Joseph Crompton - Bulli, NSW - Graves Mentioning a Cause of Death on Waymarking.com

Many of those killed are buried in this cemetery - the Bulli Anglican churchyard cemetery. Some of the graves/headstones had to be relocated when the nearby railway line was duplicated.

The Illawarra Coal website listed below has the following information about the disaster:

Bulli Colliery Gas Explosion 1887

At 2.30pm on Wednesday, March 23rd, 1887, an explosion in the mine blew out of the tunnel mouth carrying with it an unconscious boy, Herbert Cope. Eighty one bodies were recovered and subsequently buried at St. Augustines Church of England, with eight at Fairy Meadow Roman Catholic cemetery (Corrimal), some at Woonona churchyard and the unidentified at Bulli.

Bulli Colliery was a "gassy" pit having high concentrations of "firedamp" (methane) within its coal. Bleeding off into the mine workings, this gas was diluted and removed to the surface by the circulating air of the ventilation system before it accumulated and formed an inflammable mix (methane is inflammable within the approximate range of 5 - 15% when mixed with air so the object is to maintain the gas concentration well below the 5% level)".

Details of the inscription on the headstone appear on the Australian Cemetery Index here: (visit link)

Type of Death Listed: Accident Website (if available): [Web Link] Cause of death inscription on headstone: Not listed

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