings are well forward of the working places, while extra heavy pillars have been left on the main ways, in view of the length of the time they will have to stand.

At the present time the company employ 790 men underground and 160 on the surface. The plant and machinery at the three mines are all of the most improved type, the pumps being worked by compressed air sent down from engines on the surface. The heaviest pump is at the new mine, and is capable of lifting 40,000 gallons of water per hour. The ventilation of the pits is stated by the miners to be excellent, the old ones being supplied by means of a 30-foot diameter Grubal fan, which produces from 90,000 to 100,000 cubic feet of air per minute. At the Sea Pit ventilation is given by a 13-feet 6-inch "Schiele" fan, which is, like the first, placed at an upcast shaft, and acts by suction upon the air which passes down the working of downcast shaft. It is the largest in the colonies, and throws nearly 300,000 cubic feet of air per minute. The winding engines at the old pits are of 790 horse power, while those at the new mine are 390. The underground hauling of the skips is effected by an engine placed at the surface of each shaft, the endless wire rope passing round the engine drum, then going down the pit along the main engine plane to a large wheel at the end. The friction and wear upon the rope is eased by numbers of small steel wad-rollers, while the object attained by placing the engine on the surface is the prevention of the damage to the air by the exhaust steam. The screening apparatus at the old pits are the ordinary range of sloping parallel iron bars about 7-8ths of an inch apart, the small coal dropping through and the larger passing over on to the waggons.

At the new pit the arrangement is entirely different from any in the district, the coal as it comes from the shaft being tipped upon a sloping iron network shaker which separates the small. The round or large coal then passes down an iron shoot and is delivered upon a borad iron travelling belt which is always slowly moving. While upon this belt and travelling horizontally for a distance of 50 or 60 feet ample opportunity is given for the sorting and removing of any refuse in the coal before it reaches the waggons below.

The arrangements for the shipment of the A.A. Company's coal are excellent, all the collieries being connected by rail with three staiths on the company's own wharf. The depth of water is 18ft at low tide, and intercolonial steamers of 2500 tons burden are frequently loaded at the shoots. To enable the large sailing vessels to be loaded the company have recently dredged the basin near their wharf, and at the present time the largest vessels can without danger lay alongside. One new staith is being constructed, while one of the others has been in use for some time upon a higher level, so as to meet the increased size of steamers and vessels now carrying coal. The coal is drawn up an inclined plane to the high levels by a stationary engine, and each of the staiths has a high or low shoot to suit large or small vessels, as the case may be. Each staith is capable of loading 2,000 tons per day of 24 hours, and the wharf is so arranged that a steamer can load coal into one hatch from the high level and discharge cargo from another hatch at the low level at one and the same time. There is also communication from all the pits to the Government cranes at Bullock Island. The waggons used are all steel hoppers, and 320 in number, having an aggregate capacity of 2,600 tons, and are hauled by two of Beyer's and Peacock's locomotives.

For many years the trade of the A.A. Company has been chiefly confined to the colonies, but of late attention has been drawn to the excellent markets in America, India and other places. In March last a trial shipment was sent to the San Francisco gas works, and was very favourably reported on, and it is quite on the cards that the Wallsend and Greta will soon have to share the American trade with the A.A. Company, Stockton, and others. An average analysis of the company's coal shows that it contains only 5.35 percent of ash and clinker, a result which is much under many of the other collieries in the district. There is 63.28 per cent. of coke, and its specific gravity is 1.297.

The company is superintended in the colonies by Mr Jesse Gregson, Mr William Turnbull being manager of the collieries, Mr John Gammack, accountant and wharf agent. The company forms one of the parties to the Northern Collieries Association, and when in conference with the miners the superintendent acts as the chairman.

The company possess an immense tract of country at Port Stephens, a few miles north of Newcastle, where a coal seam of 20 or 30 feet in thickness is known to exist, but as it lies at a considerable angle it is an open question what its commercial value is. Iron-stone and limestone also exist in immense quantities, and there is no doubt that in time to come they will be turned to account.