Coal River and the First Mines in Australia Russell Rigby (Member, Coal River Working Party) Introduction “Coal River” was one of the early European names given to the site of Newcastle, at the mouth of the Hunter River, because of the coal seams outcropping on the rock platforms. The present landscape has been shaped by intensive human activity over the past two hundred years, with significant relics of each stage preserved. The Coal River Heritage Precinct has been defined to include Nobbys, Fort Scratchley (Signal Hill) and Macquarie Pier (breakwater) (Figure 1). The Coal River Working Party (CRWP) was formed in 2003 by the University of Newcastle, with membership from University, industry and interested community bodies & individuals. The CRWP aims to protect Newcastle's culturally important landmarks that were only recently placed on the NSW Heritage Register. Since its formation members of the CRWP have : ● located the earliest Australian mining records in UK archives ● located the first surveys of Newcastle and the lower Hunter River, and organised the presentation of copies of the maps by the Governor to community representatives ● identified the probable location of early convict mines, confirmed the targets with geophysics and surveying, and successfully drilled into the mine voids ● prepared and submitted an application for the addition of the Precinct to the National Heritage List ● raised public awareness of the heritage values of the site ● presented all of the available source documents and results on the Coal River website (www.newcastle.edu.au/service/archives/coalriver/) One of the next stages of the work of the CRWP is to combine all of the plans, maps and historical documents with a digital 3D representation of the Coal River Precinct and surrounding Newcastle, to show the past and future changes in the site through time Time line The Newcastle Coal Measure rocks were deposited in the major Permian sedimentary sequence of the Sydney Basin. The sequence was intruded by igneous dykes and sills in the Jurassic and Tertiary, and overlying strata removed by erosion. 120,000 years ago the sea level was about 5m higher than present, falling to more than 60m below present level 12,000 years ago. The earliest dated Aboriginal activity in the Lower Hunter area was about 8000BP. The Awabakal are the only recorded Aboriginal group to utilize coal for fuel, and their language includes nikkin, the only known Aboriginal word for coal. Many of the landscape features around the Hunter River estuary (Coquun) have recorded Aboriginal names, and also feature in Dreamtime stories. The first mention of the Hunter area is the entry in the log entry by James Cook in 1770, of a small clump of an island (Nobbys). The area was probably visited by escaping convicts and fishermen between 1788 and 1797 when Lt John Shortland sailed into the river mouth while searching for escaped convicts. He took samples of the coal from outcrops on the rock platforms around the river mouth, and drew an 'eye-sketch' of the harbour and estuary. He named the river Hunter's River in honour of his friend, Governor John Hunter, but none of the other names he gave have survived in common use. For the next few years coal was collected off the rock platforms by the crews of visiting privately- owned ships, and the area was usually referred to as Coal River. The first systematic exploration and surveying was conducted in 1801, followed by the establishment of a short-lived penal station. The permanent penal station was established in 1804. Table 1: Coal River Time Line Year Event 250my BP Newcastle Coal Measure rocks deposited 120,000 BP Sea-level 100m lower than present 12,000BP Sea-level 5m higher than present 8,000BP Earliest dated aboriginal sites in Lower Hunter 1770 Cook sails past Nobbys - “ a small clump of an island” 1791 William & Mary Bryant, escaping convicts, find coal on coastline near Newcastle 1797 Lt John Shortland enters Hunter's River 1800 First export of Newcastle coal to Bengal 1801 Survey & mapping of Coal Harbour and Hunter River by Paterson, Grant & Barallier 1801-02 Short-lived penal station at Coal River 1804 Permanent settlement established at New Castle 1817 Mining shifts from Signal Hill area 1818 Commencement of Macquarie Pier to Nobbys 1823 Penal colony shifts to Port Macquarie 1824-30 AA Company founded, takes over Government mines 1843 Last convicts in mines 1846 Macquarie Pier connected to Nobbys 1856-60 Great Northern Railway constructed, and extended to eastern Newcastle harbour 1858 Nobbys lighthouse operational, Signal Hill beacon extinguished 1881-85 Fort Scratchley constructed on Signal Hill 1916 Mining finishes in inner city Newcastle and Delta mines Barallier Plan – 1801 (Figures 2 - 4) In June 1801 Colonel Paterson led an exploration party to Coal River in the Lady Nelson, to investigate the coal, timber and lime resources. The survey work was carried out by Ensign Barallier, and compiled onto a large map showing the river as far upstream as Maitland and Clarencetown (Figure 3). Also on the plan was a more detailed chart of the harbour, with water depths and the location of coal outcrops (Figure 4). This was the first detailed survey of the Hunter River and estuary, as the only earlier known map is the “eye-sketch” prepared by Lt John Shortland. Microfiche copies of parts of the plan, and the accompanying report, were known from NSW State Archives. Following investigative work by members of the CRWP the original complete plan was located in the UK Archives. In 2007 mounted copies were presented by NSW Governor Marie Bashier to Newcastle City Council, representatives of the Awabakal, and local history groups. 1804 Mine Plan (Figures 5 - 9) Australia's mining records date back more than two centuries to a plan drafted by an officer of the Royal Marines. Lieutenant Charles Menzies was the Commandant of the newly established penal station at Newcastle. The penal station had been established in March 1804 to supply coal, timber, salt and lime to Sydney, and to be a secondary place of punishment for convicts who had re- offended in Sydney. The first convicts sent to Newcastle included Irish survivors of the Vinegar Hill uprising in Sydney. When Menzies arrived he found that the mining activity at Colliers Point had been conducted in a very haphazard fashion by ships' crews and during the first settlement, with unsupported adits driven up to 30m into the hillside. He undertook to establish the mines in a more systematic fashion, and private coal mining was forbidden. In July 1804 Menzies compiled a plan of this mine: A Plan of His Majesty's Coal Mine at Kings Town New Castle District County of Northumberland New South Wales in its present situation of working July 1804: (Figure 5). The plan was sent, with other reports and correspondence to the Governor in Sydney on the next available ship. Governor King subsequently sent the plan, together with samples of the freshly mined coal, to Lord Hobart in England where it was filed in the records of the British Empire. This plan, now in the British National Archives in London, is the earliest known artefact of Australia's mining industry. Putting it in historical perspective, the plan was prepared less than five months after the establishment of the permanent penal station in Newcastle in March 1804, about three years after the first shipment of coal to Bengal, and seven years after the discovery of coal at Newcastle by Shortland in 1797. Apart from being the first known mine plan, it is also the first example of mine surveying (Figures 6a & 6b, and 7), mine planning (Figure 8) and mine geology (Figure 9) in Australia. There is sufficient information on the plan to attempt to reconstruct the workings, but some assumptions must be made as there inconsistencies in the bearings and distances quoted.(Figure 6b). It does not appear to be drawn to scale, and may have been drawn as a “centreline” sketch plan as a reference for the table of bearings and distances. The workings have been shown 1m wide on the interpreted mine plan. The seam worked is the upper split of the Dudley Seam, and not the lower split which is at the level of the rock platform. This is based on the note: The openings are 70 feet above the surface of the sea, - as much to the surface of the hill. One annotation on the plan shows Q as the direction intended to be pursued which will open a communication to the beach, a potential pathway shortening the distance convicts had to carry the coal in baskets, rather than a shortcut to surfing pleasure. At the end of K the annotation reads A fault in flukin. The flukin referred to here is likely to be a thin igneous dyke, altered to soft white clay, rather than fault gouge. The specific dyke has not been identified. Flukin is an unusual spelling of the word flucan which is originally a Cornish mining term: flucan: A narrow band of crushed rock or clayey material found along a fault zone or vein of ore. See also:breccia; gouge; selvage; pug. Also spelled fluccan; flookan; flukan; floocan. The word is common in 19th century reports of mining in Cornwall, and also occurs in reports from hard rock mining in Australia and USA, but the only time it appears in a coal context is in a dictionary of mining terms in the Pennsylvania anthracite coalfield. There is insufficient information on the plan or in the contemporaneous records to fix the location of these workings accurately. Based on the alignment of the two openings on a northeast-trending hill face, and on the proposed communication to the beach, it is likely that the workings were near the north-east point of Colliers Point, and most of the workings have been removed during the construction of a quarry tramway, the fort ramparts and Fort Drive.