"Coal and Culture"

Early records indicate coal was discovered at Newcastle in 1796. Where the first shipment was loaded and sailed for India in 1799.

Coal was first diccovered in 1886 at Deep Creek. Prof. T.W. Edgeworth David(later Sir) the then Government Geologist proved that this outcrop was part of the Greta Seam.

In the years to follow, various collieries opened to work this seam in an area called the "South Maitland Coalfields".

After proving the existence of this seam in 1886, the Department of Mines reserved, in the interest of coal mining, 23,700 acres in the locality. It was in this area that collieries such as South Greta, East Greta, Heddon Greta, Stanford Merthyr, Pelaw Main, Hebburn and Abermain, were to be developed in future years. The first recorded activity of mining on the discovery site near Abermain is by a company called the Silkstone Coal Company in the same year 1886. Due to a lack of facilities to move the coal to the harbour at Newcastle the company was taken over by the Clyde Coal, Land and Investment Co.

In 1903 a company called Abermain Colliery Company Limited was incorporated with a capital of 100,000 pounds(in 1 pound shares). In May of the same year tenders were called for excavating, tunneling and timbering of the Abermain colliery. Tenders were also called to erect a weather-board cottage and office at the mine for the manager. In August 1903 interest was being shown regarding the activities of the Abermain Colliery company and the Maitland Mercury sent a reporter out to Abermain to report on it's progress. Although his report was full of information on the progress of the colliery and the housing of the workers, there was still no mention of any township within the vicinity. The rail line required to take the coal to Newcastle met with a few problems during it's construction, the main one being that the ship carrying the rails had been wrecked on the way out to Australia.

Coal was finally struck in September 1903 with the seam being 12' 6" thick. the first years production was 67,000 tons. So popular did the Abermain brand become that the output of the colliery was gradually increased up to 2,000 tons per day and 2 more collieries were opened on the Company's estate.

Abermain No 2 produced it's first coal in 1912 ( the small village called Kearsley started to develop around this site). There were 590 men employed at this mine. In 1922 the Abermain company and Seaham Colliery Company Ltd. amalgamated to form Abermain & Seaham Collieries Limited. They opened Abermain No 3 near Neath in 1923, this worked the same area as No 1 and were considered joint collieries.

When No 3 was in production the men were transported from No1 by rail. The miners train was called the " Abermain HORROR "

In 1931 Abermain & Seaham joined with the East Greta Coal Mining Company and Messrs. J. & A. Brown to form J. & A Brown Abermain Seaham Collieries Ltd. and by 1961 that company had amalgamated with Caledonian Collieries LTD to form Coal and Allied Industries.

Abermain No 1 and No 3 collieries closed in September 1960 and No 2 in April 1964. During this period which saw many South Maitland Coalfields close because of loss of markets: old miners report that there is an abundance of coal to be gained from the mines. All evidence of the once thriving Abermain No 1 mine and buildings have been removed and memories of the mine and it's miners have all but faded.

Abermain Mines Rescue Station was constructed in 1926 and was the first opened in New South Wales and the second in Australia, the first being at Ipswich, Queensland. A Bill was passed through Parliament on September 28th 1925 to provide for the erection of 4 rescue stations, the towns being Abermain, Belambi, Boolaroo and Lithgow. The foundation stone for Abermain was laid on Saturday 20th March 1926, one by Mr. Baddeley Minister for Mines and another by Mr. C. M. McDonald.

Both these men expressed the hope that the station would never be called on to deal with any disaster.

" There have been hundreds of miners trained over the years for rescue work. with the mines closing down on the Maitland Coalfields new mines opening at Singleton and Muswellbrook area it was decided to build a new mines Rescue Station at Singleton Heights. All personnel moved from Abermain on 15th August 1983."

All information for this section comes from a book titled " ABERMAIN ~ The Beginning ~ ".

This book was compiled Janice Norden for the Abermain Neath Tidy Towns and sponsored by the Joint Coal Board in 1997 for the inaugural Abermain Coal and Culture Festival. If you require any more information please contact me at the below address and I will quite happily pass this on to Janice.

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