A Tale of Wallarah Colliery

[rob52]

2016_12_30 travelled to see friends, stopped off and walked into the site of Wallarah U/G where I worked in 1997-98.  The Wallarah Colliery Buildings, drift haulage and substations are all now removed/bulldozed/levelled with the shafts capped.
926511 Mine Seal L/Wgt & 440899 Mine Seal Ashblock signs plus a very rusty compressed air hose coupling, a couple of rails, the Powder Magazine Hut Concrete Slabs, a few "Voitaulio Couplings" and sections of water pipe, a small section of "Cable Belt" with joining clips, some winder wire rope and a couple of old signs and some sections of the storage yard & lot boundary fences .....thats all that is left of the entire U/G Mining Operation.....sad really, hard work & good times were had there.

The trail bike riders & 4WD's were doing circle work on the the site while I was walking down so its obviously readily accessible by other 4WD trails in the area.


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Some detail on the U/G operation below:

The coal mines of Newcastle, NSW : their rise and progress \ by George H Kingswell, 1890 - call number RB GRAY 622.33/46 C c.3
Scanned Extract on Wallarah Coal Company
www.flickr.com/photos/uon/7647102102/
Pg62
Pg63
Pg64
Pg65

NSW Govt Mining Maps

Flickr Album For Wallarah Colliery

Wallarah Pit Top in 1975 - The Crangan Entry was established 1956 (western side of the Pacific Hway ), coal transported by road to E Tunnel & later to Washing Plant at Catherine Hill Bay
J&A Brown & Abermain Seaham Collieries Limited took over "The Wallarah Coal Company" in 1955, they commenced the "Modernisation Program" that included Crangan Entry Drift and construction of the Wash Plant at Catherine Hill Bay.

Note that Wallarah Colliery had a few different locations for entry into coal seams for workings.
Wallarah Colliery worked A Pit (production from August 1888), B Pit (8ft thick seam, worked from March 1889-1925 opposite side of valley from A Pit), C Pit (worked from February 1890-1897) were tunnels into the coal seam on the side of a hill. D Pit was a shaft mine (intended to mine the Great Northern Seam worked from April 1897 to December 1898) .
E Tunnel opened 1901 & shut 1963.
A, B, C, D & E were all on the eastern side of the Pacific Highway. Per above The Crangan Entry was on the western side of the Pacific HWay above Crangan Bay Lake Macquarie.

Wallarah Pit Top Colliery E Tunnel Pit Top about 1905

Catherine Hill Bay Jetty Coal Load out

Some missed him Some did not

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Heritage Assessment

2005_07 EJE Heritage - Wallarah & Moonee Collieries - Conservation Management Plan

“the former mining operations of the Wallarah and Moonee Collieries and the Catherine Hill Bay Coal Preparation Plant. “

Wallarah Colliery - Last Mining operator was Coal Operations Australia Limited.
LIST OF SUBSIDIARIES OF BHP BILLITON LIMITED AND BHP BILLITON PLC
BHP BILLITON PLC GROUP STRUCTURE
Entity
Coal Operations Australia Pty Limited—Australia

Wallarah Colliery was located on the eastern shore of Crangan Bay in Lake Macquarie

The site is now (2005) majority owned by Rosecorp P/L. (previously owned by the Mining Operator)

With the cessation of mining within the site, these terms “Moonee and Wallarah Collieries” now are useful only as historical terms of reference, and are likely to serve no ongoing operational meaning into the future.

This document represents a report of the visible condition of the fabric and dilapidation evident to the authors at the time of publication only.

Social aspects of twentieth century industrial towns could be subject to future research questions with a focus on the development and subsequent decline of coal mining at Catherine Hill Bay and the effect on the community.


Pg51thru to Pg77

Pg51 600HP 36” Cable Belt Winder House, similar to the one at Chain Valley
Wallarah Installation was the First "Cable Belt" installed in Australia

The new drift, begun in 1957 near the eastern shore of Crangan Bay, met up with a set of existing headings underground. This drift, 1250 ft. long and on a grade of 1 in 3 ½, was driven both from the surface and underground. Production from the new drive commenced on 30 April 1958, and
in February 1959 two panels, about ¼ mile apart, were being worked with two units in each panel.
Each unit comprised a Joy 11-BU loader and A.B. Dreadnought Arcwall coal cutter, two Joy 10-SC shuttle cars and Homac electric coal drills.

The Colliery operations incorporated a drift approximately 750m in length and two vertical shafts. The down cast, or men and materials shaft, was approximately 170m in depth, servicing the Wallarah (70m deep), Great Northern (128m deep) and Fassifern (166m deep) seams. The upcast shaft extended from the Great Northern seam through the Wallarah seam to the surface.

The Wallarah fan was manufactured by Aerex (Aust) Coy, fan engineers, Waterloo, Sydney. Mounted on the fan was a nameplate which designated the fan as a Type 2GJ-72, Serial No.2103.

Pg66 Noted that the Powder Magazine Concrete Slabs are still there detailed as WC6 & WC7, that is about it.


Inrush/Inundation Risk Assessment
Pg7 shows 15 April 1999 extent of Wallarah Colliery & Moonee Colliery 90m Minwall Workings

Pg 12 shows Wallarah Colliery workings in the 3.2m thick GNS using Marietta & Jeffrey CM’s plus FCT taking out 100m wide panels with help of Breaker Line Supports, the welsh pillars left in the Wallarah Seam 35m-40m above stayed stable it dropped the surface 1.1m

FCT Performance

Once the site was bulldozed it got a bit toasted

A Few Pics of the Fire & digging it out.

I'll post some stuff regarding the U/G operations out of
"Shaping the Hunter" ISBN 0858150255 YOP 1983

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Soon to be houses?
Pg118 - 122
Pg120 Shows proposed housing developments over the old Wallarah Seam workings
Pg121 Shows proposed housing developments over the old GNS workings


Rob

[rob52]

As promised…

Some extracts from “Shaping the Hunter” ISBN 0858150255 published in 1983.

Pg49
“the southern extent of the coal field was for many years marked by Wallarah Colliery - in splendid isolation at Catherine Hill Bay on the seafront south of Swansea. Commenced in coal outcropping on the beach, the Wallarah Mine (first known as the Newcastle New Wallsend Colliery) lingered for want of capital, until 1888 when a British shipping company, seeking independent supplies of bunkering coal, formed the Wallarah Coal Company and sent Thomas Parton from South Staffordshire to open its mine. Under his supervision, with Joseph Sperring as his under manager, work proceeded apace, tunnels were driven further inland, railways laid to connect them and a substantial jetty was constructed. Soon coal was being taken by the Company’s own steamers to the Sydney bunkering trade.

Eventually a little world developed, virtually isolated (it was accessible only by ship or launch till the late 1920s), with its own twin villages (Mine Camp and Middle Camp), jetty, railway, mines, sawmill and electric power plant.”

Pg50
“The Wallarah Power House was certainly not the first electric plant, but typical of the pioneer installations. It embodied two Babcock and Wilson Boilers, hand fired with a steel stack. The electric generator was from the United States of America, by Goodman - 100kW at 275V DC and driven from a horizontal McEwan steam engine by a flat belt. The plant was used to power isolated underground pumps. (gear driven triple ram machines). When, a year or so later, Sperring, now promoted to manager, imported coal cutting machines, the new SIEMENS Generator with its vertical direct connected Allen steam engine was also installed in the power house building. From the open knife switches and ceramic fuses on the marble switchboard, the current was carried into the mine by twin separate copper conductors, sheathed in natural rubber and suspended on porcelain insulators screwed to the mine props. At the bord ends, there were open fuses and knife switches in sheet metal cases and the flexible machine cables were clipped as required to the bared conductors, rubber sleeves being provided to cover the cable when no connection was being made. The face cables were suspended clear of the horse traffic by raw hide straps.

Electricity produced many problems. Throughout the district there were fires and sparks from open contacts and overloaded cables, and there was considerable industrial opposition to the innovation. No major disaster ever arose from an electrical installation. More significant were the electric shock fatalities. For many years great interest and energy was devoted to improving the safety of electric machinery, a major step being the requirement that a qualified official should be appointed to oversee the electrical installation at each colliery. Thus the Colliery Electrician came into being.

These men….carried on the efforts of the pioneer engineer and by the 1960s colliery electric installations ranked alongside any in the world.” ** [Discussion on this below]**

Pg54
"By the end of the war in 1945, the coal industry was in a sorry state.  The mines had operated through the war at a profit.  At that time equipment was not available for replacement and development.  Now there was no incentive for reinvestment in a turbulent industry. A fragile industrial peace had been bought by appeasement.  The nation suffered its first great energy crisis.  A commonwealth Coal Commission had been set up towards the end of the war to oversee the coal mines.  This legislation now lapsed and State and Commonwealth Governments made a combined approach to seek rationalisation of the coal industry, essential for the Nations's post war recovery.  And so, in 1945 the Joint Coal Board was brought into being...  The way to rehabilitation and a modern industry was opened.  The Joint Coal Board encouraged, cajoled and coerced the mining companies to modenise and mechanise their mines.  Free technical advice was provided by the Board (it often went unheeded) and when capital was not forthcoming, machinery could be made available on lease. Repayments were made by a special increase on the selling price of coal.....

Wallarah Colliery had used trackless loading machines since the 1930s but they loaded into conventional rail skips."

Pg55
"after the downturn of the 1960s, mining was by the end of the 1970s becoming a sort after career, Mining Engineering Graduates again began to seek practical experience to qualify them for statuatory certificates. "



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I’ll talk to the last point on Pg50 in discussion below.

It did not take that long i.e. until the 1960’s to have “quality colliery electric installations ranked alongside any in the world”.
We had many UK Colliery Staff and members of the Association of Mining Electrical Engineers working as shift engineers and EEIC’s. It was the standard thing you had to do if you wanted to be the shift elec eng or higher i.e. join the AME and go to the local meetings, preferably complete the Electrical Engineering Certificate, garner sufficient U/G experience in a role of responsibility then get sponsored by the U/G you worked at to sit the written exam, oral exam and then interview for your Statutory Coal Mine Electrical Engineering Certificate of Competence.

“Application of Electric Power to Mines and Heavy Industries” WH Patchell published in 1913 “a course of special advanced lectures delivered at the University of London Kings College.” was available within most coal company libraries. As were the transactions and conference proceedings from the UK “Association of Mining Electrical Engineers” from Volume 1909-1910 i.e. the inaugural conference. The subsequent monthly journal publication and annual conference proceedings "hard copies" made there way to Australia by ship, so it took a little while for them to arrive to AME members. A number of the University Libraries held/hold full reference sets of the monthly journal publication an annual conference proceedings "hard copies".

Meurig Rhys Lloyd ex UK Coal Electrical Inspector was the NSW Senior Electrical Inspector before Tony Reczek who was before John Waudby also Ex UK NCB all three were highly experienced and very good mining electrical engineers. Ernest Thomas Faulkner EC&E Co Ltd, Albert Weeks ATF, Jack Taylor ATF Transformers, Rob Robson DEC and others were key contributors in the Equipment OEM Space.

However I do agree that with the advances in electronics and the adoption of a group of legislated measures including:
* star point impedance earthing (preferably resistive) 5A for <4000V,
* earth loop continuity confirmation protection before energisation of cables (i.e. guaranteed metallic return path for the earth fault current),
* core balance toroidal earth fault protection (often called Earth Leakage Protection)
* the mandating of a 10:1 fault current to protection setting tripping ratio that provided good coverage for <1000V arcing faults and operation on a pulsed AC 1/2 diode bridge fault.
* cable construction and equipment construction endeavouring to ensure the first fault was an earth fault,
* Cable couplers that ensured the earth conductor was the last to be disconnected
* Cable designs that ensured the earth conductor was the last to be broken
* earth fault lockout protection,
* stopping the use of Dashpot relays for overload/short circuit protection
* flameproof enclosure engineering
* etc

……the above plus better training of electrical staff backed up by “enforced legislation” all helped make the use of electricity in underground coal mining safer.

Mining H&SRM
A History of Australian Designed Longwall Electrics
Electrocutions & Risk (Tolerable risk for NSW Coal Industry)


Rob

[rob52]

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162801353
1921_11_15 Wallarah Colliery - Old King Coal The Northern Field Round About Newcastle
William Humble Late Chief Inspector of Coal Mines

Wallarah Colliery
"Wallarah Coal Company Ltd holds an area of 3,864acres.
The Colliery is at Catherine Hill Bay about 20 miles South of Newcastle. It is working the top seam of Newcastle District which has been geologically determined as the Bulli Seam worked in Illawarra, and at Sydney Harbour Colliery. The seam outcrops on the northern part of he holding and dips south towards Lake Macquarie, where it is estimated to be about 350 Ft below the surface. It is 10ft thick, but the marketable portion is the lower 7ft. It is good steam coal, containing about 9 percent of ash.

The bord and pillar method of working is in use. The bords being eight and twelve yards wide, with small pillars which subsequently are reduced. The system being designed to permit coal cutting machines to operate as much as possible. These machines are used in cutting the pillar coal, so that practically the whole output is got by machines.

The output during 1920 was about 200,000 tons, and 394 men & boys were employed.

About 17 coal cutting machines are in daily use, 6 Sullivans, 7 Jeffery breast type, and 4 Jeffery short-wall.

The short-wall Jeffery’s are in favour: while the breast type cut 92 tons and 72 tons respectively per shift, the short-wall type cuts 120 tons.

The electrical installation consists of two units, one 270kW and one 250kW at 250Volts. It is used for coal cutting, subsidiary haulage, screening, pumping etc. The whole of the power used is from three boilers, two Babcock and Wilcox, and one Fenman, all at a working presure of 150 lb per square inch. Two cornish boilers at 80lb are alongside, and occasionally used. The fuel is brought from the screens by travelling belt.

There are three electric haulages 75, 100 and 150hp, and five portable haulage motors averaging 15hp. The pumping is done by a 65hp centrifugal pump, delivering 400 gallons per minute, another 30hp and five small ones ranging from 5 to 15hp.
The screening is done on two Marcus conveyors, 50 and 56 feet long respectively. The seam is a hard coal, and very large lumps comprise most of the output. These are fed into a crusher, which breaks them down to sizes suitable for handling in the bunkers of ships.

The company’s two colliers are constantly delivering to Sydney market and other small steamboats from Sydney take cargoes. To provide against intermittent sailings - the shipping jetty being an open roadstead - there are two large bins capable of holding 3000 tons large and 1600 tons small coal into which the output is conveyed by Marcus belt conveyors. Occasionally coal is stacked in heaps alongside the two miles of railway connecting the mine with the jetty.

The ventilation is produced by by a Walker Fan, 200ft diameter and 7ft wide running at 80 revolutions per minute and circulating 220,000 cubic feet of air per minute. No explosive gas has everbeen seen, and naked lights are used throughout.

The workshops, sawmill etc are of the usual kind and well equipped with machinery. The S20 coal tubs and the 300 railway wagons in use were built and are repaired on the premises.

The whole design is for an output of about 1600tons per day, but a darg instituted by the workers in October 1919, keeps the output down to about 1000 tons per day."

"top seam of Newcastle District"

Noted Wallarah Colliery had Access to Wallarah Seam, Great Northern Seam & Below that Fassifern Seam

Per Pg11 (14 of the .pdf)

Figure 4. Composite stratigraphic column of the regressive nonmarine/paralic 400 m-thick Newcastle Coal Measures underlain by the marine Waratah Sandstone and Dempsey Formation, modified from McKenzie and Britten (1969).

coalfieldgeologycouncilnsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SBS-32-1998-NCM-strat-Excursion-OCR.pdf