New South Wales Metalligerious Mining Accidents 1883 to 1938

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NEW SOUTH WALES METALLIFERIOUS MINING
ACCIDENTS
1883 - 1938
By
Gerald E. Sherard
(June 2007)
During the earth’s Caboniferous Geologic Period, 250 to 400 million B.C.,
material was deposited that eventually transformed to coal. At that time most of New
South Wales was a flat, hot, moist plain covered with steaming swamps thick with tall
trees and wide spreading ferns. Scientists estimate that it took about eight meters of
compacted vegetation to produce one meter of coal.
Prior to 1920, mining was an unhealthy and dangerous occupation. There were
no rules to ensure safety in the industry, whether in the mine, mill, or smelter. In the
early 1900s, laws to improve and monitor mine safety were enacted by the province
government.
Accidents sometimes occurred on the way to and from work. Once the miner got
to the mine, he was lowered down a poorly lit shaft in an ore bucket or cage, often several
hundred feet, to his working level. How would you like to ride up an ore bucket or wait
for a ride if you and your co-workers had to suddenly escape from a mine shaft several
hundred feet down? Once down to his working level, the miner had to contend with
moving tram cars, steam lines, electric wiring, machinery of various types, and the heavy,
hot, and massively vibrating drills. Supporting timber if poorly positioned, or if the wood
became water-soaked and rotten, or with minor shifts in the earth’s crust, tons of rock
would suddenly fall, trapping or crushing the miners. The mine’s structures and supports
were wood, and fire was a constant threat.
Coal mines were often filled with odorless and tasteless methane gas. Canaries,
birds that were easily stressed and sensitive to toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and
methane, were used up until the 1980s when they were replaced by hand held electronic
detectors. Coal mine explosions due to methane gas have continued to the present. As
many, perhaps more, men have died from gases and lack of oxygen (known as “after -
damp”) than have been killed by the blast and heat. Mine explosions often are caused by
a combination of factors, including concentration of methane in air, formation of clouds
of dust, and the presence of a flame or spark.
New South Wales is Australia’s largest coal producing province. The chief
mining products are gold, silver, coal, copper, tin, lead, zinc and cobalt. The worst
Australian mine disaster occurred July 31, 1902, at the Mount Kembla Colliery, Mount
Kembla (Wollongong), New South Wales where 96 miners were killed by a coal mine
underground gas explosion. http://www.illawarracoal.com/mtkembladisaster.htm
New South Wales’s other major mine accidents, their causes, and number of men killed
are as follows:
July 24, 1879, Appin Colliery, Appin, New South Wales, underground gas explosion in
coal mine during a preplanned ventilation change, 14 killed.
March 23, 1887, Bulli Colliery, Bulli, New South Wales, coal mine underground gas
explosion, 81 killed. http://www.illawarracoal.com/bullidisaster.htm