Belmont Colliery - Valentine, NSW, Australia
S 33° 01.570 E 151° 38.253
56H E 372758 N 6344987
Not too far into the Reserve from the Green Point Road entrance is a sign about the coal mining history of the area.
Waymark Code: WMXA17
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 12/14/2017
Views: 1
The printed sign has a couple of historic photos, and a reprint from a local newspaper about a miner's death in 1940. The text of the sign reads:
"The largest of the coal mines in the Green point area was the Belmont Colliery, also known as Northern No. 2, which opened in 1925 and operated in a gully north of Lewers Estate behind the present Belmont Hospital.
"After closing in the post-World War II coal recession, the colliery was bought by R.W. Miller and reopened in the 1960's.
"During this period, it was a large scale, fully mechanised mine operating in the Great Northern and Fassifern seams, employing about 90 men and producing nearly 2000 tons of coal per day.
"From about 1960 to 1980, around 600,000 cubic metres of chitter (the coarse by-product of coal washing conducted near the colliery) was dumped around the site to a depth of up to 12 metres, smothering the original vegetation of these areas, especially in the westward draining gullies.
"After filling, areas were smoothed, contoured, spread with topsoil and grassed.
"The mine was closed in 1982, ending coalmining in the area now covered by the Green Point Foreshore Reserve. Two years later, the mine tunnel was sealed and coal washing ceased.
"Much of the old Belmont Colliery site has now been redeveloped in the Green Point Gardens residential estate."
There is a 'reprint' from the Newcastle Herald, of 22 May, 1940 on the right-hand side of the plaque, about a miner at the Belmont Colliery being struck on the head by a large chunk of coal. But while he initially declined medical assessment died in hospital from a cerebral haemorrhage, almost a fortnight later.
Under a photograph of the Belmont Colliery of 26 November 1973, there is ab interesting 'aside'. As a part of the rehabilitation work on the site, the chitter was spread, covered with topsoil and grass seeded. No tree planting can be carried out on the chitter heaps due to the risk of bushfire penetrating and igniting the chitter below the surface.
Visited: 0830, Friday, 16 September, 2016
Age/Event Date: 1925; 1940; 1960; 1980, 1982
Type of Historic Marker: Plaque only
Type of Historic Marker if other: Coal Mining
Historic Resources.:
* Jonathan Falk Planning Consultants, 1984, "Green Point Estate Environmental Study and Concept Plan".
* Australian Coal Industry Research Laboratories, 1985, "Self-Heating Characteristics and Combustibility of Waste Reject Material, Old Belmont Washery Tip".
Related Website: Not listed
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