A long walk to the Cremore coalface

In the late 19th Century, the Sydney Morning Herald carried regular reports detailing the development of the coal industry. The articles on the rush to issue mining licences and the government’s generosity with public money to assist coal companies could have been written today.

On 14 November 1893 the SMH reported that in “the last few days 10 mineral licenses have been issued, mostly to search for coal in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson; and seven applications … to mine (for coal)”.

Bores were put down at Liverpool, Newington and Moore Park, but around the harbour became the favoured site.

In 1890 a large and potentially very profitable coal seam was discovered at Cremorne. Kurraba Point, Balls Head and also two sections on Bradley’s Head – including what is now Taronga Zoo - were the sites considered by the Sydney and Port Hacking Coal Company, which had the title to mine under Sydney Harbour.

Not unlike many coal-affected communities today north side residents were up in arms at the thought of a coalmine near their homes. They were hostile to the idea of Sydney’s industry extending to the north shore, and the intensity of their objections led to the company abandoning their plans to open a site north of the harbour.

Across the harbour, a colliery was opened in 1897 in the then working-class suburb of Balmain, near the present-day Birchgrove Primary School.

When the coal beneath the site proved unworkable, the operators decided to tunnel from Balmain under the harbour to the Cremorne seam.

It was a long walk each day to the coalface.

Due to the depths and distances involved the Balmain was never profitable, and financial problems were constant. In 1928 ownership was reorganised with coalminers operating the pit as the Balmain Coal Contracting Company. While this cooperative had some early success coal mining was halted in 1931.

The colliery was used to mine for methane gas through the 1930s and 1940s as part of the war effort.  In the 1950s the two pit shafts were filled with fly ash from White Bay Power Station and sealed over. 

The Balmain Colliery as it became known was then the deepest pit ever worked in Australia. It was nearly 3000 feet or just under one kilometre deep.

Sydney's northern suburbs could have been the heart of industrial Sydney if the mining company had had their way and gained easy access to a large coal seam at Cremore.

The knock on effect to communities on both sides of the harbour would have been severe without the opposition of residents.

There is further suggestion that opposition to coal mining may have a long history. More than a quarter of the Cremore coal bore costs were paid out of the public purse, and the SMH article reporting this stated “some brave persons have been inclined to take the Government to task for expending this sum”.

I would love to know more about those “brave persons” who at the end of the 19th century were already trying to bring some balance to government assistance to the coal industry.

They are the ideological forebears of those many “brave persons” today taking on the coal industry and compliant governments and oppositions.

Check out
ABC’s Four Corners “The good earth” on Liverpool Plains coal mining plans.
ABC’s Four Corners “A dirty business” on coal related health issues in the Hunter.
SMH “Villagers fuming after their common is handed to mine”