Mount Keira - Mining History

Mining History

Coal was recorded at Mount Keira in 1839 by the Rev W. B. Clarke, a qualified geologist.

In 1848 James Shoobert, a retired sea captain, drove a tunnel into what is now known as the No. 3 (Wongawilli) seam. He then observed an outcrop of the No. 2 (Balgownie or 4-ft) seam, in which the coal was of better quality, and drove tunnels into it in 1849 and 1850. This was known as the Albert Coal Mine and was the first in the Illawarra.

Shoobert lacked the capital to develop the mine and in 1856 sold it by auction to Henry Osborne.

In April 1857 a new tunnel was opened into the higher No 1 (Bulli) seam a short distance away by William Robson for Osborne and called the Osborne Wallsend Colliery.

On 16 April 1857 the first 3.5 tons of coal from the new mine was delivered to the wharf at Wollongong’s Belmore Basin by bullock team for trial in the S.S. Illawarra. Keira coal gained a reputation for being superior to any other coal, and by the 1870s large shipments were being made to Sydney, India and parts of Asia

Coal was originally forked into approximately 1 ton capacity wooden skips, hauled to the surface by horse and then carted down the mountain by a track joining Mount Keira Road near Hurt Street. Later improvements include a Main and Tail Rope Haulage installation to bring coal to the surface, and a self acting skip incline (that is, empty skips hauled up to the mine by the descending loaded skips) to transport the coal to the foot of the mountain at what is now Gooyong Street Keiraville

In May 1861 a narrow gauge tramway was constructed from the incline to Belmore Basin (Wollongong Harbour) after the Mount Keira Tramways Act was passed by parliament. In 1878 the tramroad was widened to standard gauge and horse teams used for hauling the coal were replaced by steam locomotives. These locomotives, the Keira No. 1 and Keira No. 2 were the first locomotives to work on this coal route but steam locomotives were earlier used at Bulli Colliery from 1867 - even though the first Bulli locomotive purchased proved too heavy for the track which had previously been designed for an ingenious gravitational coal-skip incline to the jetty over four cutting and four bridges. The locomotives at Keira ceased running in 1954 when the line was closed.

On a modern street map the route of the tramway followed Gooyong Street, Rose Street, Throsby Drive (Tramway Bridge) and then between Campbell Street and Smith Street (including the Illawarra Master Builders Club carpark) to Osborne Park and Belmore Basin. The route can still be traced on a modern aerial or satellite photograph.

In 1937 Australian Iron and Steel (later a subsidiary of BHP and then BHP Billiton) acquired the colliery for its Port Kembla steelworks.

In 1942 a diesel locomotive was introduced at the mine, the first underground diesel locomotive in Australia.

In 1954 the skipway and tramway was replaced by a tunnel driven from the escarpment at the head of the company’s private railway between Mount Nebo and Mount Kembla. In 1955 the mine was renamed Kemira (from Kembla and Keira).

Longwall mining was introduced in the 1960s.

Peak production was reached in the year ending November 1979 with 770,684 tonnes.

In 1982 a downturn in the steel industry resulted in 189 employees (60% of the workforce) being retrenched, resulting in a 16 day “sit-in” protest by 30, and mining finally ceased on 27 September 1991.