Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
The Track is Their Story: Reading the People
into the Artefact
Peter Brown
University of Tasmania
The Mole Creek Track – What is it?
The Mole Creek Track was cut in the 1890s from central Tasmania, near the small
town of Mole Creek to Mount Black, a developing mineral field on the West Coast of
Tasmania which later became the rich Rosebery mine. It was cut as part of a parochial
contest for transport access to the West Coast of Tasmania, a turbulent period called
by Geoffrey Blainey, ‘The Railway War’. The intensity of the conflict between
Northern, Southern, North-Western and Western Tasmania is surprising. While the
term ‘war’ may have an element of hyperbole, as there were no deaths, the first victim
of the Railway War, like other wars, was the truth. Claim and counterclaim, distortion
and counter-distortion were the daily fare of the local newspapers for about five years.
General Location of the Mole Creek Track
The Mole Creek track is 120 kilometres long (75 miles), passing through parts of the
Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park and part of it has been taken up by the
Overland Track, Australia’s premier bushwalk.
With the Mole Creek Track there have been two major discoveries over the last ten
years. First, Nic Haygarth re-established its official, and more appropriate, name,
rather than the Innes Track, as it is generally known and this was for a good reason.
The second discovery was that despite comments to the contrary, the track was not
lost but most of it can be located.
Who Made the Mole Creek Track?
The Mole Creek Track was surveyed, or to use the term of the time, ‘laid out’ by
District Surveyor Mr Edward George Innes, the leader of a surveying party of four
men. E.G., as he was known, was a diligent and hard-working professional and he left
a comprehensive report. The track became known as the Innes Track. However, this
track, like many others in Tasmania, was actually constructed by (PWD) Works
Department gangs. The work of the track cutters was ignored for a century and it was
not until the work of Nic Haygarth that these hard-working, but silent, people
regained their place in history, and Haygarth reverted to the long disused official
name of the Mole Creek Track.
The commonly understood narrative of the Innes Track, the romantic notion of the
explorer/surveyor/builder of the Mole Creek Track being the verbose district
surveyor, and a team of four men, needs to be replaced with the more mundane notion
of the Public Works Department undertaking a routine task.
Roles in the construction of the Mole Creek Track form a fairly familiar hierarchy,
from the Minister for Lands and Works at the top to the day labourers on the track at
the bottom. The amount that is known about each of these people changes down the
hierarchy. There is a lot known about the Minister, the Secretary and quite a lot about
the Chief Inspector of Roads. By the time we reach the overseers we know their
names but little else and we only know the names of a handful of track cutters.
If the people that physically made the track are silent, then we must look to other
places to find out more about them. There is an anonymous complaint by one track
worker and some passing remarks by a few others. But the richest source is the track
that they made themselves, although it is a challenge to make sense of it.
The Track in Detail
Despite the official heritage record stating that much of the track is lost, most of it can
be found, with some effort. Much of it is largely unaltered or sufficiently intact to
obtain reliable information about how it was built
Initially the track paints a confusing picture, as the standard of construction varies
greatly along its length. In some places it is benched heavily into the sides of
mountains, in other places, largely on the open plains, it is not made at all. In some
places the benching is made of rock and other places soil and sometimes a little
timber is also included to make an edge.
The track as it was made in 1898 at 23 ½ miles from the start
Track as it is now at 58 miles from the start
In one place a well formed benched track turns suddenly into an unformed path. Also,
the grade of the track up hills and mountains is generally quite gentle but it has some
very steep sections as well. The grade is important because a gentle grade made the
track more comfortable for people and horses. However, the written record allows us
to make an interpretation of the physical record. This pack track cannot be understood
as a single track but as four distinct tracks.
The PWD records and newspaper reports tell us that the track was made from both
ends simultaneously over two summers (A common practice to make tracks quickly
when the benign summer season is relatively short). The eastern end was under the
supervision of Overseer Richard Broomhall and the western end was supervised by a
number of overseers, Coleman, King and Ellis.
Broomhall’s eastern gang was drawn from local farmers; a local newspaper called
them ‘strong, sturdy specimens of the Tasmanian bush farmer’. These farmers often
needed to supplement their incomes by putting themselves, or their sons, to work.
The western gang was very different. In 1898 and 1899, the mines were busy and the
construction of the Emu Bay Railway was employing small townships of navvies and
bushmen. There was only a small permanent population on the West Coast and they
were employed in mining.
The two different work gangs leave us with an explanation for two standards of
construction, but even within this eastern/western demarcation there are also
variations which the record gives us some insight into. It was clear in the second
summer of construction that money was running out, so the decision was made to
push the track through; they said that a bad track was better than no track.
The great variations in standard of construction of the track can interpreted as four
separate tracks: the Eastern, Broomhall’s first careful summer and his second hurried
summer and the same two standards on the Western end. This is hard to illustrate with
photos or descriptions, however, accountants can be helpful, and some statistics
demonstrate these differences clearly.
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The results are stark. Combined with the physical evidence and some other comments
there is a clear picture of Richard Broomhall, the Overseer on the eastern end.
I can summarise the standard of the track made by Broomhall in his first season as a
Pack Track, which was what he was supposed to make. Some of this continues as part
of the modern bushwalkers’ Arm River and Overland Tracks. His second season track
was a rough bush-track. The grade of the track made in the first summer had one steep
section, 1 in 8, but most was at a good grade ( 1 in 10 is considered to be an
acceptable grade for comfortable travel). The second summer has a very steep section,
1 in 5.
The western end shows a roughly similar distinction. During the first summer they
made a well-graded track which a dray or cart could be taken over. This was narrowed
and made steeper in the second summer.
Broomhall was the only person at the eastern end with experience of track cutting and
so he defined the techniques and standards. The full instructions were ‘horse track 6
feet wide’.
The accountants’ statistics confirm and add to this story. In the first season Broomhall
and his gang cut a lot of pack track quickly and inexpensively. By the second summer
Broomhall made some dramatic changes to complete the track. Since the money was
almost finished, and it was largely due to the disproportionately high expenditure on
the track at the western end, he made the decision to push through quickly, and to
reduce his manpower.
What we see in Broomhall is a person who understood how to make a track, how to
make it efficiently and how to maintain a budget. This is made stark by the
performance of the western end. The overseers at the western end, and there was a
number of them, built to a high standard, too high for the money allocated, and built
slowly and expensively.
In the end the track was completed with a small over-run in the budget, £85, out of the
budget of £3,000. The fact that it was completed at all before the money ran out was
due largely to Broomhall’s knowledge of track construction and his rougher work in
the second season in reaction to the unduly high costs of the western part, brought on
by building to too high a standard and building too expensively to that standard.
The Track Workers
The life of a track worker was hard: they worked six days a week, weather permitting,
and were paid only for those days that they did work. Tents were provided and food
was sold to the workers at the cost of the nearest store, which could be 70 miles away.
The PWD paid for the packing of supplies. There was a simple equation for the men:
they were paid between six and seven shillings per day worked but they paid for food
for every day. If the weather turned bad and they were stuck in their tents for days,
their food cost more than they earned. Broomhall stated it clearly: ‘on account of the
bad weather they made very little more than tucker’.
What we know of the eastern gang is that they were bushfarmers, from their teens to
their late forties and those that can be traced worked on their parents’ farms and had
no land of their own. For farmers’ sons it was considered that track work was better
than ‘working for nothing and keeping yourself’. The bush-farmers lived a largely
subsistence life, so sending the sons off to do government work would bring in cash
and leave some surplus goods for sale. On the track, once bad weather set in, which
meant making less than tucker, it was time to return to the farm.
Track Cutters Mole Creek Track, 1898
There is no direct evidence that the gangers supplemented their tucker by hunting but
it would be unusual if they didn’t since most were experienced snarers and hunters.
And the dog on the wheelbarrow: was it used for hunting or companionship, or both?
For the western gang we have no names or histories. But some general comments
paint a picture. The West Coast had a small permanent population but a high demand
for men working in the mines and on the construction of the Emu Bay Railway. Men
would come from as far as Victoria for the promise of work. Track cutting paid less
than the other jobs and it meant living under canvas in wet and remote bush camps
away from the local civilisation of rowdy bush-towns. Track cutting meant that wet
weather would stop the work and thus reduce wages; this was not a problem for a
miner. A local mine manager made the observation that wages were ‘below that paid
on the mines, the men would soon clear off when they got a job’. They were paid
about 1 shilling less a day than the navvies on the railway, who were paid less than
the miners. We seem to have a picture of people taking a job of last resort, who are
poorly motivated and they were led by a series of overseers who were not able get the
best out of them.
Mole Creek Track at Mount Inglis, Barn Bluff in Background
Summary
Overall the Mole Creek Track is a track of two significantly different parts, the east
and west, because the men who made it had different attitudes The eastern farmers
saw it as better than working for nothing and keeping yourself, whereas the western
workers saw it as the worst job on offer, only good enough as a stop-gap until they
could get into the mines. The overseers were different men too; Richard Broomhall,
of who we have the clearest picture, was an effective and adaptable supervisor who
made intelligent compromises. There was a turn-over of overseers at the western end
and they found it more difficult to get the best out of their men.
The 120 kilometres of track that was made by the overseers and track-cutters, which
should be rightly called the Mole Creek Track, may be mute and it may be considered
to be lost, but it can tell many stories and it commemorates these men’s work.
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
Pat Hickey’s Apprenticeship: an Education in
Mining and Militancy in New Zealand and the USA,
1900-1908
Peter Clayworth
Freelance Historian, Wellington
Introduction
Patrick Hodgens Hickey (slide 2 of presentation) was a miner and union leader who, in the
early years of the twentieth century, was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous men
in New Zealand. Under a Liberal Government, New Zealand had become known
internationally as the Social Laboratory of the World, with arbitration laws making the
Dominion the “working man’s paradise”, a land without strikes. Following Prime Minister
Seddon’s death in 1906 disllusionment began to set in. The arbitration system, now
described as “labour’s leg iron” was a major factor behind the 1908 Blackball miners’
strike (slide 3), sparked off when Pat Hickey was arrested for refusing to finish his pie
within the quarter hour demanded by the mine manager, as opposed to the half hour crib
time voted for by the union.
The Blackball strike, a union victory, made national figures of Pat Hickey, his friend and
comrade Paddy Webb, and their ally Robert (“Fighting Bob”) Semple, leader of the
Runanga State Miners Union. (slide 4). Hickey, Webb and Semple advocated industrial
unionism, working to organise the mining unions in the NZ Federation of Miners and then
all unions into the broader NZ Federation of Labour, commonly known as the “Red Fed”.
Their aim was to organise all workers into one big union to challenge and eventually
overthrow not only the arbitration system but capitalism itself. A period of industrial
conflict ensued as the Red Feds clashed with arbitrational unions, capitalist bosses and the
Government. The most intense period of class conflict in New Zealand history culminated
in the violent defeats of the Waihi mining strike of 1912 (slide 5) and the Great Strike of
1913 (slide 6).1
Defeat on the industrial front led the socialist activists to seek reconciliation with more
moderate labourites and look to a parliamentary road to power. This led in turn to the
eventual formation of the NZ Labour Party in 1916 and, after many years of campaigning,
the election of a Labour Government in 1935 (slide 7). Of the thirteen members of the first
Labour Cabinet, six, including the Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, Semple and
Webb, were former Red Feds. Six of the Cabinet members were former miners, including
Semple and Webb. At least five were Australian born, including Savage, Semple and
Webb. Pat Hickey did not live to see the Labour triumph. He was in Australia from 1915 to
1919 to avoid conscription in New Zealand. Hickey returned to Australia in 1926, but in
1930. at the relatively young age of 48, he died as the result of an accidental head injury .
Pat Hickey did not come from a union or a mining background, unlike many of those who
formed the bedrock of the West Coast coal mining and union communities. He was born to
a family of Irish Roman Catholic immigrants on a farm in the backblocks of Nelson, at the
Wangapeka Junction (slides 8 & 9). Pat was eight years old when his father was killed in a
tree felling accident, after which the family lived in straitened circumstances on a small
farm in the rural Nelson area of Foxhill.2
In 1906, the 24 year old Pat Hickey arrived back in his native country of New Zealand,
after three and half years of globe trotting, mostly as an itinerant worker in the USA. He
returned armed with his membership ticket of the militant fighting union, the Western
Federation of Miners, and his red membership card of the Socialist Party of America (slide
10). He was also armed with a determination to shake up the “Working Man’s Paradise”
with the message of class war and industrial unionism (slide 11). Hickey’s mining skills
meant that it was relatively easy for him to move from mine to mine and get work - or at
least to get work until he was fired for militant activities- thus in 1907 he went from
Denniston to Millerton to Runanga, finally securing a job at Blackball in the New Year of
1908.3
It is clear that Pat Hickey and his socialist comrades had influence on their fellow miners,
not simply through the power of their socialist ideas, but also due to the fact that they were
recognised as skilled and capable workers. In a job such as mining, where workers depend
for their safety and survival on the actions of their comrades, respect for workers’ abilities
was essential before any political opinions they might express could be taken seriously.
Hickey’s own ability to work hard when he wanted to was shown by the fact that for the
two months before the strike he had one of the highest production averages for the
Blackball mine, although the mine manager Walter Leitch claimed this was simply because
Hickey had won the best spot in the cavil.4
Development of a Unionist
The Blackball strike broke out after Hickey, Webb and five other Socialist Party activists,
were dismissed. These men were all miners, i.e. hewers, the men who worked the coal face
(slide 12). As such they were paid by contract rather than wages and were top of the
hierarchy of mine workers, with the greatest influence within the union.
Many of the coal miners on the West Coast came originally from British mining areas such
as lowland Scotland, the north east of England, and Yorkshire. In these mining families
there was a tradition of a type of “apprenticeship” where, from a young age, boys went
down the pit with their fathers and older brothers (slide 13). They started with menial jobs
such as trapper lads and clippers or rope boys, moving on to more skilled and better paid
jobs as their strength and skills developed. The ultimate job to aim for was that of the
hewer, collier or miner. Such a system of apprenticeships continued in the colonies; Bob
Semple, for example, started in the Lithgow coal mines of NSW at 9 years old. Those who
went through such apprenticeships also imbibed the traditions of British mining unionism,
heavily influenced by Protestant non-conformist religion and ideas of self improvement.5
In 1900, when Hickey first left New Zealand he had neither mining skills nor political
ideals. Pat Hickey’s “apprenticeship”, the process by which he acquired both work skills
and militancy, occurred through an itinerant work life in the mines of the USA and New
Zealand. Hickey was one of the army of migrant workers who provided the labour for the
extractive and agricultural industries in early twentieth century America. While the
American mines had a core of skilled miners from the Old World, the scale of the frontier
industry, combined with the transience of the skilled work force, meant mines needed to
employ many itinerant workers from non-mining backgrounds. The work was tough,
conditions hard and often dangerous; the distances that had to be travelled were great, and
life on the road often led to conflict with police and vigilantes.
Jim Foster in his paper “Ten Day Tramps” commented that history is written by the literate
and the sedentary - there are very few written accounts of the itinerant worker’s life.6
Fortunately Pat Hickey did leave us just such an account through a series of letters to his
mother and siblings and transcriptions of these letters are still held by his family. Through
these letters we can trace the parallel development of Hickey’s mining skills and his
political ideals. We can also trace his attitude to religion; until 1905 he was a church
attending Roman Catholic but by the time of his return to New Zealand in 1906 he had
become a declared rationalist.
Hickey arrived in San Francisco in 1900 (slide 14), determined to make enough money to
get to Ireland and claim an inheritance he believed his father had left behind there. Pat
found that work was plentiful in California but the pay was poor. At a place called Grub
Gulch he worked firing the furnaces of the mine engines - a 12 hour a day job he described
as very hard - then got an easier job trucking in the mine, where a sympathetic Irish boss
gave him the cushy jobs. Such ethnic and national connections were to prove important in
Hickey’s itinerant working life. Unfortunately, the mine was closed and the town
quarantined due to a suspected smallpox outbreak.7
Hickey then went to a cinnabar mine, producing quicksilver, in the Northern Californian
town of New Idria (slide 15). “I had a cheek to go mining,” he wrote, “for it takes the men
3 or 4 years to learn it.” He did not know how long he would keep the job as he was “not a
miner”. Within a few weeks he wrote that he could “drill, shoot and pull up timber with the
best of them.” It should, of course, be noted that Hickey was writing home to his family
and may well have been exaggerating his skills to impress them. Once again connections
proved important; in this case Hickey got on very well with the pit boss, an Australian presumably there was an Australasian bond.8
In the next phase of his migratory apprenticeship Hickey ran into some major difficulties.
Having gone to work at a coal mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming, he had scarcely begun
work when he came down with pneumonia. By the time he recovered he was short of funds
and without a job. He travelled through Wyoming and Colorado, crossing the Rockies on
foot, then through Utah and Nevada back to California, but outside work was impossible
due to the severe winter weather and the mines were all closed due to strikes. At this point
Hickey was yet to declare any sympathy, or opposition for that matter, to miners’ strikes,
treating them as merely another force of nature. After working at the copper mine at Iron
Mountain, Shasta Co, northern California (slide 16), which he described as “mighty hard
work” at $2.50 a day for 10 hours work, Hickey became disillusioned with the States. By
September 1901 he was back in New Zealand.9
Hickey’s underground experience led him to immediately seek work in the mines. By late
September 1901 he had a job at Denniston, north of Westport, trucking at the Iron Bridge
mine for 9 shillings a day (slide 17). He wrote of Denniston: “I haven’t seen such a town as
this. It is situated at the top of a hill 2000 feet above sea level about 8 or 9 miles from
Westport. But there is no road to it only a bridle track. All the goods are hauled to the top of
the hill by means of a wire cable nearly a mile long from the railway immediately below.
All the people have to walk up and by the track it is 4 miles from the bottom to the top of
the hill.”10 (slides 18 & 19). He noted that when there was no rain, water had to be hauled
up from below and clothes were washed in the mine engine water reservoir.11
Hickey wrote that the boss was “a very good fellow” - still no sign of the emerging class
warrior. Pat paid a 5 shilling union membership fee, without which he could not work at
Denniston - but later remarked that he had been too busy having a good time in his first
stint at Denniston to take any serious notice of union affairs. He remarked that a lot of the
workers, as well as the underground manager and a lot of the bosses were Catholics, a
situation that may well have worked to his advantage. Pat wrote to his mother that he was
still saying his rosary and attending mass. While he may have emphasised this to impress
his Mum, Hickey was clearly still a believer at this stage.12
Hickey’s main complaint was that once he paid his £1 a week board, 1 shilling a week
medical insurance through the union, and 3 pence a day for oil, he was really only clearing
7 shillings a day. He later got a job loading the trucks (apparently referring to the trucks at
the incline) with better pay at 10 shillings and 6 pence per day and, in his opinion, easier
work (slide 20). The ease with which Hickey got mine work was no doubt due to his
American experience, but the jobs he got (trucking in the mines and loading the trucks at
the incline) were relatively unskilled. It appears that when Hickey left Denniston in March
1902, he had yet to be accepted as a skilled miner or hewer.13
In February 1903 Hickey once again left New Zealand, heading for Ireland. He was now 21
years old. Still apolitical, he was at this time proud of the progressive international
reputation that New Zealand enjoyed in the reign of “King Dick” Seddon.14
On visiting his father’s home county of Cavan in Ireland (slide 21) over March and April
1903, Hickey was disappointed to learn there was in fact no family inheritance, as his
family had been poor tenant farmers. He decided to head back to the USA. For his
trans-Atlantic voyage Hickey went second class to avoid steerage, which was “crowded
with foreigners of all descriptions” - so no signs yet of socialist internationalism.15
After a brief stay in New York, Hickey spent some time at Youngstown, Ohio (slide 22),
where he was looked after by two brewers called Gorman and Gallagher - again the Irish
connection was working in his favour. The fact that Hickey was literate and an English
speaker also worked to his advantage. He had a job as a railway clerk and then another as
foreman of a group of Italian labourers, who he referred to as “lazy dagoes”. The activist of
later years would have been unlikely to take such a foreman’s job. Hickey described an
incident where one of the Italians attacked him with a shovel, his response being to disarm
the man and knock him down. Clearly Hickey was unafraid of physical confrontation and
well able to handle himself in a scrap - useful attributes for a miner or a union activist.16
After a brief stint at Youngstown’s Carnegie steel mill Hickey trekked his way through
Chicago to Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and then San Francisco, from where he made his way
to Taylor, Shasta Co., in the northern Californian copper country. He wrote that all of
Colorado was on strike when he passed through – a reference to the famous “Colorado
Mine Wars”. But in his letters Hickey made no comment for or against the strikers. In
California he got work at the Keswick copper smelter (slide 23), but claimed that in a 12
hour work day he only worked about a third of the time. The ethnic diversity of his
workplace was shown by the fact that there was a “Scotch boss, 1 Austrian, 1 Swede, 1
Russian, 1 Irishman, 1 American, 1 Italian and, lastly, 1 New Zealander”17 He described
Keswick as a real wild west town with shoot-outs in the streets. He also wrote of the
dangers of the workplace, with many workers badly burned, but believed it was often
through their own carelessness - again a different stance from the man who would later be
fired from Denniston for campaigning over workers health. Hickey was still a practicing
Catholic at this time, describing himself as a regular attendant at the local church. He noted
that few of the workers attended and the congregation was mostly women, which may have
encouraged his attendance.18
After a row with his boss, Hickey left the smelter and headed to Oregon with a mate, Jack
(“Mac”) MacDonald, to prospect for gold. There is no evidence that Hickey’s dispute with
the boss had anything to do with the union, but it does illustrate the fact that Pat would stick
up for himself and also the ability of the itinerant worker to move on to a new situation
when the current workplace did not suit him.19
Hickey and Mac did not find any gold in Oregon, but later in Seattle, Washington, they
joined an expedition of the Aleutian Livestock and Mining Co to explore the Aleutian
Islands to ascertain their suitability for cattle ranching (slide 24). After a number of
adventures in the Aleutians, Hickey and Mac quit the Company’s employ, suspecting it was
in fact a front to spy on Japanese and Russian activities, as the Russo-Japanese war was
then in full swing. Hickey and Mac spent a period of time unsuccessfully prospecting for
gold in the Aleutians, then headed south and went their separate ways.20
By August 1905 Hickey was working at the huge copper mine at Bingham Canyon, Utah
(slide 25). The nature of the work he did there is not clear but it appears to have been
underground work. Bingham Canyon was tightly organised by the powerful Local no. 167
of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Hickey was impressed with the WFM,
became involved in its meetings and activities and wrote home that he had been elected to
the union committee (slide 26). Throughout the decade from 1894 to 1904 the WFM had
been involved in a series of industrial conflicts with employers, with armed violence being
used by both sides. In late 1903 a series of strikes were crushed by the Governor of
Colorado who imposed martial law on striking areas and sent in the state militia to destroy
the union (Hickey passed through Colorado when this was happening). These events
shaped the class consciousness of the hard rock miners. Initially, most had unionised
simply to improve their working conditions, but experience had taught them they were
involved in a class war with their employers and the forces of the state.21
The bitter lessons of class conflict led the WFM to support the creation of an organisation
to unite the entire working class in opposition to capital. They were a leading group in
setting up the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) through a series of meetings in
Chicago in 1905, at the very time Hickey was becoming more involved in union activism
(slide 27). The “Wobblies” (IWW) were formed with the intention of carrying on the class
struggle through the creation of one big industrial union of workers. The final goal was the
destruction of capitalism and the abolition of the wage system. The WFM and the Wobblies
both believed that this should be achieved through the general strike rather than armed
revolution.22 Hickey was never a member of the IWW and in later life he was to attack its
theories and methods, but the ideas he gleaned from the WFM closely parallelled the
revolutionary industrial unionist approach of the Wobblies.23
Now a committed militant, Hickey joined the Socialist Party of America, at that time a
vibrant and growing political party. He also abandoned his Catholic faith and became a
rationalist. It is not clear if Pat underwent a sudden conversion to revolutionary socialism at
Bingham Canyon, as there is little hint of class consciousness in his previous letters, or
whether he had been thinking about such issues for a long time, but had chosen not to
discuss them in letters to his family. It appears likely that it was at this time that Pat
abandoned his Catholic faith and became a rationalist. It could be said that “evangelical
socialism” became his religion.
In November 1905 Pat left Utah to avoid the winter and returned to Shasta Co, California.
He worked for a spell at the Mammoth Copper Co smelter at Kennett (slide 28). The last
job described in Hickey’s American letters was working for a fellow New Zealander, the
prospector Jock Neill, who had asked him to join him in a copper mine 8 miles from
Kennett. Despite his new found radicalism, Hickey got on well with his boss and described
this as the best job he had in California. Once again, antipodean connections provided job
opportunities.24
By mid 1906 Pat was on his way back to New Zealand armed with the message of
socialism and the skills of a now experienced hewer. He was soon to join with his fellow
Red Feds and begin the process of evangelising their fellow workers (slide 29).
Summary
Hickeys letters show:
• A great deal of travel was involved in itinerant working.
• Many different nationalities and languages were encountered by Hickey in his itinerant
life. Pat was advantaged by being English speaking and having been educated up to age
13 – this meant better jobs.
• Hickey’s Irish, Catholic and antipodean connections also helped.
•
•
•
The different jobs developed his mining skills, an advantage in getting better jobs as an
itinerant worker and also later as a socialist activist.
Hickey’s tough life hardened him up for the struggle.
The network of mining and smelting jobs also later meant he developed a network of
militants connected to mine work.
Appendix
Information on slides in accompanying presentation
ATL = Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
Where no photographer named = Photographer unknown.
Slide:
2. Patrick Hodgens Hickey, c.1908, (PAColl-6181-57, ATL).
3. “His Imperial Highness Labour’”, Observer, 14 March 1908, p 13. See ATL “Papers
Past” website.
4. Hickey and Semple c.1909. Eileen Thawley collection.
5 Storming of Waihi Miners Hall, Waihi Miners’ Strike, 12 November 1912, (1/2-044240F, ATL).
6. The Battle of Featherston Street, Wellington, Great Strike, 5 November 1913, (1/2160127-F, ATL).
7. New Zealand’s First Labour Cabinet, 1935, Photographer: Arthur Waldemar Schaef
(PAColl-3222-3-002, ATL).
8. Wangapeka junction, Photographer: Peter Clayworth.
9. Hickey family, Foxhill, 1890s, Eileen Thawley collection.
10. Western Federation of Miners membership card, union card of William Kolehmainer,
Hancock Copper Union no. 200, 1913, from http://www.pasty.com/reflections/id225.htm
11. Campaign postcard, Socialist Party of America 1904, showing SPA leader and
Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs and Vice-Presidential candidate Ben Hanford, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1904socialist.jpg
12. Hewer in a Durham coal mine, UK, early 1900s.
13. Miners and pit lad, West Coast, NZ, c.1903, (1/1-007751-G, ATL).
14. Postcard, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, c.1900.
15. New Idria, northern California, c.1900
16. Copper mining, United Copper Mine, Stevens Co. Washington, USA, 1909.
Photographer: H. Bancroft, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UnitedCopperMineStevensCoWA.jpg
17. Top of Denniston Incline, early 1900s. Photographer: Henry Thomas Lock, (1/2035121-F, ATL).
18. Denniston, c.1910. Photographer: CJC and Co, (1/2-006737-G, ATL).
19. Truckers in West Coast mine, c.1903, (1/1-007752-G, ATL).
20. Brake head works, Denniston Incline, c.1900, (1/2-091658-F, ATL).
21. Postcard, Main Street, Cavan town, Co Cavan, Ireland, early 1900s.
22. Postcard, Carnegie Steel Mill, Youngstown, Ohio, early 1900s.
23. Mountain Copper Company Smelter, Keswick, Shasta Co, California, from
http://shastacountyhistory.com/copper_mining_and_the_copper_smelters
24. Aleutian Island scene.
25. Bingham Canyon, Utah, early 1900s.
26. Western Federation of Miners, march during the strike at Calumet Michigan, 1913.
27. Advertising poster for the pageant of the Paterson Silk Workers’ strike, New Jersey,
1913, organised by the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World).
28. Mammoth Copper Mine, open air roasting above Kennett, Shasta Co, California, from
http://shastacountyhistory.com/copper_mining_and_the_copper_smelters
29. Runanga Miners Hall, c.1910, (1/2-179351-G, ATL)
Endnotes
1
P. H. Hickey, Red Fed Memoirs, NZ Worker Print, Auckland, 1925, especially pp 11-18; E. Olssen, The Red
Feds, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988, especially pp 1-15.
2
J. Weir, “The ‘Red’ Feds: P.H.Hickey and the Red Federation of Labour”, unpublished manuscript, 1967, pp
26-27; J. N. W. Newport, Footprints: the Story of the Settlement and Development of the Nelson back
Country Districts, Whitcombe & Tombes, Wellington, 1962, p 230.
3
Hickey, Red Fed Memoirs, pp 6-11.
4
Grey Evening Star , 12 Mar 1908, p 2.
5
N. Emery, The Coal Miners of Durham, The History Press, Stroud, 1992, pp 39-49.
6
J. Foster, ‘The Ten Day Tramps’, Labor History, Volume 23, Issue 4, Autumn 1982, pp 608 - 623.
7
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey (mother), San Francisco, 1 August 1900; Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey,
New Idria, California, 11 Sept 1900. The letters cited in this paper are, unless otherwise stated, from the
private collection of Eileen Thawley and are used with her permission.
8
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, 11 Sept 1900.
9
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Iron Mountain, Shasta County, California, 19 May 1901.
10
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Denniston, 21 Sept, 1901; Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Denniston,
14 Jan 1902.
11
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Denniston, 14 Jan 1902.
12
Letters P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Denniston, 21 Sept 1900, 2 Feb, 1902.
13
Letters P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Denniston, 3 Dec 1901, 2 Feb 1902.
14
Weir, p 35.
15
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Bailieborough, 4 April 1903; Letter P H Hickey to M A Hickey (sister),
Bailieborough, 28 May 1903; MS-papers-3663, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
16
Letter P H Hickey to J Hickey (brother), Youngstown, Ohio, 27 June 1903; Letter P H Hickey to M J
Hickey, Youngstown, Ohio, 31 July 1903.
17
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Youngstown, Ohio, 27 August 1903; Letter P H Hickey to J Hickey,
Taylor, Shasta County, Califorina, 7 Dec 1903.
18
Letters P H Hickey to J Hickey, Taylor, Shasta Co, California, 15 Nov 1903, 17 Feb 1904.
19
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Grant’s Pass, Oregon, 11 March 1904.
20
Letters P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Unalaska, Alaska, 11 June 1904, 4 July 1904, 30 August 1904. The
original of the 4th July letter is held in John Weir papers Acc 664, folder 5, box 3: Red Fed Documents:
Associated docs, folder 2, Macmillan -Brown Library, Christchurch.
21
Letter P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Bingham Canyon, Utah, 16 August, 190; Letter P H Hickey to M A
Hickey, Bingham Canyon, Utah, 18 August 1905, MS-papers-3663, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
22
V H Jensen, Heritage of Conflict, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1950; M Wyman, Hard Rock Epic,
University of California Press, Berkeley, 1979; M Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, University of Illinois, Urbana,
1988’
23
Hickey, Red Fed Memoirs.
24
Letters P H Hickey to M J Hickey, Kennet, Shasta Co, California, 20 Nov 1905, 2 Jan 1906.
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
The Mines of Western Tasmania
Greg Dickens
Formerly Mineral Resources Tasmania
Introduction
• Mining in Tasmania has a long and varied history. The Tasmanian aborigines were
the first to conduct small scale mining which included flints, salt and ochre. After
1803, the early settlers began mining sandstone, limestone and clay for building
materials, together with coal for fuel.
•
Victoria’s gold rush of 1851 provided the catalyst to the first payable gold find in
northeast Tasmania, at Mangana in 1852.
•
More important, was the discovery of a large tin deposit at Mount Bischoff in 1871.
This led to the discovery of other major western mineral fields at Heemskirk,
Corinna, Zeehan, Dundas, Lyell, Renison Bell, Rosebery, Farrell and Cleveland, all
occurring during the period of 1876 through to 1898. It was not until the 1950s,
when further significant mineral discoveries were made at Savage River, Que
River, Hellyer, Henty, and more recently, the Avebury nickel mine.
•
Western Tasmania contains several highly mineralised zones, and with producers
like Mt Bischoff, Renison, Mt Lyell, Rosebery, and Hellyer, it contains mines of
world class in size and grade. For the past 140 years, the region has been the
lifeblood of Tasmania’s mining industry which presently represents about 50% of
the state’s total export income.
•
Following the 1856 discovery of a quartz vein near Mt. Arrowsmith by government
surveyor James Calder, the Tasmanian Government sent geologist Charles Gould
to Western Tasmania in search of gold. He led three expeditions to the region, the
first in 1859 and the last during the summer of 1862-63, where he reported small
quantities of fine gold along the Franklin and King Rivers and inland to
Frenchman's Cap.
To stimulate the State's economy, the Tasmanian Government, in 1868, offered a
substantial reward for the discovery of a profitable goldfield. With only limited quantities
of coal produced and gold still at the exploration stage, a sustainable mining industry
seemed a long way off. All that changed in 1871 with the discovery of a massive tin deposit
at Mount Bischoff. The discovery was later recognised as "The Cradle of Tasmania's
Mining Industry".
Mount Bischoff Tin
•
On the 4th December 1871, accompanied only by his dog, prospector James
"Philosopher" Smith found a "mountain of tin" at Mount Bischoff.
•
Mining began twelve months later, ahead of the formation of the Mount Bischoff
Tin Mining Company in August 1873. The ensuing seventy years produced almost
57,000 tonnes of tin metal from 5.6 million tonnes of treated ore. It paid dividends
of $4.51 million on paid up capital of $59,200. The present day value of the tin
produced would be worth about $800 million.
•
In 1874 the Company erected its own tin smelter in Launceston which occupied
half of a city block (frontages on the Esplanade, Tamar and William Streets). The
smelter eventually closed in 1929 due to serious flood damage to its north-eastern
Tasmania customers and the effects of the Depression.
•
By the mid 1880s, the community of Waratah had a peak population of 2,500,
while a 55 head stamp mill had been erected and with electric-powered lighting
installed to the mill, workshop, offices and store. The Company continued to
operate the mine until 1942, when the Commonwealth Government took over and
finally closed it down in 1947.
•
Limited mining was once again being investigated during 2006, this time by
Bluestone Mines Tasmania Pty Ltd, the owner of the Renison Tin Mine. The
Company recommenced open-cut mining in April 2008, for the first time in more
than 60 years. Since then, Bischoff ore has continued to be extracted from an
enlarged open pit and transported 70 km by road to the Renison Mill. In its heyday,
the Mount Bischoff tin mine was one of the largest in the world and was for many
years, the cornerstone of the state's mining industry.
Early Prospecting
•
The 1871 tin discovery at Mt Bischoff, immediately attracted prospectors back to
the West Coast. The first success was the Heemskirk Tinfield which was
discovered during the summer of 1876-77 by government surveyor Charles Sprent.
He located alluvial cassiterite on the northern side of Mt Heemskirk, where a
number of claims were subsequently pegged by other prospectors.
•
Further exploration in 1879 found more deposits south and west of Mt Heemskirk.
Several small mines were established including the Montague, Cumberland, West
Cumberland, Orient, Empress Victoria, Cornwall, Carn Brea, Peripatetic,
Wakefield, Sweeney’s, Kelvin and Prince George. Optimism was high as
companies quickly installed batteries at most of the mines. By 1890 the boom had
collapsed and the field was almost deserted.
•
In 1876 Charles Sprent also found gold in many of the creeks running into the
Pieman River. Further prospecting revealed extensive alluvial deposits at
Middletons Creek during 1879, which led to settlements being established at
Pieman Heads and Corinna. Further afield, diggers located payable gold in the
numerous tributaries of the Donaldson, Savage and Whyte Rivers.
•
The systematic working of creeks along Savage River led to the discovery of the
first gold reef on the West Coast in June 1882. Located on tiny Specimen Creek, it
is close to the present day Savage River mine. During 1887-88 the Specimen Creek
Gold Mining Company established a six head stamper which was driven by a seven
metre diameter water-wheel. 600 metres of tunnelling at three levels were driven to
access the reef, with disappointing results. The mine experienced little activity after
1890.
•
The discovery of gold at Lynch Creek in 1881 began to lure diggers to the area,
which by 1883 caused an exodus from Corinna and Heemskirk fields.
•
Discovered by Cornelius Lynch and Tom Currie, the King River Mine became the
first established mine in the Mt Lyell district, while the erection of its stamper
battery early in 1887 was the first on the West Coast to crush gold-bearing quartz.
•
Bill and Mick McDonough together with Johannes ‘Steve’ Karlson were three of
many diggers attracted to the area by the discovery of gold at Lynch Creek.
Further prospecting led to the discovery of the "Iron Blow" late in 1883 where they
pegged a 50 acre claim as a gold mine. Ironically, it was close to Gould's 1862
campsite. After a few struggling years which produced 670 ounces of gold and 850
ounces of silver, the mine was acquired by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway
Company in 1893. The mine was to become one of the largest copper mines in the
world while operated by one of the longest surviving mining companies in
Australia.
•
Frank Long was a member of Charles Sprent’s 1876 expedition to country south of
Mt Bischoff and later discovered Hoskins tin deposit at South Heemskirk during
1876-77. Long was credited with the discovery of the Zeehan silver-lead field; his
affinity with the area’s geology had lured him back, this time during December
1882.
Zeehan (Galena) Silver-Lead
•
Long, accompanied by prospectors William "Comet" Johnston, William Monks and
John Healy, found silver-lead close to the present Zeehan post office. As leader of
the party, Long marked out an 80 acre reward section while Healy pegged the
adjoining 80 acres on behalf of the Despatch Syndicate.
•
Public interest increased when George Bell discovered a substantial galena lode
during 1887, which later established the Silver Queen Mine. By 1891 there were
159 companies and syndicates operating around Zeehan. The Zeehan to Strahan
Railway, which provided direct access to the port of Strahan, was officially opened
in 1892.
•
Government geologist, Alexander Montgomery, estimated the Zeehan-Dundas area
had produced about 14,000 tons of silver-lead ore by March 1893. He named the
chief mines as the Silver Queen, Western and Oceana at Zeehan along with
Maestrie's at Dundas. From 1893 to 1908, the value of production was estimated at
£3.5 million (about $175 million on present day values).
•
The Tasmanian Smelting Company's Works which opened during 1899, was
situated about four kilometres south of Zeehan and alongside the railway to
Strahan. The smelter's three furnaces processed ore produced from all operating
mines at Zeehan, Dundas and Mt Read before its closure in 1913 due to insufficient
quantities of ore.
•
1908 marked the first signs of a diminishing resource with many larger mines
working only patchy ground at depths of between 100 and 150 metres. The
Western Mine, regarded as the richest on the field, had found no payable ore below
the 100 metres level.
•
The Government sent geologists W.H. Twelvetrees and L.K. Ward to make an
urgent assessment of the situation. Their encouraging report did little to revive the
field as the value of production steadily declined from £200,000 in 1908 to about
£40,000 in 1922. Total production for Zeehan and Dundas had an estimated value
of £4.8 million.
•
The town of Zeehan reached its peak in 1907 and with an estimated population of
between 8,000 and 10,000, was reported to be the third largest in Tasmania. The
three kilometre-long main street was lined with about twenty five hotels and dozens
of shops, together with banks, mine offices, churches, tailors, theatres, auctioneers,
billiard parlours, ironmongers, livery stables and blacksmiths. The imposing Gaiety
Theatre had a seating capacity for 1,000 patrons.
•
Affiliated with the University of Tasmania, the Zeehan School of Mines and
Metallurgy opened its doors in 1892. With the completion of the Emu Bay
Company's link to Waratah in December 1900, Zeehan became the busiest rail
centre in Tasmania. The station became the junction for government lines to
Strahan, Williamsford and Comstock, the Emu Bay Company lines to Dundas and
Burnie, as well as several tramways linking the surrounding mines.
•
The rapid decline in mining after 1911 precipitated the demise of the railway
system together with the gradual decline of Zeehan. When the last mine (Oceana)
closed in 1960, the town's population had shrunk to 600.
•
Following the 1965 expansion of the nearby Renison Tin Mine, Zeehan made a
remarkable comeback. A new housing subdivision was built on the former railyards, while a new motel and a supermarket were also established, marking a new
era of prosperity. By 1970, the population had increased to almost 2000.
•
Once referred to as the "Silver City", it remains Tasmania’s best example of an
authentic boom town. Glimpses of its former glory remain today, with two original
pubs, a bank, post office, council offices, the School of Mines building (now the
West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum) and the Gaiety Theatre. They are all
monuments to the largest, and for twenty years, the most prosperous town to have
existed on Tasmania's West Coast.
Mount Lyell Copper
•
As previously mentioned, it was the glint of gold that lured fortune seekers to the
Queen and Linda Valleys. The development of the Iron Blow as a gold mine was
the focal point of activity in the Linda Valley. Government geologists Thureau
(1886) and Montgomery (1890) had both compiled reports which targeted the
mineralisation of ground in close proximity to the Iron Blow.
•
Acting on Montgomery's report were syndicate members, Bowes Kelly and
William Orr who visited the “Blow” in 1890. Ore samples sent to the Broken Hill
smelters for analysis had assayed sufficient quantities of copper in pyrite for large
scale mining with significant values of gold and silver as by-products. The Kellyled syndicate formed the Mount Lyell Mining Co. No Liability, which in 1893
became the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company Limited. For the first time,
Tasmania had a profitable copper mine.
•
The new company decided to construct a smelter and a railway link to the coast.
Robert Sticht was brought from the United States to design, erect and manage the
new smelter. Upon his arrival in 1895, he proposed that the ore be treated by pyritic
smelting, the sulphur and iron in the ore being used as fuel, instead of the roasting
process. The smelter commenced operation in 1896.
•
Construction of the 3 feet 6 inch (107 cm) Mount Lyell Railway commenced in
December 1894. The first section of 23 kilometres to the port of Teepookana on the
King River included grades of 1 in 20 and used the unique rack (Abt) system. This
section was completed inside two years. The remaining twelve kilometres to
Regatta Point on Macquarie Harbour were completed in time for a planned official
opening on 1 November 1899.
•
James Crotty, who had been a part owner of the "Iron Blow" gold mine and an
original shareholder of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company Ltd., was
excluded from the Board of Directors by its chairman, Bowes Kelly.
•
In retaliation, Crotty embarked on a vendetta against Kelly by establishing the
opposing North Lyell Copper Company in 1897. Located adjacent to the "Iron
Blow", the North Lyell Mine contained deposits of high grade copper ore which
were considerably richer in copper content. The Mine was the scene of the
infamous 1912 Disaster which claimed the lives of 42 men.
•
To keep abreast of the opposition, the North Lyell Company constructed its own
smelter, railway and port facilities. Between November 1898 and September 1900,
a 45 km railway was built to link the Linda Valley with the port of Pillinger
(Macquarie Harbour), while 19 km down the line from Linda Station was the
Crotty township and smelter which was completed in 1902.
•
By the end of 1902, both companies were experiencing serious problems and
fighting for survival. North Lyell's high grade ore reserves had been offset by an
inefficient smelter and the accumulation of debt through mismanagement, whereas
Mt Lyell had lower grade ore but a superior management and workforce. An
amalgamation agreement was eventually signed in May 1903, ending a six year
feud.
•
The merger precipitated the immediate closure of the Crotty smelter and the
eventual demise of the North Lyell Railway during 1929. The Mount Lyell Mining
and Railway Company retained its name and continued to operate until its closure
in December 1994. During its 101 years of continuous operation, the Company's
total production was estimated at 110 million tonnes of ore.
•
During its working life, the mine operated as a surface and underground facility.
The main productive ore bodies included the Iron Blow (1883-1929), North Lyell
(1896-1972), Royal Tharsis (1902-91), Lyell Comstock (1913-59), Crown Lyell
(1931-85) and Cape Horn (1969-87). By far the most productive was the gigantic
West Lyell Open Cut, which yielded more than 58 million tonnes of ore from 1934
to 1978. Current production is maintained from the Prince Lyell underground mine,
which commenced operation in 1969.
•
On 28th June 1994, Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT), a subsidiary of Perth-based
Gold Mines of Australia Limited, signed an agreement with the Tasmanian
Government to take over the Mt Lyell leases and purchase the existing equipment
and infrastructure.
•
Following a $55 million upgrade, Mt Lyell was officially reopened in December
1995, with initial production commencing at 2 million tonnes per year. Annual
production steadily increased to a peak of 2.7 million tonnes during the financial
year 2001-02, while production of copper concentrates exceeded 30,000 tonnes
during the two-year period 2001-02 to 2002-03. Annual production was expected to
exceed 3 million tonnes in 2008.
•
During the twelve years since the 1995 reopening, more than 28 million tonnes of
ore has been mined, which has yielded over 300,000 tonnes of copper and
approximately 170,000 ounces of gold. Since the end of 1998, the Mt Lyell Mine
has been owned by Sterlite, an Indian telecommunications cable company, which
supplies copper concentrates exclusively to its Tuticorin smelter in Southern India.
Queenstown
•
The first settlement on the Lyell field was established around the developing "Iron
Blow" gold mine. The first official post office was opened at Gormanston in 1884.
The town continued to grow with the development of the North Lyell Mine and by
1901, Gormanston supported a population approaching 2,000. After the
amalgamation of the two companies, much of the town's business moved to
Queenstown and Gormanston became principally a dormitory area for the North
Lyell workforce.
•
The original site of Queenstown was located at the head of the Queen River valley,
close to the smelters. Established in 1892, the town of Penghana was a shanty town
of split paling huts and canvas tents. In December 1896, a bushfire razed most of
the settlement, narrowly missing the smelters. By early 1897, a new town was
taking shape in an area surrounding the railway station.
•
Queenstown reached its peak after the amalgamation of the Mount Lyell and North
Lyell companies, and by 1905 the population had exceeded 5,000. Unlike its
northern neighbour, Zeehan, Queenstown has maintained a stable population
throughout its 100 years existence. It has survived many periods of uncertainty to
become the most important mining centre on the West Coast.
•
To visit the town today, the existence of the many impressive buildings are a
reflection of prosperous days gone by. The sight of the surrounding bare hills and
the massive slag dump are tangible reminders of the first success at pyritic smelting
in Australia. Furthermore, the restoration of the historic Queenstown to Strahan
railway during the 1990s has increased the tourist dollar to the town. This will help
to secure the future of the town when the famous Mt Lyell Copper Mine is finally
closed down.
Renison Tin
•
The establishment of Zeehan during the 1880s had provided a central West Coast
base for miners and prospectors. The town was strategically located to all mining
fields between the Pieman River and Queenstown. Activity in the nearby North
Dundas area during 1890 had uncovered tin deposits there.
•
Following the discovery of a gossan outcrop, George Bell immediately pegged out
four 40 acre sections along the Argent River and registered the Renison Bell
Prospecting Association and Mining Company.
•
The field struggled until 1907, when enterprising Irish miner, Michael "Paddy"
O'Dea, arrived on the scene and teamed up with local mine operator Ted Flight.
They secured investment from Devonport businessmen to develop extensive
alluvial tin deposits and erect the Boulder Mill.
•
In 1914 a merger between the Boulder and Dreadnought Companies formed the
Dreadnought-Boulder Tin Mining Co NL. However, the new company encountered
numerous problems until 1924, culminating with the destruction of the mill by
bushfire. By 1928 the mine was experiencing poor recovery rates from low grade
sulphide ores. A metallurgical breakthrough was achieved in 1930 by treating the
fine tin ores with a sulphide flotation process.
•
To ensure the viability of the Mine, "Paddy" O'Dea set about amalgamating all
surrounding mines and leases under one new company. This was floated in 1934
under the name of Renison Associated Tin Mines NL, with proven ore reserves of
500,000 tons and a further estimated 1.25 million tons. By 1937 the new flotation
plant was in full operation.
•
In 1958, after twenty years of marginal operation, the Renison Mine was injected
with capital from the Mount Lyell Company who had become a major shareholder.
A four year mine development and exploration programme brought the mine back
to a profitable level.
•
Between 1963 and 1965, ownership of the mine changed three times before finally
emerging under the control of Consolidated Goldfields Ltd (London). The mine's
name was changed to Renison Limited and a $10 million development was
undertaken which included the construction of a new ore treatment complex. The
original Boulder Mill, established in 1907 and subsequently modified over the
years, continued to operate until the end of 1966, when operations were transferred
to the new site.
•
The last major development was the completion of the $34 million Rendeep Project
in 1996, which included a new 600 metre shaft to access a 3 million tonne ore
body. A new electric shaft winder and crushing station were installed underground,
and a radial ore stacker was constructed outside the No.1 Adit.
•
Late in 1998 the mine was sold to Brisbane-based Murchison United, who within
the first twelve months was beset with increasing operating costs and low tin
prices. In addition, a $4.5 million support package was required from the
Tasmanian Government to find new ore reserves. In May 2003 an underground
rock fall resulted in a fatality and an immediate halt to mining.
•
The mine was purchased by Bluestone Mines Tasmania Pty Ltd in March 2004
and, after a substantial refurbishment of the mill, it was back to full production the
following November. However, after only twelve months of operation, low global
tin prices forced Renison to close down during November 2005 and be placed on
care and maintenance. The Company re-commenced mining in July 2008.
•
During the forty years since 1965, Renison was regarded as the largest underground
tin mine in the Southern Hemisphere and more than 2 million tonnes of ore have
been produced. During the same period, almost 10,000 have been employed, which
provided stability to the historic town of Zeehan.
Read-Rosebery
•
The discovery of tin at North Dundas (Renison Bell) in 1890 provided the catalyst
for further exploration in the area. As early as 1877, the respected explorer and
prospector Thomas Bather Moore, had observed occurrences of copper pyrites on
the slopes of the mountain he named Mount Read.
•
It was therefore no surprise when in November 1890 prospector Alfred Ebenezer
Conliffe located a gold-bearing gossan on the western side of Mount Read. The
Mount Read Mining Co was quickly established to work the deposit which turned
out to be an extensive lead-zinc sulphide ore-body.
•
However, a more significant discovery occurred in December 1894, when Joseph
Will found a rich seam of silver, gold and lead in an area below the Mount Read
Mine, eventually leading to the development of the successful Hercules Mine. It
had taken almost eighteen years from the time of T.B. Moore's excursion and the
discovery by Will for the mining field to realise its potential. By 1900 the Hercules
Mine had reached full production and continued to operate until the closure of the
Zeehan Smelters in 1913.
•
The town of Williamsford, which was established to house the Mine's workforce,
was connected to Zeehan by the 29 kilometre North East Dundas Tramway in June
1898. The tramway was used to transport all Mount Read ore to the Zeehan
Smelters.
•
In 1916, the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company Limited acquired the
Hercules and Rosebery mines and conducted a development and exploration
campaign. Four years later both properties were purchased by the Electrolytic Zinc
Company of Australasia Limited. The Hercules Mine returned to full production
during 1922 and remained with the Company until its closure in 1986. During its
86 year existence, ore production exceeded 2.5 million tonnes with an estimated
metal value of $1 billion.
•
However, Mount Read will be best remembered for its self-acting haulage which
connected the Williamsford township to the mine above. Opened in 1899, the 1.6
kilometre incline tramway was the only means of conveying the mine ore to the
Williamsford Railway Station and was also used by the workforce for commuting
to and from the mine.
•
In 1996 the mine was sub-leased to Mancala Pty Ltd who extracted the remaining
ore from Level 7 until November 1999. The three-year period produced almost
214,000 tonnes containing copper, lead, zinc and silver.
•
Closely linked with the Mount Read mines was the discovery and development of
the Rosebery Mine.
•
Setting off from Mount Read, prospector Cecil Thomas (Tom) McDonald headed
in a northerly direction, carefully exploring the creeks leading into the Pieman
River along the way. On 13 November 1893 he found gold in alluvial wash and
boulders of zinc-lead ore in Rosebery Creek, on the south western slopes of Mt
Black. Further prospecting was carried out by McDonald for the Rosebery
Prospecting Association which eventually located a zinc-lead sulphide ore body
near the site of the present Rosebery Mine.
•
Tom McDonald, first cousin to the McDonough brothers of Mount Lyell fame, had
a similar background to James "Philosopher" Smith, being a farmer turned
prospector from the north-west coast. McDonald maintained his passion for mineral
exploration for the remainder of his life. He died in 1938, aged 82, without
achieving the reward or recognition he deserved.
•
By 1896, the area was mainly under the control of the Tasmanian Copper and the
Primrose Mining Companies. However, the zinc-lead sulphides presented
metallurgical problems which led to the closure of the mining field during 1900.
Resuming in 1905, the Companies sent their ore via the Emu Bay Railway to the
Zeehan smelters, until their closure in October 1913.
•
The purchase and reopening of the Rosebery mines by the Electrolytic Zinc
Company of Australasia Limited in 1920 coincided with that of the Hercules Mine
at Mount Read. The old Zeehan Smelters were also purchased and refurbished to
process the complex ores from Rosebery and Mount Read mines. The furnaces
were used to roast the ore to produce calcines which were then sent to the Port Pirie
Smelter. The Zeehan Smelters continued production until their final closure in July
1948, when operations were transferred to the Company's Risdon plant at Hobart.
•
Meanwhile, construction of a concentrating mill was commenced at Rosebery but
not completed until 1929. The mill used the selective flotation process to produce
zinc concentrates before transportation to the Risdon Smelter. Prior to the
discovery of the extraction process, zinc had been seen as a waste product.
•
In 1988, the Rosebery Mine and Emu Bay Railway began trading as Pasminco
Mining while the Risdon Smelter was listed under Pasminco Metals. Both were
divisions of Pasminco Limited.
•
A company restructure and a consolidation of assets in April 2004 resulted in a
name change to Zinifex Limited. The Company retained its Hobart smelter and
continued to operate its West Coast property as the Zinifex Rosebery Mine. The
restructure of Zinifex Limited continued in 2007, with the sale of their Hobart
smelter which now operates under the name of Nyrstar Hobart. The Rosebery Mine
is presently owned and operated by the Chinese company, MMG (Min Metals
Group) Australia.
•
For the past 116 years the Mine has produced copper, gold, lead, zinc and silver
from over 23 million tonnes of ore. Since 2000 the average annual ore production
from the Rosebery Mine has exceeded 750,000 tonnes. Official company
production figures for 2006-7 recorded almost 83,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate
and over 23,000 tonnes of lead in concentrate. With an estimated metal value of
more than $8 billion, it has produced more wealth than any other mine on
Tasmania's West Coast.
•
The towns of Williamsford and Rosebery, which were each associated with a mine,
were a direct contrast in size and development. Because of its elevated position
away from a main road and rail link, Williamsford was never more than a 'one pub,
one shop' community. At its peak, the town consisted of about forty dwellings, the
Terminus Hotel, a school, church and boarding house, and a population of around
200.
•
Rosebery was described in 1898 as a bush camp with a corded main street, but
developed into a thriving mining and business centre. After the takeover by the EZ
Company in 1920, Rosebery emerged as the commercial centre for both mining
communities. By the end of 1957, the Company had erected 314 dwellings for its
employees, which later increased to 591 dwellings by 1985. In 1981 the town's
population peaked close to 2,700 while providing a mine workforce of 1,150.
Since then employment has been reduced as a result of technology and workplace
efficiencies. Having celebrated its centenary in 1994, Rosebery has survived as the
second largest community in Western Tasmania.
Savage River (Magnetite) Iron
•
A prospecting licence to Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd at Savage River in 1956,
led to the establishment of the first major mining operation on the West Coast for
more than fifty years.
•
Iron ore deposits were originally located 80 years earlier by Charles Sprent during
February 1877, while on an official exploration expedition to the area. However,
prospectors saw the iron ore deposits as a possible source of gold. The ensuing
thirty years saw the district establish significant mineral producers, with alluvial
gold at Corinna and Whyte River, osmiridium at Bald Hill, silver-lead at
Heazlewood and Magnet and tin at Mt Cleveland.
1
•
In 1891 exploration by the Savage River Company, revealed the iron ore lode at a
depth of 120 metres. Further exploration of the ore body was undertaken in 1895
by the Rio Tinto Company NL. A later 1919 report on the iron ore deposit by
Government geologists Twelvetrees and McIntosh Reid estimated the resource to
contain 20 million tonnes.1 Additional exploration work was conducted in 1926,
but the iron was considered too pyritic for smelting.
•
Rio Tinto's interest of the 1950s lapsed in 1961, allowing the leases to be acquired
by Industrial and Mining Investigations Pty Ltd, who embarked on a
comprehensive exploration programme. In November 1965 company manager Roy
Hudson, initiated a joint venture consortium with American miner Pickands Mather
& Co. to make iron ore pellets for the Japanese market.
•
In November 1965 the Tasmanian Government officially announced the
establishment of an $80 million mine. In addition, an iron pelletising plant and
extensive wharf facilities at Port Latta, together with an 83 kilometre-long pipeline
linking the port with the mine, were proposed. The Company was responsible for
constructing the Savage River township for a workforce of 650. In October 1967
the pipeline carried its first consignment of iron ore slurry which was pelletised and
stockpiled at Port Latta for shipment to Japan.
•
During its operation, the Savage River mine had been one of the biggest
contributors to the state’s mineral industry until 1995, when Pickands Mather
scheduled a closure for early 1997. With almost 30 years of faithful service to the
Company, the mine appeared to be nearing the end of its economic life. However,
in November 1996, the Tasmanian Government successfully negotiated a transfer
agreement with Goldamere Pty Ltd, who was prepared to inject $110 million to
redevelop the mine.
•
Under the new name of Australian Bulk Minerals, mining was restarted in
November 1997. Capital expenditure by the Company in the redevelopment at the
mine and at Port Latta totalled $56 million in 1997-98.
•
Peak production occurred during the 1998-99 financial year, when almost 5.7
million tonnes of ore was mined, while producing 1.85 million tonnes of iron ore
pellets and 17,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate. At the same time, shipment of
iron ore products from Port Latta included 1.88 million tonnes of pellets and
almost 48,000 tonnes of concentrate.
•
By 2006, the Company had realised that ore reserves from the operating open pits
were rapidly being worked out. To extend the life of the mine beyond 2009, the
prospect of underground mining was being considered for the first time. A
subsequent feasibility study determined that due to unstable ground conditions,
Estimated in the 1980s to be more than 200 million tonnes
open pit mining was the only option. It was therefore decided to enlarge the current
workings through an extensive surface-stripping program.
•
On 23 June 2006 the mine suffered a serous setback, when fire caused $20 million
in damage to the concentrating mill, which immediately cut supplies of iron ore
slurry to the Port Latta pelletising plant. Full production resumed in October 2006,
after a four-month shutdown.
•
In January 2009, the mine experienced a change of name from Australian Bulk
Minerals to the current Grange Resources Tasmania Pty Ltd. With extensive
undeveloped iron ore deposits located to the south-west, there is an expectation of
an extended mine life beyond its present operations. The Mine currently produces
2.3 million tonnes of premium iron ore pellets annually.
Que River
•
Aberfoyle gained a second foothold (after Cleveland, 1960) in western Tasmania
with the discovery of the Que River zinc-lead ore body in April 1974. It was the
result of intensive exploration of the area by Aberfoyle Tin Development.
•
In 1975 a decline was installed to carry out underground drilling, followed by a
vertical shaft into the ore body during 1977. The sinking of the shaft confirmed the
quality and extent of the resource. The similarities of the Que River and Rosebery
ores enabled Aberfoyle to save on the expense of constructing a mill and flotation
plant. Consequently, a ten year contract was struck with EZ Industries to sell them
up to 200,000 tonnes of Que River ore annually, to be transported 35 kilometres for
treatment at the Rosebery mill.
•
Development of the mine began in 1980, which included the construction of
seventy new houses at historic Waratah. Production at the mine commenced the
following year (1981) after a capital expenditure of $20 million. During the first
full year of operation (1982-83) almost 230,000 tonnes of ore were produced.
Annual production gradually increased to a peak of 307,000 tonnes in 1987-88.
After ten years of operation, which yielded more than 2.3 million tonnes, Que
River closed down in November 1991.
•
Following the closure, the shaft head-frame was sold and transported to the gold
mine at Gympie, Queensland. Rehabilitation of the mine site was eventually
completed during 1997.
•
The continued search for base and precious metals during 2005-06 again attracted
interest at Que River. Drilling by explorer Bass Metals Limited revealed promising
amounts of zinc and copper along with silver, gold and lead near the old mine. An
open cut operation was commenced there during the first quarter of 2008.
Hellyer
•
Discovered in 1983, the Hellyer zinc-lead-silver ore-body became Aberfoyle's third
investment on Tasmania's West Coast. Situated 80 kilometres south of Burnie, the
mine was located only three kilometres north of the Que River Mine, in the valley
of the Southwell River.
•
During the exploration stage, extensive drilling was carried out to determine the
quality and extent of the resource. Underground exploration and sampling was
achieved via a 1.3 km access tunnel which was completed in May 1986. During
1988 a twelve kilometre branch line was constructed by the Emu Bay Railway
Company to link the mine with its main line at Moory Junction. A one million
tonne per annum concentrating mill was completed in February 1989, two months
prior to the official April opening of the Hellyer Mine.
•
By the end of June 1989 the mine had produced 760,000 tonnes of ore while
maintaining a workforce of 177. Production figures for the financial year of 199394 showed a significant increase, with 1.31 million tonnes of ore from a much
larger workforce of 287. With a total of 6.7 million tonnes already extracted, there
remained an estimated 8.4 million tonnes of ore reserves. Annual mine output was
gradually increased over the ensuing five years, reaching a maximum of 1.5 million
tonnes of ore for the financial year 1998-99.
•
In September 1998, the Aberfoyle Company was taken over by the Perth-based,
Western Metals Limited. Unfortunately for its new owner, the Hellyer Management
was already preparing the mine for closure within two years. On 23 June 2000,
after 11 years of successful operation, the Hellyer Mine was shut down. During that
time, 15 million tonnes of high grade ore were extracted from underground, which
produced 2.7 million tonnes of zinc concentrate and 728,000 tonnes of lead
concentrate, along with a further 601,000 tonnes of bulk concentrate containing a
mixture of zinc, lead and silver.
•
However, the final chapter of the Hellyer story is still to unfold. Almost 11 million
tonnes of mine tailings were waiting for reprocessing through the mill. A 55ha
tailings dam was estimated to contain 911,000 ounces of gold, 305,000 tonnes of
zinc, 327,000 tonnes of lead, 30.8 million ounces of silver and 17,000 tonnes of
copper. The in-situ metal value (at June 2004) was estimated at $1.75 billion.
•
Intec Limited, of Sydney, using the refurbished Hellyer Mill and associated
infrastructure, began reprocessing in early 2007. The first year (2006-07) had
produced 27,100 tonnes of zinc-lead concentrate which contained 10,400 tonnes of
zinc, 2,365 tonnes of lead and 5 kg of silver, from a total of 696,000 tonnes of
mined tailings.
•
After only 18 months, the operation was forced to close in late 2008, a casualty of
the world financial downturn. The lease was then acquired by Bass Metals Limited,
which presently operates the nearby Que River open cut mine.
Henty Gold
•
The commencement of active exploration in the Henty Valley during 1968, led to
the eventual discovery of gold mineralization on the southern slopes of Mount Julia
and the development of the Henty Gold Project. By June 1993, more than $20
million had been spent on surface drilling and constructing a decline to access the
resource.
•
Established by Goldfields Limited, construction at the Henty Gold Mine site,
located about 30 km by road north from Queenstown, commenced during 1994-95.
Access to the main ore body (Zone 96), which lies 500 metres below the surface,
was provided by a sub-vertical shaft and winder, collared approximately 100
metres underground and accessed by a decline. After $53 million in capital
expenditure, the mine was officially opened by the Premier of Tasmania on 2 July
1996. Promoted as “the mine in the rainforest”, Henty became the environmental
model for other mines in Tasmania.
•
Production steadily increased each financial year from 1997-98 to a maximum
output of 141,125 ounces of gold from 289,000 tonnes of ore in 2003-04. During
that period, the average number of personnel employed at the mine was 177.
•
In December 2001, Goldfields Limited merged with Delta Gold to form the new
company known as Aurion Gold Limited. Furthermore, in 2003 mine production
moved into the new Darwin Zone, after the completion of the main access decline.
Ore supplies from Zone 96 ore had virtually been worked out.
•
Mine production for the period 1996-97 to 2004-05, yielded 865,620 ounces of
gold from 1.78 million tonnes of ore. Ore reserves of 750,000 tonnes @ 10 grams
of gold per tonne, were expected to yield a further 240,000 ounces.
•
On the 15th November 2007, Henty achieved the production of 1 million ounces,
which was a significant milestone, when the original estimates were only 300,000
ounces over a short mine life of 4-5 years. Now approaching 14 years, gold
production is expected to continue beyond mid 2010 – and that’s without finding
any more ore. Bendigo Mining Limited, the present owner, purchased the mine
from Barrick Limited during July 2009. The Company expects to produce a further
50,000 ounces for the year 2009-10 out of its recently developed Tyndall Zone.
Avebury Nickel
•
The Avebury Nickel Project commenced during the mid-1990s, when CRA
Limited was drilling for zinc in a geophysical anomaly, about 8 km south-west of
Zeehan. Although a nickel deposit was found, the Company considered that the
resource was too small to be worth exploiting.
•
•
•
•
•
At that point, Allegiance Mining Pty Ltd became involved and took over the
project. Renowned Tasmanian geologist, Lindsay Newnham, joined the project
from day one and set out to prove that the nickel resource was capable of
supporting a medium-size mine. October 2003, Allegiance had estimated a resource
of 4 million tonnes @ 1.5 % nickel.
.Work commenced in March 2004 on the 1,200 metre-long decline which was
completed during January 2005. Known as the Viking Decline, it was to access the
main Viking deposit, with an extension to develop the North Avebury deposit. Full
scale underground mining commenced there in December 2006.
In January 2007, Allegiance commenced construction of a concentrating mill at the
mine, capable of achieving an initial throughput of 600,000 tonnes per annum of
ore to produce 5,700 tonnes of nickel in concentrates. Completed by mid 2008, the
mill was expected to reach an annual capacity of up to 1 million tonnes, while
producing more than 10,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrates. The concentrates
were to be trucked 24 km to Melba Siding (Emu Bay Railhead) and railed 100 km
north to the port at Burnie for export to foreign smelters.
In July 2008, Allegiance was subject to a successful takeover by Zinifex Limited
(later OZ Minerals Limited). Full production was finally achieved at Avebury,
following the commissioning of the processing plant during the following
September, making it Tasmania’s first new mine for more than a decade.
However, by the end of 2008, the mine became another casualty of the world
financial downturn and was immediately placed on care and maintenance. The
Avebury lease is presently part of MMG (Min Metals Group) Australia.
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
The History of Discovery of Emperor Mine, Vatukoula, Fiji
Aert Driessen
Freelance Geologist1
On 5th November 1932 Bill Borthwick and his 60 year-old mate Jack Sinclair found an outcrop of goldbearing altered andesite in the Tavua Basin by following ‘colour’ up the Nasivi River and its tributary
Vunisina Creek. Borthwick was being ‘grubstaked’ by his employer Patrick Costello, a publican from
Lautoka. Here begins the story of Emperor Gold Mining Company Ltd which produced more than 7
million oz2 of gold to December 2006 when the mine was put on care-and-maintenance, only to reemerge in 2008 as Vatukoula Gold Mines plc.
Patrick Costello was born in Maryborough, Qld around 1889, of Irish descent. Maryborough is mineral
country (less than 100 km north of Gympie) and Patrick became a passionate prospector. He went to Fiji
in 1909 as a 20-year old and bought into the pub business, as did his brother, and by 1932 when he
‘grubstaked’ his foreman Bill Borthwick, he owned the Shamrock Hotel in Lautoka and his brother Dan
owned the Pier Hotel in Suva.
Bill Borthwick was born in Scotland around 1860. It is not known when he came to Australia but by
1900 he had already met the Costello family in Maryborough and acquired a taste for prospecting and
bush life. The family may even have taken him under their wing, even as a 40-year old, but it is more
likely that they appreciated his all-round skills. He was the quintessential handyman who could turn his
hand to electrical work, plumbing and fencing. He acquired his prospecting skills in New Zealand, New
South Wales, and Queensland. So it is no surprise that, in 1915, Patrick Costello invited Bill Borthwick
to join him in Fiji as his foreman.
Jack Sinclair was a cattle buyer for CSR. Apart from their sugar interests, CSR also ran cattle on large
tracts of land in northern Viti Levu (the dry side of the island), and were still doing so in the period
1968-71 when I worked for Emperor.
Borthwick found the gold-bearing outcrop by good prospecting techniques – panning the creeks,
following the gold up the slopes by ‘loaming’, and always looking out for quartz. Led thus to an outcrop
of altered, clayey andesite, he ‘dollied’ and panned a sample that left a gold ‘tail’ in his dish that
probably took his breath away. Within days Bill was in Suva to meet Patrick and his brother Dan at the
Pier Hotel. Obviously impressed, Patrick topped up his provisions and turned him around, and told him
to get proper samples. In a matter of days the Costellos received by registered mail a tube of gold grains
with sample descriptions and estimates which prompted Patrick and Vince (a third Costello brother) to
travel to the designated area ‘11 km inland from Tavua’, where they found Bill sitting on an outcrop
with a rifle across his knees. All five ‘in-the-know’ agreed to keep their mouths shut until Patrick had
1
2
Employed by Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited: Geologist 1968-1969, Chief Geologist 1970-71.
1 Troy oz = 31.1 grams (rounded).
the area surveyed and registered, and in quick time Patrick Costello registered Prospecting License (PL)
207 of 200 ha in his name on land owned by CSR.
On 23 November 1932 Patrick Costello wrote to the Colonial Secretary to report the discovery of an
‘extraordinary gold occurrence’ in the area later to be called Vatukoula (Gold Hill). Although wealthy
by Fiji standards, Patrick knew that he did not have the financial resources to develop a large-scale
mining operation. In March 1933 he wrote to the Waihi Gold Mining Company in New Zealand but the
Company kept insisting on more information, which resulted in them being overtaken by events.
Concurrently, in Sydney, Edward Granville Theodore, who had not long before lost his Federal seat of
Dalley (covering the Balmain area) in the 1931 general election, read of the find in the Sydney Morning
Herald (SMH). The article drew his attention because he recognised the name Patrick Costello. They
had met twice before: in Suva, Fiji, when Theodore, as Premier of Queensland (1919-25), stopped off
en-route to USA and London, and again in 1929 at a Eucharistic Congress in Sydney. Theodore was not
a devout Catholic so he would probably have been there to put a shine on his political image or to catch
up with his mate James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane.
Whatever the reason, Theodore quickly re-established contact and shortly afterwards received by mail
from Patrick Costello some rock samples and glass tubes filled with gold particles. It so happened that
when Theodore received the consignment, John Wren, the ‘Collingwood Entrepreneur’ and Patrick
Cody, a well known Melbourne liquor merchant, were in town. Theodore would have known Wren from
his time in Queensland politics when Wren wanted to buy a race track at Albion Park, and again when
Wren bought the Brisbane Daily Mail in 1915. Theodore allowed Wren and Cody to take the samples to
Melbourne where they were shown to consulting geologist Dr Clive Loftus-Hills and officers of the
Victorian Mines Department. Notwithstanding that the rock samples assayed 20 oz/ton, no one was
impressed, even pouring cold water on the prospect. But then the rocks at Vatukoula (a sea of basalt
intruded by andesite dykes) do not look anything like rock associated with gold in Australia. Despite the
negative feedback, Theodore formed a syndicate comprising himself, Wren, Cody, and Gretel Packer
(Frank’s wife since July 1934). Theodore had previous dealings with Frank’s father, Robert Clyde
Packer, Managing Editor of Associated Newspapers which published, inter alia, the Daily Telegraph.
They would have met in Theodore’s time as Queensland Premier when R.C. Packer wanted his help to
defeat Jack Lang’s proposed New South Wales Companies (Preference) Shareholders Bill, which would
have made Packer very much poorer. The syndicate was naturally disappointed by the negative feedback
but Cody was buoyed by whispers from his own sources in Fiji and persuaded Loftus-Hills, with help
from Theodore and Wren, to go to Fiji. Positive feedback might also have come from Borthwick who,
with his New Zealand experience, was not discouraged by these rocks being so different from those in
Australian gold provinces. On inspection, Loftus-Hills became much more encouraged. He cabled
Theodore who then decided to take an option over Costello’s PL 207, which Loftus-Hills arranged while
he was still there. Loftus-Hills returned with 14 samples taken over a width of ‘10-20 feet’. Taking out
the highest assay of 58 oz/ton, the other 13 samples averaged nearly 6 ½ oz/ton. Those results definitely
got Loftus-Hills enthused.
On 30 May 1933 Theodore arrived in Suva ahead of a group of experienced miners that he had
organised. While in Suva he also obtained a letter of introduction from a Mr Armstrong, Acting Colonial
Secretary. This proved to be a very handy document on the other side of the island, opening many doors
to ‘officialdom’. The party then travelled to Tavua by launch, as there were no roads (I assume on the
east side of island; otherwise how did Borthwick get to Suva?). But only 5 weeks later (on 3 July) he
cabled the syndicate to say that results had disappointed and that he would be making plans to return to
Australia. An un-named Australian geologist had told him that the gold was unlikely to persist at depth.
But the group of miners were keen to stay and with Cody’s support in Australia Theodore set up an
arrangement whereby Costello would contribute his lease (PL 207), the syndicate would fund any plant
and equipment, and the miners would provide their labour, all for an equal one-third share of any find.
Back in Australia, Theodore had to take on a large mortgage because he was financially stretched. He
had also gone into a publishing venture with Frank Packer and their first publication, the Australian
Women’s Weekly, was losing money because it turned out much more successful than they expected.
That sounds strange, but Theodore and Packer had negotiated an advertising deal based on a print run of
50,000 copies but this was driven by demand to 150,000 copies, leaving the proprietors with the
additional printing costs. Sometime later Women’s Weekly would become Australia’s greatest
publishing success story, selling 160,000 copies a week during the Depression years.
Actually, the Women’s Weekly was their second venture. Not long before, Theodore and Packer had
each put £50003 into a kitty to buy an option on a one-year lease on a failing Australian Workers Union
(AWU) paper called ‘The World’. The pair indicated that they would re-brand it ‘The Star’ and sell it
for half a penny, half the price of Associated Press’ flagship ‘The Sun’, but they eventually accepted an
offer of payment of £86,500 from AP’s Managing Editor, Sir Hugh Denison, not to publish for three
years. This was all negotiated during the option period, before Theodore and Packer had to pay any big
money. So two days after they exercised their option they closed the paper down with loss of 280 jobs
and pocketed the £86,500.
Theodore received a cable from two miners, Harry Morton and Harold Stephens, not part of the original
group, saying that they had encouraging signs on PL 217, adjoining Costello’s PL 207. In October 1933
Theodore returned to Vatukoula to pay Morton £1000 plus 15% of any company that might be floated
for a 6-months option. The syndicate was obliged to provide compressors, rock drills, and air winches
etc, and this took Theodore to the financial edge again because the Women’s Weekly was by then
operating on a £50,000 bank overdraft.
Around March 1934 Theodore extended Morton’s option, shifting his focus away from Costello’s PL
207 to Morton’s PL 217.
Concurrently, Bill Lawler, a third prospector, had pegged PL 244 on the NW corner of Costello’s PL
207, and sent for Tom Victor, a ‘Collins House Group’ mining engineer, for his assessment of the field.
Victor declared that gold would be restricted to the surface. Costello was not overly perturbed because
he knew that ‘gold did not fall from the sky but had to come from below’.
Two months later, at a depth of 30m, testing showed that there was sufficient gold on Morton’s PL 217
to sustain a moderate-scale mining operation and in May 1934 Theodore exercised Morton’s option and
formed Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited, registered in Suva in September 1934, with authorised
capital of £100,000 issued in 100,000 shares of £1 nominal value. Morton received 15,000 shares, his
agreed 15% stake, and the rest was held by the syndicate; no shares were offered to the public in this
initial float. Within months the shares were trading for around £30. It is very likely that the syndicate
borrowed the money from the Collins House Group, a loose alliance of Melbourne-based mining
3
Australian pounds unless denoted otherwise.
companies including Australian Gold Development NL (including their broker Wallace Smith and
mining engineer Tom Victor), and people like Baillieu and W.S. Robinson, one of the founders of Zinc
Corporation. After lodging an application with the Fiji Mining Board to convert PL 217 to a 40 ha
Mining Lease Theodore went shopping for a 300 tons/week treatment plant, including a 5 ft diameter
ball mill and cyanide plant. But Morton’s PL 217 covered mainly CSR freehold land and they wanted
time to consider. Theodore was forced to apply for an interim permit because mill construction had
already started and was expected to be completed the following January (1935). But this was not straight
forward either, because there was no provision for an interim permit in the Mining Regulations.
Notwithstanding, the government issued Theodore with a Special Permit and levied a royalty of 1/-4 per
oz of gold.
On 12 October 1934 the Governor of Fiji, Sir Murchison Fletcher, proclaimed the Tavua basin a
‘Mining District’ and further decreed that henceforth PLs would be issued only to applicants that could
‘command working capital’ thus choking off competition from small players. At that time only one ML
(Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited) and 5 PLs had been issued.
In the meantime, Theodore paid Bill Lawler £10,000 for a 12-month option on his PL 244 adjoining
Costello’s block, with the same guarantee that Lawler would receive 15% of any company floated. Tom
Victor was invited back and did a complete back flip, reporting only good news. Theodore asked Lawler
to suggest a name for the prospective mine and he suggested ‘Loloma’ (gift) because he had bought the
PL for a mere £20 from a disillusioned Suva publican called Dave Reimenschneider. By early 1935
Theodore had two mines feeding his processing plant: Emperor (Morton’s PL 217) and Loloma
(Lawler’s PL 244).
The syndicate also bought an option over 80 ha of Costello’s original PL 207 which later became
Koroere Gold NL. They bought a separate option from Patrick Costello over another 110 ha that would
later yield the hitherto un-worked Dolphin Mine. Costello kept 12 ha for himself and, using finance
provided by J.B. Were in Melbourne, developed the Aloha Central Mine, the history of which was
consumed and lost in the history of the bigger operations around it.
The time was now right for making the big money in three public floats: Emperor Mines Limited (to buy
all the share capital of Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited), Loloma (Fiji) Gold Mines NL
(Lawler’s PL 244), and Koroere Gold NL (part of Costello’s PL 207). The Emperor Mines Limited float
was the largest, with authorised capital of £750,000 for issue in 1.5 million shares of 10/-. The IPO5
offered 900,000 shares to the public, raising £450,000 of which £300,000 was paid in cash to the
syndicate (£75,000 each). The balance of 600,000 shares went to the syndicate, which also received
options over another 350,000 shares, exercisable before March 1938 at the issue price of 10/- a share. Of
the 900,000 shares issued to the public, nearly half went to Australian Gold Development NL and W.S.
Robinson. A month after the float the shares were trading at 23/-, more than double their issue price.
Loloma was structured on authorised capital of £225,000 in 900,000 shares of 5/- nominal value. The
IPO issued 150,000 shares partly paid to 1/66, with a premium of 8/6, raising £75,000 in cash. Bill
Lawler received 180,000 fully-paid shares and 420,000 shares partly paid to 1/6.
4
1 shilling
Initial Public Offering.
6
One shilling and six pence
5
Edward Theodore had made more money than he would ever have dreamed of, but not so much from
gold as from the share floats. Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited only ever paid 3 pence in
dividends but it did repay 9/- of the 10/- share capital; profits were always reinvested in exploration and
mine development. As mentioned, Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited (now accounting for all
production from the field) produced 7 million oz (217.7 tons) of gold in 70 years of continuous
production from 1935 to December 2006, when it was put on care-and-maintenance. From the time that
the field settled into a ‘production routine’, it became a ‘1000 tons/day operation’ (say 350 kt/year)
yielding around 100,000 oz/year of gold (3100 kg/year) at an average grade of about 1/3 oz/ton (say 9
g/t).
Spare a thought for Bill Borthwick. On 10 May 1937, aged 77 years, he wrote to Sir Arthur Richard, the
new Governor of Fiji, asking for the government’s standard gold discovery reward of £2000. This was
denied him on the basis that he had been given sustenance by the beneficiaries of his discovery.
The field was consolidated in 1958, a year after closure of the Dolphin Mine, when Emperor Mines Ltd
acquired the Loloma mine under the Associated Mining Companies Agreement; it had long ago
exercised its option over Koroere Gold. As part of this Agreement the operation would be managed by a
single Chief General Manager and ore would be processed in a single, upgraded mill. As history is about
people, the following people either occupied management positions or served as Chief Geologist; it goes
without saying that metallurgists and mining engineers were also crucial to the operation but the task of
identifying them was beyond me. Only the names of Bill Cornwall (Superintendent of Metallurgy), Phil
Schmidt (Production Manager) and Charlie McFarlane (Mine Manager) come to mind as they were there
in my time. Generally speaking, there was a progression from mine management to the Board.
Chief General Managers: Edward Theodore, Nils Nielsen, C.W. (Bill) Cayzer and Alfred (Fred)
Watson.
Chief Geologists: A. (Alan?) Blatchford, Eddie Cohen, Lindsay Denholm, Ian Johnson, Aert Driessen,
Jeff Olliver and John Ekstrom.
In 1970, when I was Chief Geologist, the Board of Emperor Mines Ltd (the holding company)
comprised J.F. Wren, N.B. Theodore, C. Wallace Smith, Nils Nielsen, C.W. Cayzer and D.M.
McFarlane. J.F.Wren, as I understand it, was a nephew of John Wren the Collingwood Entrepreneur, as
the latter had no children. N.B. Theodore would have been Edward’s son Ned, the youngest of his four
children, who would have been around 55 years old when the Board was toppled in 1970. The Board of
Emperor Gold Mining Company Limited (the operating subsidiary) comprised Nils Nielsen and Fred
Watson.
At the 1970 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Emperor Mines Ltd a small group of Australian and
New Zealand stockbrokers led by John Spencer, Jeffrey Reid, Alan Griffiths, and Jim Nason, informed
the Directors that they had enough proxy votes to control the company. The board resigned en masse
and John Spencer was appointed to chair the rest of the AGM. Jeffrey Reid was elected Chairman of the
new Board. The company raiders correctly surmised that the price of gold would be allowed to float and
that its price would rise.
From 1952 the mine survived on ore initially located by drilling or encountered in mine development. It
was always a struggle and there were never more than three years’ reserves on the books. In 1968 the
Fiji government provided financial assistance of F$680,000 a year for the three years ending March
1971 (a total of about F$2 million) subject to certain conditions, including that the money be allocated
only to mine exploration, development and capital items. A case for financial assistance had been made
earlier, around 1960, by London-based Taylor & Sons but this never eventuated because the government
did not have the money. In the early years, the company paid double taxation: in Fiji and Australia.
Following Jeffrey Reid’s appointment, the mine held its own for a while because the price of gold rose.
But so did costs and when the gold price corrected cost pressures returned. Bigger companies like
Homestake were invited to joint venture but when no one accepted such offers the Fiji government said
in 1978 that it would take over the mine. This did not eventuate because neither party could agree on a
price. Then in 1983 Western Mining Corporation (WMC) took control of the mine. They stayed until
1991 and found new ore bodies.
When WMC left, Jeffrey Reid resumed his position as Chairman of the Board. Jeffrey left Vatukoula
and Fiji the following year (1992). Rumours persist that the government asked him to leave. George
Drysdale was then appointed Chairman. Jeffrey Reid died in Auckland in 2009.
Emperor has also survived four military coups in Fiji in twenty years, the first in 1987 by Colonel
Sitiveni Rabuka and the most recent in 2006 by Commodore Frank Bainimarama .
In December 2006 the mine was placed on care-and-maintenance. At that time, remaining resources
(Measured + Indicated + Inferred) were assessed to total 4.7 million oz of gold, including 230,000 oz in
tailings, based on a gold price of US$447/oz. On the balance sheet were also a 1 Mt/year mill/plant,
plant and equipment for a 1000 t/day operation, and a township of around 100 houses. Given the
positive outlook for the gold price, these numbers attracted sufficient new investors prepared to inject
new capital. Melbourne-based AMC Consultants Pty Ltd rejigged the resources data using a gold price
of US$750/oz and an exchange rate of US$0.5 to the F$1.00 and arrived at a Measured + Indicated
underground resource of 8.3 Mt @ 10.5 g/t (2.8 million oz) and another 230,000 oz in tailings (5.2 Mt
@ 1.47 g/t). Inferred resources underground of 4.7 Mt @ 8.6 g/t pointed to the possibility of an
additional 1.3 million oz. When the dust settled Vatukoula Gold Mines plc emerged for listing on the
London Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM); the company Chairman is Colin Orr Ewings.
The company’s two largest shareholders are Canadian Zinc Corporation, a Toronto-listed junior explorer
(17.26%) and Sprott Asset Management Inc’s Gold & Precious Metals Fund (16.83%). In 2008-09, its
second year of operations, the company produced 33,757 oz of gold and made an inaugural profit of
B£1.4 million, reversing its first-year loss. The company’s objective is to restore production to its
historical rate of 100,000 oz/year, which it expects to achieve by early 2011.
The Emperor epithermal gold deposit has produced more than 7 million oz of gold in 75 years. Bill
Borthwick and his mate Jack Sinclair found the deposit and Ratu Edward, Roko Tui, Tavua7, more than
anyone else, turned that deposit into a mine.
References:
Dunkin, H., 1969: Mining for Gold in Fiji.
7
Chief Edward, Lord of Tavua.
Fitzgerald, R., 1994: Red Ted – The life of E.G. Theodore.
Watson, A., 1980?: Memoirs of Fred Watson at Emperor Gold Mine, Vatukoula, Fiji.
.
1
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
‘Mining for Oil in Victoria’: The Lakes Entrance Oil
Shaft
Jim Enever
Introduction
The period leading up to the Second World War brought into focus once again
Australia’s vulnerable situation regarding access to oil and petroleum products. This
vulnerability had been realized at the time of the First World War, stimulating an
interest in all potential sources of indigenous crude oil. Exploration for oil began in East
Gippsland in 1914. The level of activity escalated from 1920 following announcement
by the Commonwealth Government of a reward of $50,000 for discovery of a
commercial oil field. This effort was rewarded in 1924 when the Lake Bunga No1 well
located five kilometres East of Lakes Entrance (Fig.1) struck traces of oil in an artesian
water flow from a glauconite sand horizon at a depth of 326 metres, the first
substantiated discovery of liquid ‘well oil’ in Australia. 1
Figure 1: Location of Lakes Entrance with respect to current oil and gas
infrastructure in Victoria, circa 2010
Source: Lakes Oil N.L
Over the 15 years following the 1924 discovery at Lake Bunga, some 40 wells were
drilled, three quarters of them ‘producing oil in amounts varying from a few drops to
about 130 gallons a day’.2 By 1938, an oil bearing basin of approximately 20 square
kilometres had been defined, centred on the township of Lakes Entrance.3 The oil was
found within a glauconite sand unit of about 10 metres average thickness, and average
depth of approximately 375 metres.4 Total production from the field was reported as
483,400 litres to 1938.5 The most productive part of the field was claimed to be a central
core area of no greater than 10 square kilometres.6 The oil produced was a heavy
2
asphaltic base type, suitable for producing fuel oil and lubricants, but deficient in lighter
fractions.7
In 1938, the Commonwealth Government’s Oil Advisory Committee reported on the
field. At this time the Lakes Entrance Oil Field was still the only known source of ‘well
oil’ in Australia. The Committee estimated the oil in place at around 680 million litres,
sufficient to warrant efforts at large scale production.8 Given the apparently low
reservoir pressure, the Committee suggested that an alternative to standard vertical wells
would most likely be necessary to achieve acceptable production rates.9 By 1940, the
Oil Advisory Committee had been disbanded and replaced by a Government Geological
Advisor. In this capacity, Harold Raggatt further reported on the field, concluding that:
It is impossible to view the prospects of the Lakes Entrance area very
optimistically. … It has been suggested that oil might be produced from the Lakes
Entrance area by “repressuring”, unit pumping, or by working from a vertical shaft.
[emphasis added] There are many enquiries which must be made before any idea
can be formed as to the economics of these proposals …10
The concept of recovering viscous oil under low reservoir pressure by ‘mining’ has its
origins in ancient history.11 Versions of this concept have been documented from
various locations throughout the world up to the present.12 A significant oil mining
industry is recorded as having existed in the Alsace region of Europe from the early
1700s.13 A detailed account of this was given by visiting US oil man, Lewis Emery
Junior, in 1880.14 The process, as described, involved sinking a shaft to the producing
horizon (typically at about 100m depth) and then excavating a network of tunnels into
which the oil would seep over time, and from where the miners could remove it by
shovelling. It was a derivative of this concept that Raggatt was referring to in his report.
Where to from here?
The Commonwealth Government had adopted a strategic policy to support the
production of oil from oil shale at Glen Davis by this time, but found itself under
pressure from groups with vested interest in seeing further development of the Lakes
Entrance Oil Field.15 In a dilemma, the Government turned to the USA for advice. To
ensure the best advice available, the Australian Minister in Washington was instructed to
seek the recommendation of the United States Bureau of Mines.16 By this time, the
concept of drilling horizontal holes into a producing horizon from the bottom of a
vertical shaft had begun to emerge. This was seen as a possible solution to developing
low pressure oil fields like Lakes Entrance, without the need for a network of tunnels
such as practiced in Alsace. The Minister was instructed to emphasise this technology in
discussions with the Bureau.17 On their advice, the services of Leo Ranney were sought.
After some consideration, Ranney accepted the brief as a contribution to the allied war
effort.
An article in the Bairnsdale Advertiser in June 1941 described Ranney as being:
President and chief engineer of the Ranney Oil Mining Company New York City.
… The inventor of processes for mining oil from depleted fields, for the
commercial recovery of natural gas from coal seams, for producing ground water
and for the creation of underground gas reservoirs … He has developed new
methods of shaft sinking and horizontal drilling, and of obtaining commercial
3
production from sands of very low saturation. He is the patentee of many
improvements in obtaining production from low pressure fields.18
Ranney was undoubtedly one of the pioneers of horizontal drilling, being the author of a
number of technical papers and the subject of many others.19 In a letter sent to the
Australian Minister in Washington around the time of his engagement, Ranney
summarised the development of the concept of oil recovery from horizontal wells.20 As
early as the 1920s, trials had been conducted in Texas in which a shaft was sunk through
a producing sand, and tunnels excavated beneath the sand horizon from which short
holes were drilled up into the sand to extract the oil. Attempts to produce oil by
horizontal drilling started in 1937, following the development of the technology for
water extraction, with drilling initially being into an outcrop, and then from the bottom
of a vertical shaft. By drilling an array of holes radially from a work chamber at the base
of the shaft, oil could be induced to flow into a collection point at the base of the shaft
from where it could be elevated to the surface.
Figure 2: Messrs Fairbank, Raggatt, Ranney (left to right in middle group at back)
and Demaine (foreground) during visit to Lakes Entrance, July 1941
Source: Victorian Mines Department Photo Collection
Even before the plans to bring Ranney to Australia had become public knowledge,
rumblings started within Government regarding his suitability for the engagement.21 A
claim was made that there was no evidence of any significant oil production from
horizontal wells drilled using Ranney’s methods, and that the applicability of this
technique to Lakes Entrance was purely speculative. After some discrete enquiries, these
4
concerns appear to have been allayed and plans were advanced for his visit.22 Ranney
arrived in Sydney on 11 July 1941, in company with Charles Fairbank, a Canadian
petroleum engineer nominated by Ranney.23 During July they toured the oil field and
met with a number of relevant parties, including Charles Demaine, Manager of the
Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate, the major producing interest on the Field (Fig. 2).24
A plan emerges
The eagerly awaited report was presented on 24 July, and, as might have been expected,
was optimistic about the potential for development of the field by horizontal drilling.25
The authors recommended specifically:
a circular, vertical shaft of 8 feet inside diameter, lined with a concrete wall 1 foot
thick extending down to the oil bearing horizon and ending in a circular chamber
approximately 25 feet in diameter, from which horizontal wells [will be] drilled to
great length in the oil-bearing formation.26
The cost of the complete exercise, including the drilling, was estimated to be ǧ100,000.
A site was suggested near the centre of the most prospective area, within the township
of Lakes Entrance. The probable oil recovery was estimated at ‘1,160,000 barrels for a
400 acre area’ and assumed recovery of 25 percent.27 This estimate was acknowledged
as being based on scanty information, but served to suggest that production should be
able to readily cover the costs of development and operation of the facility. What was
not addressed was any prediction of the likely rate of recovery, the critical factor that
was ultimately to decide the fate of the enterprise.
In August 1941, the Commonwealth Government convened a meeting with the
Victorian Government to resolve how best to advance the project.28 Charles Demaine
was invited as a representative of the Austral Syndicate. The prospect of forming a stand
alone authority similar to Commonwealth Oil Refineries was canvassed, but dismissed
in favour of an entity involving both Governments with the Austral Syndicate. The
meeting requested Demaine to come up with a scheme for further consideration.29 After
dismissing Demaine’s initial equity-based proposals, the Governments eventually
settled on a cost-sharing model, with Austral as operator. Verbal advice of this was
conveyed to Austral in September 1941, but a change in the Commonwealth
Government delayed progress until the arrangement could be ratified by the new
Government in November 1941.30 The main details of the proposed arrangement were:
That the Commonwealth should make available a sum of ǧ33,333 and the
Victorian Government ǧ16,667, making ǧ50,000 altogether by way of loan to the
Company … Horizontal drilling equipment and accessories required for the
Lakes Entrance Field … to be sought from the U.S.A. under Lease-Lend on high
priority on the understanding that the Companies concerned will assume liability
for such equipment or, alternatively, that the equipment will be leased to the
Companies by the Commonwealth … The services of Messrs Ranney and
Fairbank to be retained involving total expenditure of about ǧA1,800, ǧA1,200
to be borne by the Company … The purchase, transport and assembly of
electrical generating plant at a cost of approximately ǧ10,000 on the
understanding that this equipment and the liability will be taken over by the
5
Company … The acceptance of the offer of patent rights made by Mr Ranney
subject to the processes being patentable in Australia.31
The terms of the arrangement were made public in December 1941.32 An announcement
in the press shortly later told of the formation of a new company to be spawned by the
Austral Syndicate to undertake the trial.33
By the end of 1941, interested parties were polarised in their views. Some, like the
Government Geological Advisor, Harold Raggatt, had become convinced of the
project’s merits, others saw the proposed trial as folly, despite the strategic context. The
Petroleum Times made no secret of its views:
This is really the most surprising development of recent months. It would seem
that an attempt is being made to bolster up a moribund company with political
affiliations, which the public has steadfastly refused to support by buying shares.
The latest holes in this area (all financed by the Government) were all duds.34
The Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate
The Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL was formed in 1936, to undertake ‘oil drilling
operations at Lakes Entrance’.35 Over the next few years a number of conventional wells
were drilled and tested. By August 1941, the Syndicate felt in a position to state that ‘the
Company had to-day finally reached its objective, … proving that oil existed at Lakes
Entrance in commercial quantities’.36 While this might have been hotly contested, the
affinity developed between the Syndicate and Governments through mutual
participation in exploration activities had put the Company in an advantageous position
with regard to the trial, as did the fact that they had been able to achieve a rationalisation
of the exploration efforts of a number of groups, positioning themselves as the
predominant operator on the field.37
An impasse began to emerge even before the trial was announced publicly. Austral had
indicated that it wanted to float a new company to raise the extra capital that would be
required. The terms of the proposed contractual agreement between Austral and the
Governments required the Company to raise capital to fund its portion of the on-going
costs as a prerequisite. To be able to go to the capital market, however, the Company
required a formal agreement to be in place. The terms of an arrangement proposed to
circumvent this problem, involving the Governments advancing the Company funds to
cover its component of the program until capital could be raised, were felt to be a
disincentive to prospective investors.38
While attempts were made to resolve the organisational issues, progress was made on
the ground. Acting as an agent for the proposed consortium, Austral began to source
some of the major equipment that would be required.39 A diesel power plant of
sufficient capacity to supply the electricity and compressed air for the operation was
located and arrangements made for its procurement and transfer to Lakes Entrance. A
suitable set of steel poppet legs, electric winder and ancillaries were located at Bendigo
and certified by the Mines Inspector as appropriate for the job. Preliminary designs were
initiated for the shaft, and site work undertaken to prepare for installation of the surface
facilities. Austral initiated, at its own expense, the drilling of a pilot bore adjacent to the
selected shaft site to provide information to help with the on-going shaft sinking
6
activities. Throughout the first half of 1942, up to 28 men were reported as being
engaged on the site in preparatory work and the drilling of the pilot bore.40
Direct action
During the early months of 1942, it became increasingly clear that Austral was not
going to be able to raise the capital to consummate the arrangement with the
Governments, despite their obvious on-going involvement with the project. At a
meeting of Federal Cabinet held on 15 April 1942, it was decided to resume the site
under National Security (Minerals) Regulations and develop it as a Government project,
with the Commonwealth providing ǧ112,500 and the State ǧ37,500. Control of the
project was to be delegated to the Controller of Mineral Production. A nominal
allowance would be made to account for the residual equity of Austral which would be
used to calculate a pro-rata profit for the Syndicate in the event of a net profit
eventuating. A provision was included that would allow the Commonwealth to buy out
Austral’s equity at any time.41
An administrative structure was set up within the Commonwealth Department of Supply
and Development. A committee of three, The Lakes Entrance Oil Departmental
Executive Committee, took overall control. This committee was made up of J. Malcolm
Newman, Controller of Minerals Production for the Commonwealth Government,
George Brown, Secretary Department of Mines Victoria, and A.C. Smith from the
Department of Supply and Development. Detailed management of the project on a day
to day basis was to be entrusted to a dedicated project supervisor responsible directly to
the Executive Committee. In June 1942, an offer was made to Charles Demaine to take
up that position, despite the obvious potential for a conflict of interests. By September
1942, Demaine had not been able to give his unqualified commitment to the position
and the offer was withdrawn.42 The Executive Committee had another candidate in
mind, H.J. Cook a mining engineer with a background in tin dredging.43 His
appointment to the position of project supervisor appeared an anomaly at the time, given
his lack of experience with anything to do with petroleum.44 As much as anything else,
it appears to have been a growing frustration with Demaine’s obfuscation in their eyes
that ultimately convinced the Committee to appoint Cook. Austral was not to have a
direct role in the management of the project, and the financial details around the
takeover were to be the basis for an ongoing dispute.45
A shaft at last
By September 1942, all surface facilities were essentially in hand.46 By this time the
shaft had acquired a life of its own, becoming synonymous with the project as a whole.
The underlying feeling was that while the horizontal drilling activity might remain a
black art to be dealt with by overseas specialists, Australia possessed ample shaft
sinking expertise. In the report prepared by Ranney and Fairbank, a clear division of
responsibility was built in between the shaft sinking (to be supervised by Australian
engineers) and drilling (to be supervised directly by American engineers).47
Much of the early discussion about the project revolved around the best way to construct
the shaft. As early as mid 1940, when the possibility of recovering oil via a shaft was
being mooted prior to the visit by Ranney and Fairbank, the Victorian Mines
Department suggested that a ‘12 foot by 4 foot timbered shaft’ would be the best
option.48 This was undoubtedly based on accumulated experience, rather than on the
7
likely prevailing conditions. During Ranney’s visit, discussions were held with
engineers from Gold Mines of Australia to obtain their views.49 They proposed a
scheme whereby a temporary rectangular timbered shaft would first be sunk to the
required depth, and then re-excavated from the bottom up to produce a circular, concrete
lined, permanent shaft. Over the next few months, Gold Mines of Australia became
increasingly wary about the difficulties that might be faced, and in October 1941,
reluctantly informed the Commonwealth Government that it would not undertake the
work.50
While the prospect of calling on a well established mining company for the shaft
sinking appeared to be what the Governments preferred to give them the required
confidence in the ultimate success of the work, Austral was not so fixated. By the end of
1941, Austral had engaged the services of the Snider Construction Company, a
Melbourne based concrete construction group, to carry out the surface works
preparatory to shaft sinking. In November 1941, Snider provided to Austral a quote for
shaft sinking against a general specification for a circular concrete lined shaft as
proposed by Ranney.51 Their quote was for a shaft of ‘10 foot’ internal diameter, the
minimum likely to be allowed by the Mines Department, to be constructed from the top
down.52 In their proposal, Snider claimed to be basing their approach on modern
practice for coal mine shaft sinking in the UK, a situation considered analogous to the
geological environment at Lakes Entrance. After the Government takeover of the project
in May 1942, the Executive Committee sought advice on the suitability of the proposal
that had been developed by Austral and Snider. A shaft sinking engineer from Zinc
Corporation was brought to Melbourne for discussions, and expressed general
satisfaction with the proposed scheme.53
A call for tenders for the first 60 metres of the shaft was placed in the major Melbourne
newspapers on 14 September, closing on 28 September 1942. Not surprisingly, only one
tender was received, from the Snider Construction Company.54 In essence, the tender
offered by Snider was a re-run of their earlier proposal to Austral, at a cost of ‘ǧ35 per
foot for the first 200 feet’.55 The Committee considered this price to be excessive, and
entered into negotiations with Snider to reduce the price to no more than ‘ǧ30 per
foot’.56 An accommodation was finally reached on the price, and Snider engaged to
conduct the first stage of sinking.
At the outset of activities, day-to-day site management for Snider had been the
responsibility of Albert Clarke, a qualified and practical mine manager from Bendigo.
After the Government takeover, Clarke was appointed formally as the site manager for
the project.57 With Clarke’s contacts, skilled men from Bendigo were recruited to fill
critical roles. Other labour requirements were met from the local area. Finally, by
October 1942, all arrangements appeared to be in place for shaft sinking to commence
in earnest (Fig 3).
8
Figure 3: Surface installation showing headframe, winder house
and drilling derek for pilot bore
Source: Victorian Mines Department Photo Collection
Progress is made
In December 1942, progress was reported to be about 6 metres per week.58 Excavation
was being done without recourse to blasting.59 The shaft was being advanced in stages
of around 3.5 metres.60 After each stage of excavation, timber form work was erected
and the concrete lining poured.61 Holes were left in the concrete to allow any ground
water to escape until the concrete had cured.62 These holes were subsequently blocked
off, and the gaps between the segments of lining sealed, to form a nominally water tight
lining.63 The shaft was arranged for twin compartment winding with steel work, and
fitted with timber guides.
The pilot bore, which was being advanced in conjunction with shaft sinking, indicated
the possibility of significant water inflows below about 60 metres depth. As a
precaution, a decision was made to install permanent pumping stations at a number of
points down the shaft.64 By March 1943, the shaft had reached a depth near 90 metres,
with no major water handling issues reported.65
In April 1943, it was decided to recommend to the Commonwealth and State
Governments that the Snider Construction Company be given a further contract for an
additional 60 metres of sinking, with a provision for extension to the final depth.66 This
action was approved. In anticipation of harder going, moves were made to acquire a
number of pneumatic spades and borers, as well as shot firing equipment.67
Consideration was given at about this time to the thickness of the concrete lining.
Further advice was sought from Zinc Corporation and a design eventually adopted that
called for the lining thickness to vary from ‘one foot at the top to three foot six inches at
the bottom’. 68 Experiments were also initiated into the potential impact of the ground
water on the long term durability of the concrete.69 The aggressive nature of the
sulphate-charged ground water was to remain a concern throughout the construction
program.70
9
In August 1943, shaft sinking was temporarily suspended at 140 metres while a
permanent pumping chamber was excavated.71 This chamber was 12.5 metres long and
provided enough space for a pump and water storage cistern.72 The ground conditions
encountered during this operation required that substantial timbering be installed.73
By the end of 1943, the shaft had reached a depth of 188 metres.74 Further work was
suspended at this depth pending installation of an adequate ventilation system.
According to the Mines Inspector:
This was deemed necessary due to quantities of methane gas met within the pilot
bore. While this installation was proceeding, the opportunity was taken to send
the shift leaders and manager to Wonthaggi, where … they were enabled to
receive some instruction in gas testing and safety lamp work. The men are now
carrying out gas examinations in the shaft.75
By January 1944, the ventilation system had been installed, and shaft sinking was
underway again.76
In accord with the plan being followed, another pump chamber of similar dimensions to
the previous was excavated at a depth of 200 metres. During this operation, two men
were injured when a rock fall occurred on 20 March 1944. The accident was attributed
to the inexperience of the miners with this type of work.77 The accident depleted the
ranks of miners available and prompted an attempt to recruit suitably experienced men
from Ballarat.78
On reaching a depth of 203 metres, a major inrush of water occurred, that according to
one account involved ‘water at a pressure of 270 p.s.i. … breaking through sixteen feet
of sediments into the base of the shaft during sinking operations’.79 An attempt was
made to seal off the water-bearing zone by pressure grouting, reducing the flow to about
5,500 litres per hour. The operation was apparently successful enough to allow shaft
sinking to continue, reaching a depth of 225 metres by mid June 1944. By this time,
heaving of the soft sediments in the shaft bottom and caving of the walls, requiring
removal of excess material, were slowing progress.80 In one account it was claimed that
at one point ‘the men excavated for some days without making any progress. What they
took away one day was pushed upward to the same level the next’.81 Consideration was
given to changing the procedures being employed, including the use of cast iron
‘tubbing’ to replace the concrete lining (at a substantial extra cost), but eventually it was
decided to persevere with the system that had been developed.82
By September 1944, the shaft had reached 255 metres and conditions had improved. It
was reported that ‘no surplus ground was at present being dug’.83 The mechanism that
had caused the ground to heave was debated, with an eye to the future.84 Some thought
that the problem was to do entirely with the competency of the ground, while others
believed the root cause to be water and/or gas pressure.85 A program of advance boring
into the shaft bottom had been instigated after the water inrush at 203 metres. The
advantages and disadvantages of continuing this program were now discussed, and it
was decided to continue to drill ahead in 3 metre increments as a precaution against
possible high-pressure gas being encountered.86 In the event, no gas flows that could not
be handled by the ventilation system were met with.87
10
By the end of 1944, the shaft had reached 280 metres and another pumping station had
been excavated at 275 metres.88 Toward the end of 1944, an acute shortage of skilled
winder drivers looked likely to bring operations to a halt.89 An emergency recruitment
campaign in Bendigo managed to secure extra qualified drivers, coaxed to Lakes
Entrance by the offer of a living away from home allowance above normal salary.90
As sinking pressed on during the early part of 1945, the attention of all those involved
turned to the critical question of the depth at which the shaft should be terminated.
Throughout the construction period, and even before, the overriding issue in the back of
everyone’s mind had been the potential for a catastrophic inflow of high pressure water
into the shaft from the artesian zone known to immediately underlie the weak oil sand
horizon. The experience of the inrush that had occurred at 203 metres only accentuated
this concern.91 While most, including the Mines Inspector, expressed a conservative
view to stop the shaft about 30 metres above the top of the sands, Ranney, who had been
consulted on the issue, apparently favoured continuing the shaft to the top of the sands
at approximately 365 metres, with the possible precaution of pre-grouting the sands.92
The Committee pondered the trade-off between the safety offered by leaving a
substantial buffer of rock above the sand, and the impact this might have on being able
to effectively drill holes into the sand to collect any oil, recognising that the project
could be fatally compromised.93
While the Committee continued to agonise over this question, shaft sinking proceeded,
reaching a depth of 340 metres by June 1945.94 With the shaft held at this depth, a
diamond drill was brought in to core down from the bottom of the shaft to the sand
horizon to allow more definitive information to be obtained on the nature of the rock
overlying the sand.95 A technical sub-committee was formed to evaluate the information
obtained and recommend on the appropriate course of action.96 The sub-committee
reported on 3 July 1945, that it thought it safe to continue shaft sinking a further 12
metres to a total depth of about 352 metres, but that any further consideration would
have to await additional information.97 At a meeting of the Executive Committee held
on 28 August 1945, there was still some equivocation among the members of the subcommittee, but the Mines Inspector was adamant that the main shaft should not be
continued beyond its present depth of 352 metres.98 As a fall back, it was decided to
sink a timbered winze, approximately ‘5 foot by 4 foot clear’, from the bottom of the
shaft to penetrate the top of the sand horizon.99 It was believed that an excavation of this
size would be relatively safe. By October 1945, the winze had been completed to a total
depth of 367 metres, and the excavation of short drives to the north and south from the
winze commenced.100 It was reported that ‘no serious difficulties were being met
with’.101 By November 1945, the drives had been completed and a further 2.5 metres of
winzing completed from the north drive to form a ‘pot hole’ extending to a depth of 4.3
metres into the sand.102
Two holes were drilled approximately 9 metres horizontally from each end of the northsouth drive to test the oil flow. A further hole was drilled in an easterly direction. The
flows of water and oil into these holes, as well as into the ‘pot hole’, were monitored
over a period of 20 days during November and December 1945. Maximum flow rates
equivalent to approximately ‘50 gallons per 1000 foot of hole length per day of dry oil’
were recorded, generally depleting to a much lower rate over the monitoring period.103
11
With the benefit of hindsight
The project had had its sceptics from inception, but as shaft sinking progressed and the
difficulties mounted, even those directly involved became pessimistic. As cores of the
producing sand became available from the pilot bore, detailed examination of the nature
of the oil content led to some sobering conclusions. In January 1945, the project
supervisor produced a report concluding that:
The Ranney estimate of oil production at Lakes Entrance was based on
assumptions now known to be unfounded and the actual production will probably
be less than one tenth part of the estimate.104
This realisation was compounded by ambiguous feedback from the USA regarding the
outcome of the parallel trial of Ranney’s scheme being pursued in Pennsylvania at the
time. In March 1945, it was decided that Cook and Newman should visit the USA as a
matter of urgency to resolve some of the critical issues.105
In the event, Cook made the trip on his own, but was able to meet up with Raggatt who
was already in the USA. Cook’s visit extended from May to July, during which time he
met with a number of authorities and commissioned a well-credentialed petroleum
geologist, John Pemberton, to provide an opinion on the prospects for the Lakes
Entrance Oil Field.106 Cook’s report on his findings was to the point and unequivocal,
concluding that:
•
•
•
•
There is no successful application of the Ranney method for oil recovery
in America
There is no evidence that controlled horizontal drilling is possible by
using the Ranney equipment … All indications are there is no control
particularly when holes are more than 1000 feet long …
The pressure injection of cement, referred to as “cement grouting”, into
unconsolidated sands has not been developed sufficiently to warrant
forecasts that it can be done with successful results …
The report prepared by oil geologist Pemberton … states clearly what has
been hinted at by so many of the authorities contacted in the U.S.A. that
there is no chance of a successful outcome to the work now in hand at
Lakes Entrance, simply because there is not sufficient oil present there. 107
Cook also found that the promised specialised drilling equipment was not going to be
supplied in the foreseeable future. Cook expressed disappointment that the Bureau of
Mines had recommended Ranney when there was a widespread feeling among those he
had met with that Ranney was held in low esteem. This view was certainly held by at
least one senior member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, who
claimed that they did not accept Ranney’s credentials, and that it was a pity that ‘instead
of putting ourselves in the hands of a consultant, we fell into the hands of a
promoter’.108 Cook’s strong recommendation was that ‘all expenditure at Lakes
Entrance cease forthwith, and that the plant be realised and the monies obtained be
offset against past expenditure’.109
Cook’s report was presented to the Executive Committee at the end of July 1945. The
Committee, in turn, passed on the conclusions and recommendations verbatim to the
12
Governments for their instructions.110 As the wheels of government turned, work on the
shaft continued as described and more detailed evaluation of the cores from the shaft
and pilot bores was undertaken.111 Based on this more detailed information, Raggatt
reported that it might be expected that 20,000 barrels of oil could be recovered from an
area of 300 metres radius within which control over drilling might be maintained.112 At
a realistic price on the market, this might yield a return of about ǧ20,000, far less than
required to make the project viable. Raggatt conceded that if work was to be continued,
it would be primarily to obtain further information on the field.
The Commonwealth Cabinet finally considered the situation in November 1945, by
which time the war had ended removing the strategic driver that had led to the project in
the first place. The Government’s considerations were based essentially on the
commercial credentials of the project.113 It was decided to consult further with the State
Government before making a final decision. The State Government clarified its position
in December 1945, suggesting that the project be abandoned, subject to Austral being
offered the opportunity to make a proposal to take it over. A recommendation was made
that the operation be placed on a caretaker basis until this possibility had been
evaluated.114 The Commonwealth Cabinet subsequently ratified this position, just in
time to be able to digest the relatively disappointing results obtained from the initial
flow trials. The project had been placed on a care and maintenance basis by the end of
1945, bringing to an end three years of struggle.
Back to the future
In December 1945, the Department of Supply and Shipping formally notified Austral of
its desire to enter into negotiations. At a meeting held in January 1946, it was agreed
that a detailed inventory of the realisable assets would be obtained as a basis for any
offer that Austral might make.115 It was made clear to the Syndicate that the
Governments would not consider a loan to them on any basis, as this would imply
Government endorsement of the project contrary to their position.116 Austral turned to
an earlier plan to float a new company to obtain the capital necessary to pursue dealings
with the Governments and continue operations. At this point in time, wartime
restrictions on capital raising were still in place. Austral applied to the Capital Issues
Board for permission to float a new company with a nominal capital of ǧ200,000, with
the intention of calling up approximately ǧ100,000 immediately to:
purchase the plant from the Commonwealth and State Governments, obtain
horizontal drilling equipment, complete the work chamber …, obtain the
services of experts from abroad, drill four holes, each approximately 1,000 feet
long, to test the application of the Ranney system.117
This application was refused on the grounds of the negative view of the project held by
the Governments.118
At the end of March 1946, the Commonwealth Government notified Austral that it was
now ‘willing to revoke the order made under National Security Regulations, and
[would] offer the Company the opportunity to acquire all plant and machinery … for the
sum of ǧ16,620/16/4’.119 This was the amount determined as the residual value of the
installation by the auditors appointed by the Government, a substantial discount from
the ǧ150,000 already invested.120 A condition of the Government’s offer was that
13
Austral drop any claims they had made for compensation resulting from the compulsory
acquisition. In an apparent case of pushing their luck, Austral held out on this point, and
eventually received a settlement totalling ǧ2,100.121 Austral re-applied to the Capital
Issues Board, presenting new information.122 This application was approved, although
there is no clear evidence of changed reasoning of the Board.
The new company, Lakes Oil Limited, was formed in Melbourne soon after, and on
May 6 1946, acquired the rights and assets of Austral relating to the Lakes Entrance
project.123 Meanwhile, on April 24 1946, Austral wrote to the Commonwealth
Government indicating that it had held talks with the Victorian Mines Department
regarding its plans for further activity and had received the Department’s blessing.124 At
the same time, Austral indicated that it would make payment of the amount requested on
9 May 1946. On 15 May 1946, the Lakes Entrance oil lease was handed back to Austral,
and as a result of the arrangement between Austral and Lakes Oil, the Lakes Entrance
project was taken over by Lakes Oil.125
The decision by Austral to carry on activities in light of the pervasive negative
sentiment around the project can be attributed largely to the unrelenting personality of
Charles Demaine. His fractious relationship with the Committee during the years that
the Governments managed the project had made him persona non grata, but after the
hand-back he emerged once again as the main driving force. Demaine’s unwavering
belief in the Lakes Entrance Oil Field is encapsulated in his appeal to Austral
shareholders at the time of the hand-back:
The making of estimates of the oil content … is not a question to be determined as
a result of a geological or geophysical examination of one core 16 feet long and
one and a quarter inches in diameter … Actual yields of oil obtained by your
Company have conclusively shown that far and away the greater portion of the oil
that has so far been recovered … has been obtained after a depth of something
more than 25 feet below the top surface of the glauconite has been drilled. For
anyone to have made an estimate of the total content of oil in 400 acres [as
Raggatt had done in October 1945], but to have excluded entirely from the
calculation the oil in the bottom half of the glauconite, is entirely unjustified.126
A re-start
The approximate configuration of the shaft at the time of the hand-back is shown in
Figure 4. During the period of Government management, John Laing, a noted civil
engineer, conducted a detailed evaluation of the problem of ensuring the integrity of a
work chamber.127 In Laing’s view, three alternatives presented themselves: to rely on
the inherent strength of the rock in which the chamber would be located, to augment this
strength by a process such as cement injection, or to design the chamber itself to be able
to largely resist any forces that might be mobilised. Laing favoured the latter approach,
proposing a design incorporating radial buttress walls to help support the floor and outer
walls of the chamber. Whether as an act of faith, or an educated gamble based on the
absence of major problems when the trial excavations were made, Lakes decided to
stick essentially with the original concept proposed by Ranney and construct a circular
chamber with an internal diameter of 6 metres and a height of 9 metres, to be located
immediately above the north-south drive that had been excavated previously. The
chamber was designed with reinforced concrete walls 1.2 metres thick, and a reinforced
14
concrete floor, without any additional strengthening features such as had been suggested
by Laing.128 The prospect of installing two floors in the work chamber was considered
but not adopted.
Figure 4: Sketch of shaft configuration at time of hand back to Austral Oil
Drilling Syndicate, May 1946
Source: P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes Entrance Oil Shaft for
testing explosives’, Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria.
Lakes entered into a further contract with the Snider Construction Company and, with
essentially the same work force, set about extending the shaft and constructing the work
chamber in January 1947.129 The earlier winzes and drives were filled with concrete
prior to excavation commencing.130 Progress was made in increments, with concrete
being poured after each stage of excavation, as had been the previous practice. The floor
of the chamber was reported as having been poured at midnight on 4 September 1947,
marking a significant milestone for the project.131 Apart from progress being slowed by
the intersection of some ‘hard bands’, no particular problems were reported during
construction.132 Forty eight ‘portholes’ to facilitate later drilling were cast into the walls
of the chamber during construction, at various radial locations. Some of these were 15
15
cm in diameter, others 20 cm. Some were set horizontally, and others at a slight
downward angle.133
Drilling gets underway
An early decision by Lakes had been to use Australian supplied drilling equipment. An
order was placed on Mineral Drillers Pty Ltd for the supply of the equipment in early
1947.134 After trial of the equipment on the surface, it was put into action in October
1947.135 Drilling was conducted through ‘stuffing glands’ installed in the ‘portholes’ to
facilitate control of any water inflows that might occur during drilling.136 Permanent
casing was inserted for some distance into each hole and pressure grouted in place to
ensure a seal against the inherent reservoir pressure. Problems began to occur when the
men conducting the grouting operation started to suffer from cement burns
(dermatitis).137 The problem was exacerbated by the high humidity in the work chamber.
To alleviate this, the ventilation system was improved. The methods being used for
grouting were reviewed and altered to minimise the risk of cement burns.138 Despite
these problems, 1947 ended on a positive note, with the Board being able to report to
shareholders at the annual meeting that drilling had commenced and oil was being
produced.139
By the end of 1947, a number of short holes had been drilled, six at a dip of nine
degrees and several more at a dip of 30 degrees.140 The nine degree holes were reported
to have intersected the top of the producing horizon approximately 18 metres from the
work chamber.141 Some of these holes had been cased to the top of the producing
horizon and drilled on for a further distance of approximately 9 metres into the upper
zone of the producing sand.142 All of these latter holes were reported to have been
producing ‘small quantities of oil’.143 No problems arising from excess water flows
from the sand were reported.144 It was, however, already becoming evident that due to
the natural tendency for holes drilled near horizontal to sag, the lateral coverage that
could be expected before holes penetrated through the complete sand section would
most likely be less than planned.145
By May 1948, it was reported that the yield being obtained from the holes so far drilled
was only about one half of what would be required for commercial viability, and that the
oil content of the produced fluid varied between ‘60 and 200 gallons of dry oil per one
million gallons of water’.146 Holes of larger diameter were considered, and a trial hole
drilled for the first time into the lower zone thought to have higher oil content.147 When
a somewhat higher yield was indicated from this hole, nine additional holes were
planned to go into the lower zone, ‘spaced to tap the full 360 degrees’.148 It was thought
that if a yield of around 115 litres per day per hole could be achieved from these holes,
the Board might be able to make a decision on the prospects for further development.149
By August, the financial situation was becoming critical, with only enough funds left to
support another 10 weeks of activity.150 At a special meeting of the Board held on 11
September 1948, it was suggested that based on the results from the nine trial holes,
development of an area of around ‘ 300 acres by an array of holes might yield about 150
barrels per day’.151 It was decided to recommend to the shareholders that activity be
continued, and that the nominal capital of the Company be increased from ǧ200,000 to
ǧ1,000,000 by an issue of shares to current shareholders.152 Temporary finance was
arranged when one of the directors guaranteed the Company’s bank overdraft.
16
The second annual meeting was held on 15 December 1948.153 In an impassioned
presentation, the Chairman described how oil was flowing, particularly from the lower
zone, under the inherent reservoir pressure of about ‘520 pounds per square inch,
without recourse to the use of explosives or the application of a vacuum’.154 The
Chairman also dwelt on the fact that the Company had sold about 136,000 litres of oil to
that date. At the time of the meeting, the longest hole drilled was about 60 metres. Most
holes were 38 mm in diameter, with one being 64 mm. Production was stated to be
around ‘2.5 barrels per day per acre developed, with 3 acres having been developed’.155
The Chairman set out the plans for future development of a ‘60 acre area, followed by a
300 or 400 acre area if the 60 acres proved commercial’.156 His presentation culminated
in the proposal to increase the Company’s capital, by which time those present must
have been ready to sign up, for that is what they mainly did.
Activities continued along the same path in early 1949. By February, 15 holes had been
drilled.157 An article in the Age described a visit to the project in dramatic terms:
The journey down in a lift that descends at the rate of 500 feet a minute through
blackness is an eerie experience for the uninitiated. The cage itself is oozing oil:
the shaft is as wet as a shower, and the working chamber is humid and slippery.
It is no place for anyone with claustrophobic tendencies … The working
chamber resembles somewhat the fire room of an oil burning ship without the
fire … The oil drains through the drilled holes into a sump beneath the working
chamber, and is brought to the surface in bailers.158
In anticipation of a bright future, attempts were made to improve the ventilation and
further seal the shaft lining to overcome the oppressive conditions in the work chamber.
Storage and separation tanks were installed. Plans were made to install a pump capable
of pumping from shaft bottom to the surface directly, to circumvent the need for bailing.
A laboratory was established at the shaft site and a chemist employed to monitor the
quality of the oil produced. Experiments were conducted into the best way to dehydrate
the oil.
In all publicity about the project at this time, the Company stressed the experimental
nature of the enterprise and fell back on motherhood statements like, ‘from seeps and
dribbles you get cups, then pints and gallons. They build to barrels, drums then tons’.159
This cautionary approach by the Company to its image was in contrast to the
expectation of shareholders, who began to default on calls made on shares.160 The mood
of the local public was buoyed by reports such as that in the Bairnsdale Advertiser of 18
February 1949, in which a claim was made of production of ‘10,000 gallons per
month’.161 The more cynical of oilmen, however, were not convinced. A report in The
Petroleum Times on March 25 1949 was to the point:
A report issued by the directors of Lakes Oil Ltd., refers to progress being made
at the so-called Lakes Entrance Oil Field. This appears to consist of recovering
the 7,000 to 10,000 gallons of oil and water, especially the latter, which have
seeped into the bottom of the hole from the horizontal shafts drilled on the
experimental system a couple of years ago.162
Full scale production development of the larger area was scheduled to start in May
1949. This was going to involve the drilling of much longer holes than previous and
17
require the use of hole-surveying technology on a regular basis, as well as employing a
hole trajectory control system called a whipstock.163 It was not until September 1949,
however, that any real progress seems to have been made.164 At this time, plans were
revealed to drill a 300 metre long hole parallel to the bottom of the sand horizon in the
higher-producing lower zone. It was estimated that this operation might take about two
months.165 By the time of the annual meeting in December, the Chairman was able to
report that after overcoming a number of teething problems, this hole had reached a
depth of ‘650 feet and was producing 100 gallons of dry oil per day’.166
Long-hole drilling continued throughout 1950 at an agonisingly slow rate attributed to
the shortage of critical supplies. By the time of the annual meeting in December 1950, a
small number of holes had been drilled out around 300 metres, and in some cases had
produced encouraging flows.167 One hole was reported to have produced ‘629 gallons in
16 tests extending over 7 hours and 20 minutes between December 19 and December
21, 1950’.168 It was noted, however, that the flow rate dropped off rapidly from the first
to the last test period, suggesting a severe problem of water invasion.169 Demaine
calculated that the average production rate would have to be increased by a factor of
about 10 if the project was going to produce a net profit for the Company.170
In January 1951, Lakes wrote to the Victorian Mines Department seeking their support
for an approach to the Commonwealth Government for a grant of up to ǧ30,000 per year
for two years to continue the project. While recognising the commercial reality, the
Mines Department saw value in further experimentation and supported the application
with a letter from the Premier. This was to no avail.171 In the annual report of the Mines
Department for 1951, the entry under ‘Oil’ simply read, ‘oil production ceased toward
the end of the year when Lakes Oil Ltd suspended operations at the Lakes Entrance
shaft after ten years of work’.172
In the final analysis, approximately ‘5,000 barrels of poor quality oil had been produced,
with a total value of about ǧ10,000’.173 The annual report of Lakes Oil for 1951 stated
that due to lack of finance, all 26 horizontal holes had been cemented, all valuable
equipment removed from the shaft, and the shaft allowed to fill with water.174 The
Chairman’s report to the meeting ended with a lament that it was ‘unfortunate that
Government policy had been directed to aiding the search for oil, but not to helping the
actual production of oil’.175
Epilogue
After cessation of activities, the shaft was left to become progressively derelict. In 1966
a proposal was made by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. to use the chamber to test
explosives. This never eventuated. Over time, the surface facilities were progressively
removed and the shaft sealed. Today, only a few remnants are left to bear witness to this
groundbreaking, if quixotic, chapter in Australia’s mining history.
Termination of the project in 1951 spelt the effective end to development of the Lakes
Entrance Oil Field for a period. Interest in the area has never completely disappeared
however, being resurrected from time to time.
Long-hole horizontal drilling from shafts into thin oil producing horizons never took on,
although a near relative of the concept is today being widely used to extract methane
18
from coal seams. The progressive development of technology allowing horizontal wells
to be drilled from the surface has today led to the position where this is the norm in the
oil patch.
Of the main players in the project, Leo Ranney failed to ever get his concept for
horizontal wells drilled from shafts generally excepted. Harold Raggatt was to become
the founding director of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics and
went on to have a distinguished career as the Head of the Commonwealth Department
of National Development. Charles Demaine, who had been the persistent champion of
the project, died in 1952, never to see his dream of a forest of oil shafts around Lakes
Entrance realised.
Acknowledgement
The author sincerely thanks Lakes Oil Ltd for their generous help in providing access to
the historic documents in their possession.
Endnotes
1
Geo Brown, ‘Gippsland East; Its Geology and Mining Development (including the Lakes Entrance Oil
Field), Mines Department Vic., Victorian Government Printer, 1936, p. 14.
2
Victorian Year Book, 1937-38, Victorian Government Printer, 1938, p. 504.
3
Harold Raggatt, ‘Oil Possibilities, Lakes Entrance Area, East Gippsland, Victoria’, Unpublished Report,
Commonwealth Department of Supply, August 1940, A659 1940/1/7428, National Archives of Australia
[hereafter NAA].
4
Victorian Year Book, 1937-38, Victorian Government Printer, 1938, p. 504.
5
Ibid.
6
Harold Raggatt, ‘Oil Possibilities, Lakes Entrance Area, East Gippsland, Victoria’, Unpublished Report,
Commonwealth Department of Supply, August 1940, A659 1940/1/7428, NAA.
7
Victorian Year Book, 1937-38, Victorian Government Printer, 1938, p. 504.
8
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 6 December 1938
9
Ibid, 24 February 1939
10
Harold Raggatt, ‘Oil Possibilities, Lakes Entrance Area, East Gippsland, Victoria’, Unpublished Report,
Commonwealth Department of Supply, August 1940, A659, 1940/1/7428, NAA.
11
See for example, Herbert Hoover and Lou Hoover (trans.), DE RE METALLICA, The Mining Magazine,
London, 1912.
12
A notable example of current activity is the extraction of oil from the Athabasca tar sands of western
Canada.
13
New York Times, 23 February 1880.
14
Ibid
15
See for example, articles throughout 1939 and 1940 in the Bairnsdale Advertiser; Records of debates in
Federal Parliament, 1939-40, Hansard; Representations by T. Paterson, 1939, MP99/3 88, NAA.
16
Memorandum for Federal Cabinet, 20 August 1941, CP12/3 23, NAA.
17
Ibid.
18
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 3 June 1941.
19
Leo Ranney, ‘Horizontal drilling through outcrop brings results’, The Oil and Gas Journal, 20 April,
1939; Ibid., ‘Drilling horizontal wells from a vertical shaft’, 23 January 1941; H. Schultheis, ‘Horizontal
drilling from bottom of shaft in Pennsylvania field’, The Oil and Gas Journal, 14 October, 1943.
20
Letter from Ranney to Australian Minister in Washington, 26 August 1941, A1145 M6/3, Part 1, NAA.
21
Memorandum for Federal Cabinet, 20 August 1941, CP12/3 23, NAA.
22
Ibid.
23
The Argus, 11 July 1941.
24
See for example, articles in the Bairnsdale Advertiser, July 1941.
25
Leo Ranney and Charles Fairbank, ‘Lakes Entrance Oil Field’, Report to Commonwealth Government,
July 1941, A659 1940/1/7428, NAA.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid.
28
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 5 August, 1941.
29
Letter by Demaine to Commonwealth Government, October 1941, A1145 M6/3, Part 1, NAA
19
30
Memorandum for Federal Cabinet, 17 November 1941, A2700 112, NAA
Ibid.
32
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 9 December 1941.
33
Ibid, 19 December 1941.
34
The Petroleum Times, 23 August 1941.
35
Articles of Association, Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL, 1936, VPRS 567, Unit P0001, File 825,
Public Records Office Victoria [hereafter PROV].
36
Minutes of general meeting of shareholders, Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL, 6 August 1941, VPRS
567, Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
37
Petroleum Mineral Lease Files, VPRS 6809, Unit P0001, PROV; Bairnsdale Advertiser, 23 January
1940; Minutes of general meeting of shareholders, Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL, 22 December 1941.
38
Representation by T. Paterson, 10 September 1941, A1145 M6/3, Part 1, NAA.
39
Letter from Demaine to Commonwealth Government, 30 January 1942, A1145 M6/3, Part 2, NAA.
40
Monthly reports of activities to Mines Department by Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate, January to June
1942, VPRS 567, Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
41
Letter to Austral from the Commonwealth Government, 14 May 1942, A432 1942/793, NAA.
42
Letter to Demaine from Newman, 3 September 1942, A1145 M6/25, NAA.
43
The Argus, 9 September 1942.
44
Ibid.
45
Annual report of Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL, 27 August 1942, VPRS 567 Unit P0001, File 825,
PROV.
46
Report by Snider Construction Company regarding status of surface facilities, 4 September 1942, A1145
M6/25, NAA.
47
Leo Ranney and Charles Fairbank, ‘Lakes Entrance Oil Field’, Report to Commonwealth Government,
July 1941, A659 1940/1/7428, NAA.
48
Letter from Victorian Mines Department to Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate, 13 June 1940, A1145 M6/3,
Part 2, NAA.
49
Letter from Raggatt to Commonwealth Government, 11 November 1941, A1145 M6/3, Part 2, NAA.
50
Record of communications between Commonwealth Government and Sir Walter Massey-Green for
Gold Mines of Australia, A1145 M6/3, Part 2, NAA.
51
Letter to Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate from Snider Construction Company, 5 November 1941, A1145
M6/3, Part 1, NAA.
52
Ibid.
53
Zinc Corporation was at the time constructing a circular concrete lined shaft at Broken Hill; Minutes of
the third meeting of the Lakes Entrance Departmental Executive Committee [Committee], 21 August
1942, A1145 M6/34, NAA
54
Minutes of the fifth meeting of the Committee, 6 October 1942, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
55
Ibid.
56
Ibid.
57
Telegram to Raggatt from Smith, A1145 M6/3, Part 2, NAA.
58
Minutes of Committee meeting, 2 December 1942, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
59
Personal recollections of Albert Clarke in Where God Never Trod, Rick Wilkinson, Christopher Beck
Books, Windsor Queensland, 1991, p. 96.
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid.
64
Minutes of Committee meeting, 4 March 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
65
Ibid.
66
Minutes of Committee meeting, 15 April 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
67
Ibid, 4 March 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
68
Ibid, 15 April 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA; P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes
Entrance Oil Shaft for testing explosives’, Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria
69
Minutes of Committee meeting, 4 March 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
70
P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes Entrance Oil Shaft for testing explosives’,
Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria.
71
Report by Cook to Committee re progress, 24 August 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
72
Ibid.
73
Ibid.
74
Minutes of Committee meeting, 17 November 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
31
20
75
‘Mines inspector’s report, Gippsland District’, Annual Report of the Victorian Mines Department,
Victorian Government Printer, 1943.
76
Minutes of Committee meeting, 20 January 1944, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
77
Ibid, 30 March 1944, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
78
Ibid.
79
P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes Entrance Oil Shaft for testing explosives’,
Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria.
80
‘Mines inspector’s report, Gippsland District’, Annual Report of the Victorian Mines Department,
Victorian Government Printer, 1944.
81
D.J. Binning, ‘In Search of Liquid Gold’, The Record, April 1949.
82
Minutes of Committee meeting, 13 July 1944, A1145 M6/34, NAA; Note Tubbing, is the name given to
a support system based on interlocking segments of cast iron lining.
83
Minutes of Committee meeting, 13 September 1944, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
84
Ibid.
85
Ibid.
86
Ibid.
87
‘Mines inspector’s report, Gippsland District’, Annual Report of the Victorian Mines Department,
Victorian Government Printer, 1944.
88
Ibid’; Minutes of Committee meeting, 29 November 1944, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
89
Ibid.
90
Letter to Committee from Snider Construction Company re procurement of engine drivers, 23 November
1944, A1145 M6/25, NAA.
91
Minutes of Committee meeting, 1 March 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
92
Ibid.
93
Ibid.
94
Ibid 27-28 June 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA
95
Ibid.
96
Ibid.
97
Report of technical sub-committee, 3 July 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
98
Minutes of Committee meeting, 28 August 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
99
Ibid.
100
Ibid, 24 October 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
101
Ibid.
102
Minutes of Committee meeting, 21 November 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
103
Results of initial monitoring trials, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
104
Minutes of Committee meeting, 26 January 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
105
Ibid, 1 March 1945, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
106
Diary of Cook’s visit to the USA, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA; Report by J Pemberton on the Lakes
Entrance Oil Project, 5 July 1945, with accompanying CV, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
107
Report by Cook on findings in the USA, 31 July 1945, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
108
Ibid.
109
Ibid.
110
Letter from Committee to Commonwealth Government with Cook’s findings, 31 July 1945, A1145
M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
111
Extract from draft report by Thyer and Noakes, ‘Drill Core from the Shaft Bore Lakes Entrance’, 16
October 1945, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
112
Letter from Raggatt to Department of Supply and Shipping, 17 October 1945, A1145 M6/37, Part 1,
NAA.
113
Federal Cabinet Minute, 7 November 1945, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
114
Letter from Victorian State Government to Department. of Supply and Development, 4 December
1945, A1145 M6/37, Part 1, NAA.
115
Minutes of meeting between Commonwealth and State Governments and Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate
NL, 15 January 1946, A1145 M6/37, Part 2, NAA.
116
Ibid.
117
Report by Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL to shareholders on the circumstances surrounding the
proposed transfer of the project, 9 April 1946, VPRS, 567 Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
118
Letter to Department of Supply and Development from Capital Issues Board, 7 March 1946, A1145
M6/37, Part 2, NAA.
119
Report by Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL to shareholders on the circumstances surrounding the
proposed transfer of the project, 9 April 1946, VPRS 567, Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
21
120
J.H. Curnow and Son, ‘Valuation of Machinery, Plant, Buildings and Equipment at the Oil Project
Lakes Entrance’ 30 January 1946, A1145 M6/31, NAA.
121
Report by Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL to shareholders on the circumstances surrounding the
proposed transfer of the project, 9 April 1946, VPRS 567, Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
122
Ibid.
123
Rick Wilkinson, ‘History of Lakes Oil NL’, Unpublished Document for Lakes Oil Ltd, Date Unknown.
124
Letter from Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL to Department of Supply and Shipping, 24 April 1946,
A1145 M6/37, Part 2, NAA.
125
Rick Wilkinson, ‘History of Lakes Oil NL’, Unpublished Document for Lakes Oil Ltd, Date Unknown.
126
Report by Austral Oil Drilling Syndicate NL to shareholders on the circumstances surrounding the
proposed transfer of the project, 9 April 1946, VPRS 567, Unit P0001, File 825, PROV.
127
Report by J. Laing to Committee, 2 September 1943, A1145 M6/34, NAA.
128
P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes Entrance Oil Shaft for testing explosives’,
Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria.
129
Minutes of Board Meetings, 12 February and 12 March 1947, Lakes Oil.
130
P.R. Kenley, ‘Notes on the proposed use of the Lakes Entrance Oil Shaft for testing explosives’,
Unpublished Report July 1966, Mines Department of Victoria.
131
Minutes of Board Meeting, 10 September1947, Lakes Oil.
132
Ibid, 11 June 1947, Lakes Oil.
133
Ibid.
134
ibid, 12 March 1947, Lakes Oil
135
ibid, 8 October 1947, Lakes Oil
136
‘Mines inspector’s report, Gippsland District’, Annual Report of the Victorian Mines Department,
Victorian Government Printer, 1947.
137
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 22 February 1949.
138
Minutes of Board Meeting, 6 December 1947, Lakes Oil. Minutes of Board Meeting,,14 January 1948,
Lakes Oil.
139
Annual report of Lakes Oil Ltd., 10 December 1947, Lakes Oil.
140
Ibid.
141
Ibid.
142
Ibid.
143
Ibid.
144
Ibid.
145
Minutes of Board Meeting, 6 December 1947, Lakes Oil.
146
Ibid, 19 May 1948, Lakes Oil.
147
Ibid, 14 July 1948, Lakes Oil; ibid., 11 August 1948.
148
Ibid.
149
Ibid.
150
Ibid.
151
Ibid, 11 September 1948, Lakes Oil.
152
Ibid, 6 October 1948, Lakes Oil.
153
Annual report of Lakes Oil Ltd., 15 December 1948, Lakes Oil.
154
Ibid.
155
Ibid.
156
Ibid.
157
The Age, 22 February, 1949.
158
Ibid.
159
Ibid.
160
Rick Wilkinson, ‘History of Lakes Oil NL’, Unpublished Document for Lakes Oil Ltd, Date Unknown.
161
Bairnsdale Advertiser, 18 February, 1949.
162
The Petroleum Times, 25 March, 1949.
163
The Whipstock was a wedging mechanism that could be inserted into boreholes to deflect a drill string
from its previous trajectory.
164
Minutes of Board Meeting, 17 September 1949, Lakes Oil.
165
Ibid.
166
Annual report of Lakes Oil Ltd., 14 December 1949, Lakes Oil.
167
ibid., 20 December 1950, Lakes Oil.
168
Ibid.
169
Ibid.
22
170
‘Report on the Advisability of a Grant to Lakes Oil Ltd.’ Unpublished Report, 1951/33, Mines
Department of Victoria, 1951.
171
Rick Wilkinson, ‘History of Lakes Oil NL’, Unpublished Document for Lakes Oil Ltd, Date Unknown.
172
Annual Report of the Victorian Mines Department, Victorian Government Printer, 1951.
173
Rick Wilkinson, ‘History of Lakes Oil NL’, Unpublished Document for Lakes Oil Ltd, Date Unknown.
174
Annual report of Lakes Oil Ltd., 19 December 1951, Lakes Oil.
175
Ibid.
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
The First 125 Years of the Thames School of Mines
John Isdale
New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Thames
Introduction
The Thames School of Mines, initiated by the Government to improve mining and increase
revenue, and opening on “the Thames” in the late 19th century, was one of over thirty such
educational institutions in New Zealand.
This presentation explores:
•
The growth of this institution from 1886, the addition of specialized buildings to meet
various needs, its success in developing better extraction processes and the training of
people to utilise this technology.
•
The adoptions to the curriculum that were successful enough to see the School
continue for another 40 years, rather than close at the end of effective mining in
Thames in 1914.
•
The survival of this unique complex, achieved with the help of Australian and
Canadian mining companies and the work of A.M & J.A Isdale.
•
Some of the people who worked in, for, against or benefited from, the School,
including such figures as; Dr Black the Founding father and Hugh Crawford the last
Director.
Today the School Buildings, including its unique 110 year old Mineral Museum, are one of
fifteen manned Heritage Destination sites owned and operated by the New Zealand Historic
Places Trust.
I am John Isdale, through my mother (Joyce Anderson Isdale nee Kerr) and father (Alistair
Murray Isdale), my association with the Thames School of Mines dates from the mid-1950s. I
now follow in their footsteps, running the Thames School of Mines Mineral Museum and am
currently (2010) employed by New Zealand Historic Places Trust as the Property Manager
for the School of Mines complex.
History of the School of Mines
In 1885 a School of Mines started in Thames (slide 1 of presentation). The following year,
(1886), it moved into the1869-70 Sunday school building where it is housed to this day. With
these notes and the accompanying presentation, I am going to take you from the preliminaries
and establishment in 1885, through the halcyon days around the turn of the 19th Century to
the School’s present status as a premier Heritage Destination (slide 2).
Thames is situated at the base of Te tara, the barb of te ika a Maui, the fish of Maui (slide 3).
The barb Coromandel Peninsula is the smaller of two peninsulas that point north from New
Zealand’s North Island. Note the closeness of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, to the
west and easy access by sea.
On a map of the Coromandel Peninsula (Hauraki goldfields area) we see (slide 4):
•
Waihi, the largest goldfield in the Hauraki area (bottom right) (SE)
•
Whitianga, Maori and European landing site (middle right) (E)
•
Coromandel, New Zealand’s first goldfield 1852 (top left) (N)
•
Firth of Thames extends down from Coromandel to Thames (W)
•
The Waihou River extends south to isolate Thames from land access from the west
(S)
•
The town of Thames (slide 5) is hemmed in by hills to the north and east, while in the
South is the Kauaeranga River and to the West is “tikapa te moana”, the shallow Firth
of Thames.
Early Polynesians and later Captain James Cook made landfall at Whitianga (slide 6), then
proceeded around the tip of the Peninsula to investigate the Firth. Tainui Cove north of
Thames by the Tainui canoe and the ‘River Thames’ to the south by boats from Cook’s
Endeavour
The area around Tararu (slide 7) just north of Thames was an important area in pre-European
and later Maori history. The hill pa (fortress) of Totara (slide 8), south of Thames,
successfully defended for two years before, was sacked by Hongi in 1821. Local Maoris
occupied Kauaeranga Pa on their return in the 1830s.
In 1867 with the opening of the Thames goldfield (slide 9), Auckland’s problem of loss of
population to Australia was solved. By 1868, the small original area negotiated between
James Mackay and three Maori landowners had grown, and more gold strikes had been made
(slide 10). 1871 saw the greatest bonanza on the Thames (slide 11). “The Caledonian” Mine
with its fabulous ore was on the richest part of an altered andesitic structure. Ore purity
reached a staggering 80%. It is recorded that one shot assayed 12,500 ounces to the ton - at a
time when one ounce to the ton was payable.
In the previous year (1870), not only was the Ballarat School of Mines founded in Australia,
but also a Mechanics Institute on the Thames, partly to educate miners. Five years later the
Ohinemuri area, which includes Waihi, was opened to gold mining (slide 12).And two years
later the first School of Mines in New Zealand, was established at Otago University in 1877.
On a miner’s geological map (slide 13) we can see:
The white 1st period andesitic areas shown on the map contain the richest deposits in
the Hauraki Goldfield. One of the small white areas at Waihi contains the Martha
Mine.
However, in the 1880s, there was a problem (slide 14). The deeper delving mines in the
Thames area encountered base metals with less gold, as was the case for finds in the
Ohinemuri area. The latter finds were to produce the most gold in Hauraki, as well as a great
amount of silver. Not only was there a problem extracting gold from the refractory/complex
ore (slide 15, shown on the right), but the returns from the free gold were not satisfactory for
the Government who were getting a royalty on the gold, sold through the Reserve Bank, even
if they were economic for the owners .
This led to Larnach, the first Minister of Mines, to send Professor J. Black on the road to
establish Schools of Mines (slide 16). These schools were expected to introduce and improve
technology, upskill the miners, and thereby increase the returns to Her Majesty’s
Government. Black’s road show reached Thames in November 1885, a Thames that was in
decline with only 41 hotels left open. With a crew that included “Wullie” Goodlight and
Alexander Montgomery, Black put on a show that resulted not only in a wildly enthusiastic
and favourable reaction, but immediate effective action by locals and other interested parties
to set up a School of Mines.
Locals involved, included Albert Bruce (subsequently Secretary of the School for nearly 40
years), industrialists such as the Price brothers, and officials such as, the Harbourmaster.
There were soon over 400 paid up members from all over Hauraki for the new School of
Mines. Through some skilful lobbying, Montgomery was detached from the road show to
establish the new Thames School of Mines and become its first Director (slide 17). He
developed a comprehensive syllabus while continuing lectures in assaying and mining until
temporary premises for the School were established in the Gresham Hall, Grahamstown in
1886. The search was on for a permanent home.
The site eventually selected was to the immediate north of Te Rakoanite Pa (slide 18). This
site, as well as the Kauaeranga Pa further south, at the mouth of the river of the same name, is
associated with the return in the 1830s to Hauraki of the Maratuahu people in force. The site
included the urapa, resting place, of Aparangi and the burial ground for the pa. A Wesleyan
Church and Sunday school had been established here in 1869 (slide 19) and included an old
Maori burial site. The Maori giftees of the land saw this church usage as adding mana
(kudos) to their burial ground.
The Wesleyans however, had built too many churches (slide 20) for the declining 1870s
population of Thames and with the move to State education in 1877 they looked seriously at
selling the land for a new primary school. The Maori giftees were upset and petitioned
Parliament, causing the Wesleyans to withdraw from the proposed sale. By 1885 however the
Wesleyans had organized the removal of the church building to consolidate their operations
at a Pollen Street site. The Thames School of Mines governing body negotiated the takeover
in 1886 of the site, including the Sunday school building, which remained. The Maori giftees
were remunerated, tapus were lifted, the consecration on the burial ground removed, and the
deed of gift amended to allow use for purely educational purposes.
In the same year, the first of many additions to the original Sunday school, a furnace room,
was added (slide 21). The Sunday school was suitably re-labelled (slide 22, the chimney of
the furnace room is just above the second gabled vent on the roof). The inside was remodelled (slide 23) in accordance with Montgomery’s plan on a layout based on the Ballarat
School of Mines (via Otago). “The Thames” goldfield now had a specialized School of Mines
in the heart of the gold mining area, with easy access for students from the mines close by
(slide 24).
In 1888 the biggest single addition to the School was made; the Battery Room or
Experimental Plant (slide 25). This had three functions:
•
To experiment with methods of extracting gold,
•
To teach modern methods of extracting gold, and
•
To produce test parcels of ore to find the most economic extraction method for any
particular ore.
During its working life, this battery room was internally reconstructed several times (slide
26), with different and often experimental plants. These included the standard mercury
amalgamation process, the world leading cyanide process and of course Professor Black’s
patented permanganate process.
With Montgomery’s move to even greater heights in the mining industry beyond Thames,
James Park became the second Director (slide 27). Among Park’s many talents was his work
in defining the geology of the Thames goldfield (slide 28) and floating the never proven
theory of repetition of gold rich mineralization at 2000 ft. With an expanding student roll,
Park and the TSM Council added a new classroom and a library (slide 29) which also served
as the Council’s board room.
Arguably Park’s, and hence the School’s, most important work was in the adaptation of the
cyanide process to local conditions (slide 31). This was critical in making the largest mine in
the Hauraki Goldfields, the Martha, truly economic and a driver of New Zealand’s economy
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Carrying on the good work after Park moved on was his former assistant, F.B. Allen (slide
31) another M.A. scholar. The School continued to turn out men trained in the operation of
the revolutionary cyanide plants as well as other aspects of mining. Allen was notable for his
expansion of the assaying facilities and experimental plant, both providing revenue for the
School (slides 32 & 33), as well as construction of the Mineralogical Museum (slides 34 &
35). The title ‘public’ for the Assay room referred to the group who could bring in samples
for analysis. The museum, opened in 1901, provided students and members of the School
with an unrivalled mineralogical collection and was open to the public once a week.
The collection, started by the Mechanic’s Institute in 1870, focuses on but is not restricted to,
local geology as it pertains to gold mining (slide 36). One of the aims of the collection was to
help students identify those ores that had good value. Specimens also include a good
selection from overseas.
While the onsite activities were almost wholly confined to studies, the School did take part in
other activities. A photo of the School rugby team (slide 37) includes “Toss” Hammond
MBE, one of the first pupils and later a local historian of considerable note.
In spite of presiding over the School from 1902 to 1906 during the last bonanza on the
Thames Goldfield, Gore Adams (slide 38) had a very turbulent time as Director. His
preoccupation with matters outside the School caused considerable friction, particularly with
the Governing Council.
In 1902 while waiting for the electrical generation room to be built, some very practical
teaching took place when the School was wired for electric light (slide 39). The electrical
instructor, Holloway Wright, was also active in the X-ray field. Mining towns and Schools of
Mines were at the leading edge of technological advancement in an age of huge
developments. His involvement with X-rays included helping the Thames Hospital with this
wonderful new technology. Although he survived the long trip back to Britain, the effects of
radiation saw him undergo a series of amputations, starting at the hands; treatments which
were ultimately of no avail.
“King Dick” Seddon, Prime Minister until 1906, and his Minister of Mines, Cadman (slide
40), provided a supportive environment for mining but not always for Schools of Mines.
Changes in legislation saw mine managers who were trained in Schools of Mines no longer a
necessity in mining. Many of the men trained at the Thames School of Mines (TSM), reached
the top of their chosen professions, not just in New Zealand but all over the world. Mr M.
Paul, Mine Inspector (slide 41), was but one of the successful alumni of TSM. For the
training of mine managers, who at one time had to demonstrate both practical and academic
skills, the proximity of TSM to local mines was a huge advantage. This had led it at one stage
to become the largest School of Mines in the country. But all was not always smooth sailing.
In this pre-Occupational Health and Safety era, safety could be a concern and at one stage
insurance problems stopped the placement of students in local mines (slide 42).
In 1906, ex-pupil and scholarship winner W.H. Baker succeeded Gore Adams as Director.
His 17 years directorship saw the broadening of the curriculum. The Electrical Room (slide
43) was used for the training of electricians, demand for which had increased after the
Thames Borough went electric in 1914. His tenure also saw the introduction of milk testing
as a money-making venture for the School to add to the mine related assaying. The School
was, even after the effective closure of The Thames in 1914, busy with involvement in the
continuing saga of coping with the base metal laden refractory ores in the area (slide 44).
In 1923 the retirement of Albert Bruce (slide 45), Secretary of TSM since its inception, saw
the end of an era. The election to the Council of members of the Judd family, prominent
Thames foundry owners, also signalled a change. The same year saw the appointment of the
last Director to TSM, Hugh Crawford (slide 46), the second Otago School of Mines
associate.
Crawford’s tenure was, arguably more successful than that of Gore Adams, the first Otago
associate. Crawford was able to keep the School open until 1954. His busiest period was
during the Great Depression when he was in charge of over 400 men, including 16 overseers,
doing relief work (slide 47). The garages he added to the School were to support this work.
Maintenance however, was an ongoing problem: with the buildings, although still sound,
showing their age (slide 48).
By 1949 the Council was in disarray, with a totally dysfunctional relationship with the Mines
Department. In 1952 the last large mine in the Hauraki area, the Martha, closed. Two years
later when Crawford reached retirement age, the School closed for business and the
governing body proceeded to sell off some of the assets, the money going into a ‘Realization
Fund’. Other assets left the unlocked buildings of their own accord. In 1955, with his
Chamber of Commerce colleagues Davies, Donkin and Gwynne, Alistair Isdale (slide 49)
began a fight to save the School of Mines buildings from demolition. After 1954 the
buildings were much deteriorated (slide 50).
It is recorded that long-time Thames Mayor, Syd Ensor, favoured bulldozing the buildings
and later Councillor Colvin Robertson saw the destruction of the buildings and replacement
with pensioner housing as the only option.
By 1958 Thames Borough Council was in control of the buildings and the Museum (slide 51)
was opened to the public and tour groups. Alistair Isdale was joined by his wife Joyce (slide
52) in running the Museum and keeping the School from demolition. Late in 1959 the
Thames Borough Council fire proofed the Museum for which much of the money apparently
came from the Realization Fund. A collection of kauri gum in that era reflects the 1898 Mine
Report where kauri gum was treated as a mineral (slide 53).
The saviour of the School buildings came in the form of a Canadian mining company, South
Pacific (slide 54). They took over the School buildings except the Museum, setting up
drafting and assaying facilities and using the Battery Room. An example of South Pacific’s
draftsman’s work now has pride of place in the Museum (slide 55). The company used the
buildings as a base for prospecting. Where once the School had worked with Dr. Scheidel on
the Sylvia ores, working parties from the School now re-assessed those same refractory ores
at the Sylvia mine up the nearby Tararu Creek (slide 56). A photograph during this era taken
at the entrance to the Sylvia Mine (slide 57) shows my late father, A.M. Isdale, the Chairman
of the Thames County Council, the late Lance Fallon (mine manager and later mine
inspector), geologist Don Watson (author of “Rocks in my Head”) and Company Director Alf
Allen, who worked with Dr. Art Pentland, both from British Columbia.
In 1971 Ian Grant of the Australian mining company Central Pacific also came to the
buildings’ rescue, just seven days before a scheduled demolition day (slide 58). This
company also used the buildings as a base for prospecting activities in the area. Although the
mining companies did undertake maintenance of the School buildings, the Museum was left
largely untouched after the 1959 re-cladding (slide 59). It effectively became the town
Museum in the 1960s and early 1970s (slide 60), with exhibits that included a Second World
War electrical generator produced for the use of the French Resistance.
In 1976 the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) became directly involved in the
preservation of the buildings, providing $3,100 to save the Battery Room (slide 61). The side
gate facing east gave access for deliveries of fuel to the public assay room and the furnace
room beyond (slide 62). This was a feature in both the School and mining company eras. In
1979 the NZHPT (slide 63) purchased the buildings from the local body. Those involved
included from NZHPT chair John Daniels and John Stackpole, and locals Alistair Isdale and
David Arbury, the latter working for the Australian mining company.
Two years later, in 1981, the buildings were flooded and in 1983 the sprinkler system was
installed for the princely sum of $21,000. An audit of the collection and buildings was
produced in 1985 (slide 64). The audit included assessment and recording of most of the
collection (slide 65). The Trust employed quite a range of workers in this task (slide 66). At
this stage a local branch committee was very active in a management role (slide 67). After
the 1985 audit report, a series of further reports and plans was produced. As the buildings
were now in good heart (slide 68) and visitor numbers to the Museum at a good level, local
management was eventually disbanded as the result of one of a series of re-organizations.
These re-organizations included responsibility for NZHPT moving from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs to the Department of Conservation, and subsequently to the Ministry of
Culture and Heritage (2010).
Alistair Isdale was still active at the end of the 20th Century, albeit as a volunteer. He was
often seen around Thames with his famous pink helmet and bicycle (slide 69). At the start of
the 21st Century the Trust employed John Isdale as Curator, later bringing in extra staff and
re-organizing how the heritage buildings owned by the Trust were to be managed.
One of the innovations under this new system was to involve local schools in ‘Heritage
through Art’ (slide 70). The laboratory/classroom /drawing room became a heritage paintmaking and painting workshop for Thames’ annual Heritage Week (slide 71). Our heritage,
as seen by local teachers, covers a very wide spectrum (slide 72), not just the old buildings
(slide 73): Invariably children paint what they can see, and the many heritage buildings to be
found in Thames feature prominently (slide 74).
Today the Thames School of Mines and Mineralogical Museum (slide 75) is one of five
Thames heritage tourist attractions, working together for tourists visiting the town. As well as
the unique mineral collection in New Zealand‘s best 100 year old Museum, a feature of any
visit is a tour through the 19th Century School of Mines buildings (slides 76 & 77).
Bibliography
Clarke, E., 1868: The Thames Miners Guide. W.C. Wilson, Auckland.
Downey, J.F., 1935: Gold Mines of The Hauraki District NZ. Government Print, Wellington.
Dreadon, R., 1966: Bull's Battery. Self-published, Auckland.
Hayes, R.B.(ed.), 1968: Thames the First 100 years. Thames Star, Thames.
Isdale, A.M., 1990: History of "The River Thames" N.Z. Reprint of 1967 edition with
additions, J. Round & Son, Thames.
Isdale, A.M., 1988: Thames Mining 1867-1919, an annualized review. MS, Thames.
Isdale, A.M., 1985: Gold. MS, Thames.
Moore, P. & Ritchie, N., 1996: Coromandel Gold. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North.
Nolan, T., 1977: Historic Gold Trails of the Coromandel. Reed, Wellington.
New Zealand Historic Places Trust, 2001: Thames School of Mines Historical Research
Report Part II. (Reprint of 1985?), New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Wellington.
New Zealand Historic Places Trust, 2006: Thames School of Mines Draft Conservation
Report. New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Wellington.
New Zealand Historic Places Trust, 2009: Thames School of Mines Draft Conservation
Report. New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Wellington.
O'Neil, L.P. (ed.), 1973: Thames Borough Centennial. Thames Star, Thames.
Salmon, J.H.M, 1963: A History of Gold-Mining in New Zealand. Government Print,
Wellington.
Stott, B., 1983: Prices of Thames. Southern Press, Wellington.
Vennell, C.W., 1968: Men of Metal. Wilson & Horton, Auckland.
Weston, F.W., 1927: Thames Goldfields .A History from Pre-Proclamation Times to 1927,
(Diamond Jubilee Souvenir). Thames Star, Thames.
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
How Times Have Changed
Doreen McLeod
Gold Story Manager, Newmont Waihi Gold P O Box 190, Waihi
[email protected]
Abstract
Following the discovery of gold in Waihi in 1878 the Martha mine was developed. Waihi is
distinctive with the Martha mine situated in the heart of the town. It closed in 1952 after
producing 175 tonnes of gold and 1,200 tonnes of silver.
In the six generations since the first miners arrived in Waihi the town has seen the closure
of the original underground Martha mine; its reopening as an open pit operation in 1988,
and the return of underground mining at Favona, which is situated close to the existing
processing site.
This presentation uses material obtained from interviews conducted by Newmont Waihi
Gold’s Oral History project. Initiation activities, mining techniques, handling of explosives
and transporting of gold are among the topics described.
Key words: Newmont, Martha gold mine, history, development of Waihi, oral history project,
anecdotes.
Introduction
Following the discovery of Gold in Waihi in 1878 the Martha mine situated in the Hauraki
Goldfields in New Zealand’s North Island was developed. With the growth of the mine and
the infrastructure to support the industry the town of Waihi grew to a population 6,500 in
1911. Waihi not only possessed the most productive gold mine in New Zealand but was the
largest gold mining town in the country.
The extracts from the interviews used in this presentation are from Newmont Waihi Gold’s
Oral History Project. Since 2005 Newmont has recorded 66 interviews from all sectors of
the community aged between nine and ninety. These first hand accounts capture something
of the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary, lives of people. It has proved to be a valuable
tool to record past and present mining practices giving a voice to the people who are often
left out of historical records. This presentation gives some insight into the role gold mining
played in the development of the region and its continued importance today.
As these extracts show, the Waihi miner was a tough, self-reliant, hard working,
enterprising, man whose skills were often underrated. The work was dangerous but there
was great camaraderie amongst the workers.
It has been a privilege to interview these men and I have the greatest respect and admiration
for those who pioneered and worked in the industry during those times.
How Times Have Changed
Gold mining in Waihi in the first half of last century was far different to the industry we
know today.
Dave Hartwell was asked what he disliked the most about working as an underground
miner. As it turns out, it had nothing to do with working underground; in fact he had barely
begun his new job.
When I first went into the fitting shop they’d initiate every young fella, he’s got to be
initiated into the group you see, and they caught me. I knew it was going to happen
but I didn’t know when. It was day shift, they got this grease, tar and stuff and they
greased me. Pulled my trousers down, they greased me. All my private parts, and
they rub it in hard, you know. It doesn’t matter; you don’t wear white underpants
for weeks after because it comes out in your clothing. That was about the worst. At
the time I split a bloke’s head open with a lump of wood over that. They grabbed
me, I knew what the story was but I couldn’t get away. I scooped up this piece of
timber that was lying there as he came towards me and let fly, I bowled him. There
was about six other jokers grabbed me and I was down and done.
Gordon Davidson was a fireman – a stoker – on the rake train that hauled ore from Waihi’s
Martha Gold mine to the Victoria battery Waikino, the site of the largest quartz crushing
plant in Australasia. He remembers the same initiation.
Especially in the fitting shop, you’d get your beans there. They’d take your pants off
and cover all your private parts with grease. They were hard nuts - would send you
up the road for a bucket of blast, bucket of air, bucket of blast, all that sort of thing.
There were other pranks being played too, some quite ingenious – unless you were a
hungry miner looking forward to your crib at lunchtime.
There was a fella up there, George Basford, he was a big man too, he always took a
big cake tin to work, he used to love mutton birds and all those sort of things. He
always had a habit in the plumber’s shop. He would put the cake tin down and put
his coat over it then go back to the carpenter’s / fitter’s shop to order what he
wanted. The boys in the plumber’s shop soldered the lid on the cake tin and threw
his coat back over again. George came back got his coat and tin and went back
underground. They all came back up about 4.00 o’clock and funnily enough you
couldn‘t find any of the boys in the plumber‘s shop after about half-past three for
about two days and you can just imagine what George said.
Nuki Tukaki was three years old when his family came to live in Waihi and it’s been his
home ever since. Nuki is kaumatua at Waihi Community Marae and a respected tribal elder.
He has had a close association with Martha Mine that continues to this day. He has a vivid
memory of his first day underground.
I was told that on Monday morning, I should be down by Number 4 shaft and I’d
get my working orders from there. I did that and I was on time I travelled down in
the cage to level number 11. I was shaking in my boots. That was an adventure for
me at the time. But I was still shaking in my boots because it was very strange for
me to go past all of these levels underground. I worked there for about three months
I think. I remember that while I was there, there was a bloke working in the shaft
who was the chamber man. I wanted to have a try at his job – pulling trucks into the
shaft and sending them away to the surface. As one goes to the surface, an empty
one comes up the other side. Number 7 shaft was a beautiful shaft because it wasn’t
like number 4. You got a rough ride all the way down and a mighty rough ride up
again especially at Devil’s Elbow where you get squeezed through one bit and then
get shot up. It gives you a funny feeling in your gut. But Number 7 shaft was
beautiful. The lifts were like those in Auckland now. And I got the job as the
chamber man. We moved around to different levels. It was dry working in number 7
shaft, but there was water on certain levels.
The regulations regarding explosives were less stringent than they are today. Even less
stringent than the regulations, were the methods devised by some miners faced with the
physical practicalities of working underground.
Bill Lawrence explains an ingenious, if dangerous, method of carrying gelignite, fuse wire
and a candle up a ladder to a stope.
When you were stoping, some of it almost vertical with water trickling down, you‘d
want to be crossed with an octopus if you were carrying out the law under the
mining act. You were supposed to have one can with gele in it, the other with
detonators that had to be kept separate. You climbed the ladder and you were
supposed to hang on to your lights. The ladders were quite often vertical, it was
quite a problem. So what we used to do was stuff our shirts with gele and put the
detonators around our heads, hang on and climb the ladder with one hand and
they’d be holding their light in their other hand.
Once at the face, dangerous practices continued. Dave Hartwell recollects a quick way of
crimping the fuse wire and detonator.
He was a hard case old George Walsh. When he loaded up the shot at the face
before he put the one down with the detonator – the plug of gele with the detonator
in it – he put the detonator on the end of the fuse and put the detonator in his mouth
and bites the cap onto the fuse instead of using the crimpers which you were
supposed to do. I said to him one day, ‘George one day you‘re going to make a
mistake mate and that‘s going to go off’. And he said ‘Well I won‘t know much
about it’. That was his answer, he was a real character.
Dave also has vivid memories of miners using explosives in other unauthorised ways –
with much more violent results.
There was another joker there - he blew his thumb off with a detonator. Hard luck.
Bit of tape, wrapped the detonator around his thumb, tied it to his thumb, short
piece of fuse, lit the fuse, held his thumb out here – boom – gone. This was how it
was done. I saw it done once. There was another fella who decided he’d take his
thumb off with a detonator because he reckoned it wouldn’t hurt that way – not like
chopping it off. He put a little bit of gelignite around the detonator and he wound up
and took the hand clean off. There was a big inquiry into that because so much
compensation come out of it.
Although mining was completed in 1952, the final gold pour was not until October 1953.
Ernie Thomson poured the last gold from the original Martha Mine. Prior to this he also
transported the gold to Auckland. He remembers one shipment in particular.
And then we’d load it, at five o’clock in the morning this used to be and those bars
of gold, boy they were cold. We’d stack them in this big box, big padlock, tie it on.
Revolver in the pocket, get in the ‘bus’. This time George Pennell and I were going.
It was only a two seater truck and I said ’Bugger this - I’m not sitting on the back
here with this box in this cold’ so I got in and got in between them. Unbeknownst to
me I was sitting on the arm of the hoist. We got half way along Kenny Street where
the railway line went across the road, not far from the Police station. All of a
sudden there was this thump. Here’s the hoist up in the air and this big box slid off
and dug straight down in the road, and it had this big L–shaped square in the tar
seal for ages and ages and ages. We had to undo the box, take all the bars out, stack
them on the truck. We struggled, the cop was there, and there were four of us. Took
four of us all that time to get this metal box up on to the boot, up onto the level of
the truck. Then we had to get up there and stack them all back in the damned box.
So then we went, I sat on the back of the truck and the cop, I forget who the cop
was, he sat on the back of the truck with me all the way through to Paeroa, five or
six o’clock in the morning, cold as hell.
Later, the gold bars were transported from Waihi to Auckland by Road Services bus, with a
stop on the way at a café for morning tea.
George Chappell and I used to take the gold to Auckland. The taxi would come in
the morning, half past seven I think it was. We‘d get the two bars of gold, put it in
the taxi in the boot, get into the taxi go to the bus depot, out we‘d get. We‘d take a
bar box each, it would take you all your time to carry one box. We’d put it
underneath the seat at the back of the bus and we‘d sit there. When we got to the
half way house we used to have a cup of tea – well one of us would go and get the
other a cup of tea. Then away to Auckland. We’d go the depot in Auckland, let all
the passengers out and then the bus would take us around to Cook Street to the
bank and then we‘d take these bars. They would come out with the little trolleys, the
little bank boys put one on each trolley. Into the lift, down into the vault into the
safe in the big room with the bullion and the gold and then you had to sign this
sheet and the sheet always said ‘supposed to contain’ so many ounces of gold. So
then we‘d go home, we‘d go up town and catch the three o‘clock bus back. Used to
get enough for our lunch. They’d give us lunch money so we just had to wander
Queen Street in those days for that.
Nuki remembers coming off shift and heading for the Sterling Hotel located just down the
hill from the mine.
Payday was my favourite time. The Sterling Hotel was where all the miners drank.
We’d get around and talk to all the old guys before six o’clock closing. Someone
would suggest a two-up game somewhere and we’d all congregate there out of the
public eye.
The Sterling Hotel is a miner’s pub. The barman knows people very well. He would
know when some miners were coming in so he’d tell others to move out of their
usual spot – take notice of that or be roughed up. Everyone had their own pubs,
their own places and things.
Homer Stubbs discovered that not all of the gold made it to Auckland for shipment
overseas.
My first reaction was, ‘Oh, somebody has buried some lead’, because it looked like
little ingots of lead, grey, fairly soft. So I took one to Owen Morgan and he assayed
them. He said this is bullion. There were nine, I think, all told. We put them in a
plastic bag and tossed them under the water heater for a while. Bev said we’ll put
them away for a rainy day. It was about a year later the rainy day arrived. We got a
big income tax bill. So sadly they went towards paying the income tax bill.
The first question that obviously has to be asked is how would nine bars of bullion end up
in a back garden at Waikino?
A man lived here in 1900, a Mr. Smith, he worked at the battery and he devised a
way of getting the bullion. Apparently the pipes carrying the bullion ran underneath
the dressing shed or changing room and somehow he must have got underneath
there and drilled a hole or two in the pipes and plugged them. When he came to
work he used to place his lunch billy under the hole and pull the plug and during
the day it dripped into his lunch billy. He had a set up here in the old wash house
where he had a copper and we wondered why this copper looked as if it had had a
lot of heat applied to it. This is where he actually processed it.
The next question then, is how would someone process the slimes tapped from the system?
With mercury – as Homer was later to find out while digging in another part of the garden.
We dug up this steel canister about so big. A little round canister and it was full of
mercury. So this was Mr. Smith‘s little stash. Well until we found out about it we
used to play with it, roll it round fascinating stuff… highly toxic.
In his unpublished Memories of Waikino John Bacon recalls the same incident and I quote:
The story is told of one enterprising employee in past years who tapped into a rich
solution pipeline and profited illegally by feeding solution into his own small zinc
box, which was well hidden of course. Legend has it that when this man was
released from jail he was approached by Mr Jack Banks (battery superintendent
until 1942), who asked him how much gold he had stolen. His reply was along the
lines of you tell me how much you got out of the company Mr Banks, then I will tell
you what you want to know.
You may think you can’t get much closer to the gold recovery process than digging up gold
bars and canisters of mercury in your back garden. Gordon Davidson would prove you
wrong as he recalls slipping into the Vacuum Washing Plant at the Victoria Battery in
Waikino.
I was the one that went in to the wash tank in the VWP. I came around, stood there,
they put the stand up and lowered the thing down and went to get the other stand.
With gumboots and the wood was that slippery, my feet went from under me and I
went straight into the tank. It was big, about the size of this room - where the big
baskets used to be. It was a weak solution of cyanide. I went down, had a wash
under cold water, came back, finished my shift and went home.
Private parts covered in axle grease, explosive practices underground, gold bars scattered in
the street, and bullion bars dug up in a vegetable patch at Waikino, slipping into the
Vacuum Washing Plant tank containing a mild solution of cyanide and misuse of
explosives these are just some of the stories uncovered by the Newmont Waihi Gold Oral
History Project. Stories that remind us of How Times Have Changed
Processing gold-bearing quartz ore in the early 20th
century: an illustrated case history from the Snowy
River battery, Waiuta, New Zealand
Simon Nathan1 and Les Wright2
1
2
GNS Science, P.O. Box 30-368, Lower Hutt ([email protected])
P.O. Box 5, Punakaiki, RD1, Runanga 7873 ([email protected])
Abstract
The Snowy River battery, at Waiuta, New Zealand, processed gold-bearing quartz ore from the nearby
Blackwater mine between 1908-38. Incorporating the latest technology when built in 1908, it was a typical
stamper battery from the early 20th century. This case study is illustrated by a sequence of photographs taken by
miner Joseph Divis in early 1931.
Introduction
Gold-bearing quartz reefs have been the source of much of the gold recovered throughout the
world from Roman times until the mid twentieth century. By about 1900 the processing of
quartz ore had become standardised, consisting of several steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Crushing to release the gold (and any other minerals);
Capture of free gold on mercury-coated copper plates;
Physical concentration of gold and other heavy minerals not captured in step 2;
Cyanide treatment to dissolve gold, then re-precipitation by reaction with zinc;
Smelting of gold bullion
The Snowy River Battery was regarded as a modern plant when it was constructed in 1908 to
process quartz ore from the nearby Blackwater Mine at Waiuta, New Zealand (Fig 1). With
minor modifications, it continued to process ore until it was replaced by a new plant at the
Prohibition shaft in 1938.
The equipment and sequence of operations at the Snowy River battery have been documented
by Wright (2007), based on historic records and interviews with those associated with the
battery. This is supplemented by a sequence of images taken in early 1931 by photographer
Joseph Divis for use in the Auckland Weekly News (Nathan 2010). Only a few of the images
were published, but the whole set provides a unique graphic record of the way that goldquartz ore was processed in a stamper battery in the early part of the twentieth century.
The photographs were taken when the battery was idle, possibly during the 1930-31
Christmas break. The same people occur in many of the photographs: Jack McEwin (battery
manager) and his sons Andrew and Ian; Frankie Orr (assistant battery manager); Ted Allen
(assayer); and Joseph Divis, dressed in a distinctive outfit that locals called his ‘safari suit’.
Most of the original glass plate negatives taken by Divis are now held in the Alexander
Turnbull Library, Wellington (ATL) and the Hocken Library, Dunedin (HL). The negatives of
a few images could not be found, and these have been copied from the Auckland Weekly News
and other sources. Unless stated otherwise, photographs were taken by Joseph Divis.
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 1
Figure 1. Location map of
Waiuta, showing the
relative positions of the
Blackwater and Prohibition
shafts as well as the
Snowy River battery.
Mine and battery, 1908-38
Blackwater mine
After a gold-bearing quartz reef was discovered in a tributary of the Snowy River in 1905, the
London-based mining company, Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand, acquired mining
rights to the reef, and set up a subsidiary, Blackwater Mines Ltd, to work it. Sinking of the
Blackwater shaft started in 1907 as well as the construction of a battery and processing plant
in the Snowy River valley, 900 metres away.
The Blackwater reef was a remarkably regular and persistent, steeply-dipping quartz lode,
progressively mined downwards to a depth of 750 metres below the surface outcrop over 44
years. It averaged only 0.6 metres in width, although ranging from only a few centimetres up
to 4 metres wide. The ore was pale bluish-grey streaky quartz, containing minor sulphides
(mainly pyrite and arsenopyrite) and finely disseminated free gold (Williams 1964, pp 3031).
The light-coloured quartz contrasted with the much
darker greywacke country rock (Fig. 2). The miners
tried to extract all the quartz, but as little greywacke
as possible. Inevitably, however, they had to extract
considerable country rock in order to have an
adequate working space.
Figure 2. Quartz reef at no 14 level in the Blackwater
mine.
Auckland Weekly News, 5 October 1932 [HL, S09-323g]
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 2
Moving the ore
Transporting ore from the mine to battery was slow and labour intensive. Miners shovelled
the ore and country rock extracted at the face into wagons which were pushed along rails to
the main shaft, then lifted by cage to bins at a higher level and emptied into a storage bin at ‘3
½’ level. It was then transported through the
mine along the Low-level adit by a horse-drawn
tramway, and then around the side of the hill
(Fig. 3) to the top of the battery.
Figure 3. Remains of the tramway between the Low
level adit and the Snowy River battery, photographed
in 2010, with a image of the former horse-drawn
wagon tram carrying ore in the foreground.
Photo: S. Nathan
Snowy River battery
The Snowy River battery was sited on the side of a steep valley (Fig. 4) so that gravity could
be used to move the ore as it was processed through different stages to extract the gold.
Most of the plant was powered by water. A water race along the south side of the Snowy
River drove a Pelton wheel that turned the main shaft for the stampers via a 50 mm belt.
There were also smaller wheels for the Wilfley tables, air compressor and small power
generator. Because the water supply was inadequate in dry weather, the supply was
supplemented in 1923-24 by a longer water race from Staircase Creek and a tributary of the
Alexander River.
Figure 4. View of the Snowy River battery, with buildings labelled.
ATL, 1/1-39807-G
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 3
Crushing the quartz
When quartz arrived at the battery it was dumped on the grizzly bars – a grille of heavy steel
bars, 37 mm apart. Lumps too big to drop between the bars in the storage bin went to a jaw
crusher that reduced them to smaller pieces.
Automatic feeders allowed stone to fall into apertures behind the mortar boxes, large iron
structures resembling upright pianos, where stamper shoes at the bottom of the stamper rods
pounded against replaceable dies, and crushed the quartz to a powder (Figs 5 & 6). The rods
were lifted by curved finger-like cams on shafts, driven by belts from the battery’s Pelton
water wheel. The operation of the stampers was incredibly noisy, but in the 1930s no-one
wore any hearing protection.
Water was fed into each mortar box during crushing, to produce a pulp (slurry) that passed
through a mesh screen in front of the mortar box. A launder – an open timber flume – took the
pulp through to the plate room for the first stage of recovery.
When the ore supply was high, two mortar boxes were fitted with larger mesh screens, and the
pulp, coarser than normal, ran into a separate launder leading to an elevator that fed it onto a
revolving screen. The fine pulp dropped into a launder leading directly to the plate room,
while the coarser material ran down another launder to the tube mill – a revolving steel
cylinder containing hard flint stones that completed the work of crushing the pulp to the
required size.
Amalgamation
Within the plate room, the pulp flowed to spreaders at the head of nine copper amalgamating
plates (Fig 7). Each plate was 3.5 x 1.45 metres, highly polished, and laid on a slightly
inclined table. The plates were smeared with a chemical agent so that mercury poured on to it
formed an even film all over the copper surface.
When the pulp flowed over the treated copper plates, the fine particles of gold amalgamated
with the mercury coating on the plates. The rest of the pulp flowed away in a launder for
further treatment apart from the sand fraction that fell into a trap at the bottom of each table.
Each plate was carefully scraped each morning, the amalgam was placed in a basin, and the
plate was re-coated with mercury.
Amalgam from the plates, sand from the traps, and some additional mercury was placed in a
berdan – a slowly revolving steel bowl containing a fixed iron drag that ground the material.
The amalgam was further cleaned with caustic soda and a steady stream of water. Each day
the berdan was cleaned out and the amalgam squeezed through calico to remove excess
mercury and leave a solid ball of amalgam.
About 80% of the gold recovered at the battery was obtained from the amalgamation process.
The remainder was recovered by a succession of other processes that varied over the years,
but included wilfley concentrators, roasting, and cyanide treatment.
Gold values were routinely checked at all stages of the process in the assay room (Fig 8).
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 4
Figure 5. Sets of five stampers
were operated by belt driven bull
wheels. The finger-like cams lifted
and dropped the stampers to crush
the quartz in mortar boxes (see
Fig. 6).
ATL, ½-233103-G
Figure 6. Mortar box with the front
removed, showing five stamper
shoes. The quartz ore mixed with
water was pounded by the
stampers to produce a slurry.
ATL, ½-233105-G
Figure 7. The plate room, where
the slurry flowed over copper
amalgamating plates coated with
mercury. Fine gold amalgamated
with the mercury, and was stuck to
the coated plates. Every morning
the plates were scraped to remove
the amalgam, and then re-coated
with mercury.
ATL, ½-233-106-G
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 5
Figure 8. The gold content of the
ore was checked at several stages
from when it left the mine to the
final smelting in the assay office,
across the river from the battery.
From left, the staff are Ted Allen,
Frankie Orr and Jack McEwin.
ATL, ½-233108-G
Wilfley concentration and roasting
Following the amalgamation processes the remaining slurry was sorted into size fractions in a
spitzkasken – a hydraulic device shaped like an inverted pyramid in which a downward
current separated coarse pulp (sands) from the finer material (slimes).
A launder took the sands to the Wilfley Room, with seven wilfley concentrators – inclined
tables covered with heavy linoleum and narrow wooden laths, forming thin, tapering riffles
(Fig 9). A lengthwise to-and-fro motion caused the denser grains (gold or gold-rich material
and metallic sulphides) to be caught against the riffles, while the remainder (sands or pulp)
flowed over them. The concentrates were then passed over two further copper amalgamating
plates to catch any free gold. The remaining sand concentrates contained gold, mainly within
sulphide grains, but initially could not be effectively processed in New Zealand. It proved too
expensive to ship the concentrates to Australia, so they were stockpiled.
Figure 9. In the Wilfley room
sands were washed across
tables with riffles to
concentrate heavier grains –
largely gold and sulphides.
The concentrates were again
passes over amalgamating
tables to catch any free gold,
and then sent to the roasting
furnace.
S08-221p
HL,
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 6
In 1924 an Edwards roasting furnace was installed at Snowy River (Fig. 10). The dark sand
concentrates, containing a high proportion of sulphides were passed through the furnace, and
agitated by a series of revolving arms. By the time the sand emerged some of the mineral
components had been oxidised, which allowed effective treatment in the cyanide plant.
Figure 10. View outside the
Edwards roasting furnace, on the
Snowy River flats. Sands that
have been roasted can be seen
on the bottom left, and these
were then transported to the
cyanide plant.
ATL, ½-233107-G
Cyanidation
In the late 19th century it was realised that fine gold would dissolve in dilute cyanide
solutions, and could be precipitated by reaction with zinc. By the time the Blackwater battery
was built in 1908, cyanidation by the MacArthur-Forrest process had become a standard
process to recover fine gold that had not been recovered by amalgamation (Park 1896). After
wilfley treatment and roasting, the remaining pulp and sands went through the cyanide
process at the lowest part of the battery site, adjacent to the Snowy River (Fig 11).
Figure 11. Sideways
view of the Snowy River
battery, looking
upstream, with the
cyanide vats in the
foreground close to river
level. The treated sands
were discharged directly
into the river.
ATL, ½-233109-G
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 7
The cyanide plant included 13 large steel vats. Sands from the spitzkasken and wilfley
concentrators as well as the roasting furnace were carried into the vats, and evenly spread by
rotating distributors. The fluid was drained off through a calico filter in the bottom. The drain
taps were then shut off, and a solution of 0.4% NaCN run in. As the cyanide solution
percolated through the sands, the fine gold started to dissolve, and the solution was run off to
the zinc room. Each vat load of sand was treated with cyanide three times, the solutions
becoming progressively weaker. Finally, the sands (with traces of cyanide) were washed into
the Snowy River.
Figure 12. Joseph Divis (left) and others
standing on one of the cyanide vats, with
rotating distributors in the centre.
Unfortunately the original of this image cannot
be located, and only a poor print is available.
Slimes from the spitzkasken were also treated by cyanidation in four 12 metre tall agitator
tanks. Compressed air was blown through the slimes in order to prevent an impervious layer
forming, and it also maintained an oxygenated solution that was needed for gold dissolution.
Settling and filtration were used to separate the dust-size slime particles, and once a clear
solution was obtained it was treated in the zinc room.
Zinc precipitation
In the zinc room the gold-cyanide solution from the vats was run through partitioned boxes,
each space containing a grating fitted with a central handle that was filled with zinc shavings
(Fig. 13). Zinc reacted with the cyanide solution to precipitate a fine sludge rich in gold.
Figure 13. The zinc room,
where the gold-cyanide
liquid was piped though zinc
boxes containing zinc filings.
A thick slime rich in gold
precipitated at the bottom of
the boxes, and was collected
regularly.
ATL, ½-233322-G
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 8
Retorting and smelting
The final stage of the process was to recover the gold, normally done monthly by the battery
manager and senior staff. For mercury-gold amalgam it was a simple process to heat the
amalgam in a retort to recover the mercury by condensation, leaving behind sponge gold (Fig.
14). This was melted at higher temperature and the molten metal into moulds to form gold
bars (Fig 16).
The fine gold sludge from the zinc room was washed out of the zinc boxes, treated with acid,
dried, and then smelted (Fig. 15).
Figure 14. When amalgam was heated in a
retort the mercury was driven off and
condensed, leaving behind sponge gold, which
was later refined. The white egg-shaped lump
in the front is amalgam, while the others are
sponge gold.
Scales in the background were used for
weighing the gold while the drill at the left front
was used to obtain samples for assay.
HL, S08-221n
Figure 15. The furnaces at the end of the zinc
room were used to refine the gold sludge as
well as the final refining of the sponge gold
when it was melted and poured into gold bars.
ATL, ½-233323-G
Figure 16. The final result – a dozen gold bars,
stamped BM for Blackwater mine – with Jack
McEwin, Frankie Orr and Ted Allen keeping
careful watch.
With each bar weighing 112 ounces, they were
valued at ǧ13440 – in today’s money about
$2.5 million.
Auckland Weekly News, 5 October 1932
[HL, S09-323e]
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 9
CHANGES AT THE SNOWY RIVER BATTERY
By the early 1930s mining had moved northwards from the Blackwater shaft, and it was
becoming increasingly expensive and time-consuming to transport ore out of the original
shaft. The Prohibition shaft, 600 metres to the north (Fig. 1), was sunk to intersect the quartz
reef, and mining gradually became centred there (although the Blackwater shaft was still used
for pumping and ventilation). Although the rest of the world was suffering the effects of the
depression, the price of gold soared, giving high returns to shareholders, and allowing the
Blackwater Mining Company to make a considerable investment in new plant from 1933-38.
Initially a 1.6 km aerial ropeway was built to transport ore from the Prohibition shaft across
the town of Waiuta to the Snowy River battery (Figs 17 & 18). It became necessary to install
additional stampers to deal with the increased production of ore.
Figure 17. Buckets of ore on
the aerial ropeway drop down
from the hill near the
Prohibition shaft over Waiuta
to the Snowy River battery
more than 1.5 km in the
distance.
ATL, 1/1-39802-G
Figure 18. Ore buckets on the
aerial ropeway pass over the
Blackwater shaft and the town
of Waiuta.
ATL, 1/1-39791-G
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 10
In 1937 the mine management contracted a US expert, Mr Francis Blickensderfer to review
the milling of the ore, and then to supervise the building of a new processing plant close to the
Prohibition shaft. This incorporated were new methods of ore processing - instead of stamp
batteries, a ball mill was used to crush the ore, gold and heavy minerals were separated by
flotation, and the cyanide process was modernised.
The new plant was commissioned in mid 1938, and the Snowy River battery was abandoned.
The Edwards roasting furnace was moved to the new site, and most metal from Snowy River
was either re-used or sold as scrap. In 1940, after the battery had been largely dismantled, a
water-driven power plant was erected on a new foundation to utilise the water supplies that
had previously run the battery.
SNOWY RIVER BATTERY TODAY
The Snowy River battery is an important feature of the historic Waiuta town site,
administered by the Department of Conservation. It can be reached on a well-graded track
from Waiuta. Although the native forest is regenerating and the buildings have disappeared,
the footprint of the processing plant is still clear (Fig 19).
Impressive concrete foundations, built against the western wall of the valley, are the dominant
feature of the battery site, and include the floors of most of the buildings shown in Fig 3.
Many of the large iron tanks for the cyanide plant remain. In general most of what was
directly on the ground remains, while most of the superstructure and equipment has been
removed.
Figure 19. Aerial view of the remains of the Snowy River battery in 2007.
Photo: Les Wright
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 11
Environmental issues
An unanticipated effect of the installation of the Edwards roasting furnace in 1924 was
arsenic contamination of the area surrounding the battery. Contemporary accounts noted that
the vegetation apart from bracken died with a radius of about kilometre of the oven (Morris
1986, p. 38), and the fumes were cited as the reason why there was no wood borer in the
buildings. Seventy years after the plant closed, there is some revegetation, but the area on the
river flats near the roasting furnace is still bare of vegetation.
Both the ore and country rock contain small amounts of arsenopyrite, which is oxidised by
roasting to form haematite, arsenolite (As2O3), and sulphur dioxide. The arsenolite emerged
as a vapour which was spread over the surrounding area. Recent studies have shown that the
unvegetated areas around the roaster are underlain by a light greenish-grey surface crust, up to
30 cm thick, enriched in arsenic. Reconnaissance arsenic analyses of surface materials were
consistently above maximum recommended levels (0.02 wt %) (NEPC 1999; Haffert & Craw
2008). Signs warn visitors of the contamination near the roaster site, which has now been
fenced off and capped with gravel.
REFERENCES
Haffert, L.; Craw, D. 2008: Mineralogical controls on environmental mobility of arsenic from historic mine
processing residues, New Zealand. Applied Geochemistry 23: 1467-1483.
Morris, G (editor) 1990: Waiuta – the gold mine, the town, the people (2nd edition). Friends of Waiuta, 141pp.
Nathan, S. 2010: ‘Through the eyes of a miner: the photography of Joseph Divis’. Steele Roberts Publishing, 112
pp.
Park, J. 1896: The cyanide process of gold extraction (2nd edition). Champtaloup & Cooper, Auckland. 142 pp.
Wright, L. 2007: Snowy River (Waiuta) – Historical Assessment. Report prepared for the Department of
Conservation, Hokitika. 37 pp.
Williams, G 1964: Economic Geology of New Zealand. Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy,
Melbourne, 384 pp.
Paper presented to the Australian Mining History
Association Conference at Greymouth, July 2010
Page 12
Australian Mining History Association Annual Conference 2010
West Coast Coalmining Communities: Using
Genealogical Sources for Historical Analysis
Brian Wood
Local Historian, Hokitika
This paper is a revamped version of one delivered at the New Zealand Genealogy Society
Conference 2008, describing how I incorporated genealogy and genealogical sources in two
publications concerning events in two West Coast coalmining communities and how besides
the interest of descendants as family history they were important to the account of the events
both descriptively and analytically.
The first community is Brunnerton, 13kms east of Greymouth. It was also the subject of a
third book ‘Coal Gorge’ in which the history of the place is set out focusing on its heritage,
identity and environment.
A brief background is in order.
Commercial coalmining began in the Brunner Gorge in 1864 in conjunction with the West
Coast gold rushes and European settlement, the coal industry taking off after the provision of
a bridge in the Gorge and rail connection between the mines and the port of Greymouth,
completed in 1876.
There were four mines of which the Brunner was the largest. Capital from Victoria was of
some significance when the Nelson Coalmining Company, known locally as the Ballarat
Syndicate, took over the lease in 1866, however the capital was insufficient. In 1869 the
Company secretary J T Morgan from the Exchange Ballarat attempted without success to
raise further capital. Their lease had been cancelled in 1868 due to failure to fulfil output
requirements. Other mines were the Coal pit Heath, Tyneside and Wallsend. The Wallsend
shafts were sunk by R L Simpson, a mining engineer from Newcastle NSW, with Melbourne
capital a mere 2 percent of the initial investment in Wallsend development. All of the mines
had their ups and downs. Output was at its peak in the late 1880s. The Wallsend mine closed
in 1890, reopened in 1929 and finally closed in 1960. A later mine, the Dobson, opened in
1926 and closed in 1968.
The settlement of the district proceeded rapidly from the mid 1870s, with a focus on
proximity to the mines resulting in various units of settlement at locations in or on the edge of
the Gorge (Fig. 1). “Brunner proper” was nearest the Brunner and Tyneside mines. This was
the place of residence of the pioneer settlers, including those of Ballarat and Buninyong
origin associated with the Nelson Coalmining Company. Charles Seaton and Henry Jones
graduated from being colliers to hoteliers there. Others included Richard Gregory, James
Williamson and Robert Elliot from Newcastle district, NSW, and the Heslins from
Queensland. All were British born. Richard’s wife Anne arrived in 1839 as a 14 year old on a
transport ship and got her “Certificate of Freedom” in 1846. Wallsend, Taylorville and
Dobson were other settlements. Stillwater is a little more distant, and the site of the cemetery
where the majority of the Brunner mine disaster victims are buried. The settlements were
amalgamated into the Brunnerton Borough in 1887, which lasted until the 1970s when they
were absorbed into Grey County. In 1891 the Borough was the third largest on the West
Coast after Greymouth and Westport. Hokitika, which was in decline as gold dried up, was
fourth in size. The Borough census population was 2331 but would have been considerably
larger if the adjacent Grey County areas had been included. In the 1880s it was New
Zealand’s major coal mining area, overtaken only by the Buller in the 1890s.
&ŝŐ͘ϭ͘DĂƉŽĨhŶŝƚƐŽĨ^ĞƚƚůĞŵĞŶƚŝŶƌƵŶŶĞƌƚŽŶĂŶĚŽĂů>ĞĂƐĞƐ͕ϭϴϴϳ
The event which was the subject of the study was the Brunner mine disaster of 1896 in which
all 65 men and boys underground were killed. As a commemorative history it was of some
importance to establish the origins of the Brunnerton population and the disaster victims.
I have used birth register information, comprising details of the country of origin of 457
parents of Brunnerton first born between 1869 and 1889 to establish trends in origin over the
20 year period (Figs. 2a and 2b).
&ŝŐ͘ϮĂ͘ƌƵŶŶĞƌƚŽŶ͛ƐĚƵůƚWŽƉƵůĂƚŝŽŶKƌŝŐŝŶƐϭϴϲϵͲϭϴϴϵ
EĂƚŝŽŶĂůŽƌŝŐŝŶƐ͕ďŝƌƚŚƉůĂĐĞŽĨƉĂƌĞŶƚƐŽĨĨŝƌƐƚďŽƌŶŝŶƌƵŶŶĞƌƚŽŶϭϴϲϵͲϭϴϴϵ͘
;ŶƵŵďĞƌĂŶĚƉĞƌĐĞŶƚĂŐĞŽĨƚŽƚĂůͿ
ϭϴϲϵͲϳϵ
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dŽƚĂů
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&ŝŐ͘Ϯď͘
Expressed as percentages, the trends show rise or fall with time, with a relative decline of
those of English and Irish origins and a rise for Scots.
The totals for the 457, however, indicate the English were double the number of Scots and the
Irish half that of the Scots. The number of Welsh was small. The number of New Zealand
born, as would be expected, increased with time, although the total percentage is not high.
The overall percentage of Australian born was about the same (6.5 percent) but was declining
with time. The detailed data show two thirds of the Australians were from Victoria, mainly
from the goldfields.
&ŝŐ͘ϯ͘ƵƐƚƌĂůŝĂŶŝƌƚŚƉůĂĐĞŽĨWĂƌĞŶƚƐŽĨϰϱϳĨŝƌƐƚďŽƌŶĂƚƌƵŶŶĞƌƚŽŶEĞǁĞĂůĂŶĚϭϴϲϵͲϴϵ
sŝĐƚŽƌŝĂ
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The proportion of country of origin of the overseas born disaster victims is fairly close to the
proportion of parents of first born.
A chapter in ‘Disaster at Brunner’ is devoted to the population origins of the disaster victims,
which includes mining background and family migration history based on country of origin.
It includes some born in the UK who crossed “the ditch” and did not necessarily add to birth
place statistics at Brunnerton and others who did. The breakdown of population origins and
trends also showed county of origin. There is greater accuracy here for those from English
and Irish counties; Scots frequently identify Scotland as place of birth and omit their Shire.
The trend data for the more numerous English is of interest and was useful.
There are explanations for the differences regarding places of origin, such as the importance
of the Irish in the West Coast gold rush population in the 1860s and the areas of recruitment
of immigrants in the United Kingdom by New Zealand agents in the 1870s, but the focus here
is the connections between origins and events in New Zealand.
Thus the data on connections between the country of origin, the time of arrival in New
Zealand and Brunnerton and place of residence there in 1896 is of importance to the analysis
of those affected by the disaster, in particular in relation to whether the dependents became
involved in the litigation undertaken to obtain compensation from the Coal Company.
&ŝŐ͘ϰ
The case that followed the Royal Commission into the disaster went on throughout 1897 and
1898 and is known as ‘Geoghegan versus the Greymouth and Point Elizabeth Railway and
Coal Company’ and related judgements. It is an important one in New Zealand’s social and
legal history and is the subject of Chapter 8 of ‘Disaster at Brunner’.
Of the 65 victims, only 19 were claimed for by the 15 families involved in the case.
“It was only on the eve of the case being heard that Geoghegan’s efforts to ‘raise the
wind’ bore some fruit. George had tried to get nine or ten widows and dependant
parents to support him. It seems that in March 1897, largely due to the presence of
Jellicoe (the claimant’s lawyer) in Hokitika, the Geoghegans and Mary McIvor were
joined by 13 others, taking to 15 the number of families represented in the court
actions and number of deceased being claimed for to 19 ...”
For 46 victims no claims were made for which explanations are given.
The focus here will be on the litigants.
&ŝŐ͘ϱ͘WŽƉƵůĂƚŝŽŶŽƌŝŐŝŶƐŽĨƌƵŶŶĞƌĚŝƐĂƐƚĞƌůŝƚŝŐĂŶƚƐĂŶĚŶŽŶͲůŝƚŝŐĂŶƚƐ
KĨƚŚĞϭϵǀŝĐƚŝŵƐĐůĂŝŵĞĚĨŽƌ͗
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The raw figures show clearly that it was those of Irish and Scots descent, not the more
numerous English, who engaged in the litigation. Chapter 8 discusses its significance.
“A closer analysis of the ethnic composition of those engaged in the litigation
indicates it was those of English origins who had least to do with it. While fifty four
percent of the disaster victims had their origins in English counties only eleven
percent of them were involved in the issuing of writs against the company. Seventy
four percent of litigants were of Scots or Irish extraction whereas they accounted for
only twenty five percent and eighteen percent respectively of the disaster victims. The
two non-English groups were in turn distinctive. The Geoghegans as Ulster Irish and
Protestant were unlike the Southern and Catholic Irish such as the Moores from
Kerry, and the McDonalds and Brislanes from Tipperary, whose presence on the West
Coast was mainly due to the attractions of the goldfields and who had arrived in the
1860s …
Those of Scots descent beside the McIvors from Ayrshire included many who were
more recent arrivals; the McLuskies from Dumbartonshire, the Andersons from
Lanarkshire; the Duncans from Midlothian and Liddles from West Lothian ...”
Neighbourhood connections may also have played a part in the involvement in the litigation
(Fig 6). Time of arrival and ethnicity played a part in the place of living in Brunnerton. As
described earlier, the Irish Catholics were concentrated in Brunner proper close to the
Brunner Mine and their Church and school, while many of the Scots, who were later arrivals,
settled in Dobson. George Geoghegan who arrived in 1885 was also a Dobson resident. Of
the fifteen litigant families eleven, or seventy three percent, were from Brunner proper and
the south side of the river in Wallsend and Dobson. Only four, or twenty seven percent,
including Mary McIvor were from the more English Taylorville side settled in the late 1870s
and early 1880s.
&ŝŐ͘ϲ͘
Neither age, the number of dependent children, nor the amount of providence on the part of
the deceased, are significant in the profile of the litigants.
For interest rather than importance:
An analysis of the known connection between the Australian colonies and the disaster victims
has twelve in total (18 percent), some by marriage.
1
Queensland
3
Newcastle area NSW
8
Victoria
Three of the twelve (25 percent), the McDonalds, Moores and the Brislanes, who participated
in the litigation were from the Victorian goldfields and of Southern Irish descent. The
Australian connection is probably not significant but ethnicity is.
The profiles of two of the victims of the disaster may also be of interest.
John Morris aged 69 in 1896 was the oldest and most long serving of the miners killed in the
disaster. He was a collier from Northumberland who had arrived in Adelaide as an assisted
immigrant in 1852. In 1866 he was recruited in Buninyong by the ‘Ballarat Syndicate’ as
fireman for the Brunner mine. Five of his seven children were born in the Ballarat area. Three
became residents in the Brunnerton area. He was thought to have been a widower. On his
death however his wife Margaret in Yarrowee (Scotsmans Lead), living with a son, became a
beneficiary from the Disaster Fund. She died in 1900, apparently not having travelled to New
Zealand.
Margaret Allen, one of the 37 widows of the disaster, was married to John Allen in
Greymouth in 1879, and by 1896 was the mother of 4 children aged 10, 8, 6 and 2. She is the
only one to have crossed “the ditch” after the disaster, settling in Melbourne in 1898. The
reason for this is not known. She did not remarry. An analysis of remarriage patterns in
’Disaster at Brunner’ showed, among other things, a higher level of remarriage for those who
remained in the Grey District.
The second Grey District Coalmining community was Blackball and the event was the 1908
Strike for which significance is claimed in connection with the New Zealand Labour
Movement.
Blackball belongs to the second generation of Grey District Coal Mines. As Brunner declined
Blackball (and Runanga) expanded. The real growth in output of the Blackball Mine occurred
after 1908 with the completion of the rail bridge and line connection to Ngahere. In 1908 the
population of Blackball was around 550.
The challenge I faced in Part 2 of Chapter 2 of ‘the Great 08’ was to obtain as much
information as possible about the 166 Blackball miners employed at the time of the strike and
who appear on the Strike Schedule (Fig 7).They ended up having to individually pay their
portion of the £75 fine imposed by the Arbitration Court for an illegal strike.
Finding this data involved assembling material from electoral rolls, directories, school
enrolments, death register information, etc. Unfortunately my name is not Eric Olssen and
this wasn’t the Caversham project so the database is incomplete. Limited time also paid a
part.
I obtained enough data to develop a broad picture of population origins with appropriate
sampling and illustration. As many had come from Brunner, the research on Brunner was
useful.
&ŝŐϳ͘ůĂĐŬďĂůů^ƚƌŝŬĞ^ĐŚĞĚƵůĞϭϵϬϴ
I used school enrolment data on previous schools attended to indicate immediate origins of the mining
population. The data look fragmentary but I believe has a feel of truth (Fig.8).
&ŝŐ͘ϴ
Incidentally, I don’t believe these West Coast mining communities were ‘anatomized’ or
greatly affected by transience or larrikinism. Certainly there was some population mobility
but it was largely from one mining community to another.
There were two main areas where genealogical information was important.
Firstly, I have argued that ethnicity was important in respect to the cause of the strike. Call it
the ‘Celtic’ factor, with a high proportion of Scots and Irish in the 1908 Blackball population
and Strike Schedule and their greater militancy as part of a genetic inheritance compared to
the English.
Most of the previous focus in respect to the strike event has been on
(1) ‘Red Fed’ Socialist Leadership
(2) Pit Radicalism and Local Grievances
both of which were important but also the genetic inheritance of the personnel (e.g. Hickey,
Webb and Rogers).
Secondly, at several stages during the strike - after two weeks and six or seven weeks - more
moderate Union personnel wanted a settlement of the strike. A more complete database
would enable a more balanced picture of the strike and the strikers and a critique of the myth
of Union solidarity. The division is of interest. My hunch is that while some relatives of the
Leitch family were supportive of Walter Leitch, the mine manager, the group also included
those who were not from a strictly collier or Union background and included those not
converted to the socialist ideology. They include some of the more intelligent and articulate
miners including those with professional mining interests. They did not prevail; it was the
more radical socialist element that carried the day.
To fully examine these ideas and further review the Blackball Strike story would require a
full local database of those on the Strike Schedule. The same would apply to many
communities and studies of such events at the grass roots. Many of these events are of
National significance so what better place to start. I was very grateful to descendants of
Patrick Hickey, who in many ways through his ‘Red Fed Memoirs’ was responsible for a
biased view of the Blackball Strike thus far.
As a footnote, the Table of Origin of Brunnerton population compared to New Zealand shows
the major difference is not to do with country but with English county.
&ŝŐ͘ϵ͘ƌƵŶŶĞƌƚŽŶͬEWŽƉƵůĂƚŝŽŶŽƌŝŐŝŶƐĐŽŵƉĂƌĞĚ
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Bibliography
B. Wood, 1996: Disaster at Brunner: The Coalmine Tragedy at Brunnerton, New Zealand 26
March 1896. Revised and enlarged 1998.
B. Wood, 2004: Coal Gorge and the Brunner Suspension Bridge.
B. Wood, 2008: The Great ’08: Blackball Coal Miners’ Strike 27 February – 13 May 1908.