Mining in Australia
Encyclopedia
Economy of Australia
The economy of Australia is a developed, modern market economy with a GDP of approximately US$1.23 trillion. In 2011, it was the 13th largest national economy by nominal GDP and the 17th largest measured by PPP adjusted GDP, representing about 1.7% of the World economy. Australia was also ranked...
. Historically, mining booms have also encouraged immigration to Australia
Immigration to Australia
Immigration to Australia is estimated to have begun around 51,000 years ago when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea. Europeans first landed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, but colonisation only started in 1788. The...
. Many different ores and minerals are mined throughout the country.
History
Mining contributed significantly to preventing potential bankruptcy for the early colonies in Australia. Silver and later copper were discovered in South AustraliaSouth Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in the 1840s, leading to the export of ore and the immigration of skilled miners and smelters. The first economic minerals in Australia were silver and lead in February 1841 at Glen Osmond
Glen Osmond, South Australia
Glen Osmond is a small suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Burnside located in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills.-References:...
, now a suburb of Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in South Australia. Mines including Wheal Gawler and Wheal Watkins
Wheal Watkins
Wheal Watkins was previously a mine in the Adelaide, Australia suburb of Glen Osmond. It yielded silver and lead in the mid 19th century. The ore body was discovered in March 1841, and mining commenced soon after. Wheal Watkins opened in 1843 and operated until 1851, when the miners left for the...
opened soon after. The value of these mines was soon overshadowed by the discovery of copper at Kapunda (1842), Burra
Burra, South Australia
Burra is a pastoral centre and historic tourist town in the mid-north of South Australia. It lies east of the Clare Valley in the Bald Hills range, part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges, and on Burra Creek. The town began as a single company mining township that, by 1851, was a set of townships ...
(1845) and in the Copper Triangle (Moonta
Moonta, South Australia
Moonta is a town located on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, 165 kilometres north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. It is one of three towns known as the Copper Coast or "Little Cornwall" for their shared copper mining history....
, Kadina
Kadina, South Australia
Kadina is a town located on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, approximately 144 kilometres north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. The largest town of the Peninsula, Kadina is one of the three Copper Triangle towns famous for their shared copper mining history...
and Wallaroo
Wallaroo, South Australia
Wallaroo is a port town on the western side of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, 160 kilometres north-northwest of Adelaide. It is one of the three Copper Triangle towns famed for their historic shared copper mining industry, and known together as "Little Cornwall", the other two being Kadina ...
) area at the top of Yorke Peninsula
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located north-west and west of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. It has geographic coordinates of...
(1861).
Gold rushes
In 1851, gold was found near Ophir, New South WalesOphir, New South Wales
Ophir is the name of a locality in New South Wales, Australia in Cabonne Shire.Ophir is located near the Macquarie River northeast of the city of Orange...
. Weeks later, gold was found in the newly established colony of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. Australian gold rushes, in particular the Victorian Gold Rush, had a major lasting impact on Victoria, and on Australia as a whole. The influx of wealth that gold brought soon made Victoria Australia's richest colony by far, and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
the island's largest city. By the middle of the 1850s, 40% of the world's gold was produced in Australia.
Australia's population changed dramatically as a result of the gold rushes: in 1851 the population was 437,655 and a decade later it was 1,151,947; the rapid growth was predominantly a result of the new chums (recent immigrants from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth states) who contributed the 'rush'. Although most Victorian goldfields were exhausted by the end of the 19th century, and although much of the profit was sent back to the UK, sufficient wealth remained to fund substantial development of industry and infrastructure.
Minerals and resources
Large quantities of minerals and resources are extractedResource extraction
The related terms natural resource extraction both refer to the practice of locating, acquiring and selling natural resources....
in Australia. These include:
- Iron ore – Australia was the world's third largest supplier in 2008 after China and Brazil, supplying 342 million metric tonnes.
- NickelNickelNickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
– Australia was the world's second largest producer in 2006 after Russia. - BauxiteBauxiteBauxite is an aluminium ore and is the main source of aluminium. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2...
/aluminum - CopperCopperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
- GoldGoldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
– Australia is the second largest producer after China. - SilverSilverSilver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
- UraniumUraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
– Australia is responsible for 11% of the world's production and was the world's third largest producer in 2010 after Kazakhstan and Canada. - DiamondDiamondIn mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
– Australia has the third largest commercially-viable deposits after Russia and Botswana. Australia also boasts the richest diamantiferous pipe with production reaching peak levels of 42 metric tons (41 LT/46 ST) per year in the 1990s. - OpalOpalOpal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...
– Australia is the world's largest producer of opal, being responsible for 95% of production. - ZincZincZinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
– Australia was second only to China in zinc production in 2008, producing just under 14% of world production. - CoalCoalCoal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
– Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and fourth largest producer of coal behind China, USA and India. - Oil shaleOil shaleOil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
- PetroleumPetroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
– Australia is the twenty-eighth largest producer of petroleum. - Natural gasNatural gasNatural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
- rare earths
Much of the raw material mined in Australia is exported overseas to countries such as China for processing into refined product. Energy and minerals constitute two thirds of Australia's total exports to China, and more than half of Australia's iron ore exports are to China.
Mining regions
Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...
in New South Wales, the Bowen Basin
Bowen Basin
The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland including virtually all of the known mineable prime coking coal...
in Queensland and Latrobe Valley
Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical region and urban area of Gippsland in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is east of the City Of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Great Dividing Range to the north – with the highest peak to the north of the...
in Victoria and various parts of the outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
. Places such as Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
, Mount Isa
Mount Isa, Queensland
-Culture and sport:The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, or MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months or so....
, Mount Morgan
Mount Morgan, Queensland
Mount Morgan is a town located in central Queensland, Australia. It is situated on the Dee River, 38 kilometres south of the city of Rockhampton, and is 680 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The Burnett Highway passes through the town...
, Broken Hill and Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy, South Australia
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 kilometres north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. According to the 2006 census, its population was 1,916 . The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there...
are known as mining towns.
Major active mines in Australia include:
- Olympic DamOlympic Dam, South AustraliaOlympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
in South Australia, a copper, silver and uranium mine believed to have the world's largest uranium resource. - Super Pit gold mineSuper Pit gold mineThe Fimiston Open Pit, colloquially known as the Super Pit, is Australia's largest open cut gold mine. The Super Pit is located off the Goldfields Highway on the south-east edge of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia. The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5...
, which has replaced a number of underground mines near Kalgoorlie, Western AustraliaKalgoorlie, Western AustraliaKalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
- For a more comprehensive list of mines in Australia, see Mines in Australia
Coal mining
CoalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
is mined in every state of Australia. It is used to generate electricity and is exported. 75% of the coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2000/01, 258.5 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 193.6 million tonnes exported, rising to 261 million tonnes of exports in 2008–09. Coal also provides about 85% of Australia's electricity production. Australia is the world's leading coal exporter.
Uranium mining
Uranium mining in Australia began in the early 20th century in South Australia. Australia contains 23% of the world's proven estimated uranium reserves. In recent decades opposition to uranium mining in Australia has increased, resulting in many government inquiries into its extraction. The three largest uranium mines in the country are Olympic DamOlympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
, Ranger Uranium Mine
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
and Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
. Future production is expected from Honeymoon Uranium Mine
Honeymoon Uranium Mine
The Honeymoon Mine will be Australia's fourth uranium mine and Australia's second operating in-situ recovery mine. The mine is owned by Uranium One. The uranium deposit belongs to the palaeochannel type.-See also:* Uranium mining in Australia...
and the planned Four Mile uranium mine
Four Mile uranium mine
Four Mile is a proposed uranium mine in Australia. The proposed mine is sited in the far north of the state of South Australia, around north of the state capital, Adelaide and from the existing Beverley uranium mine....
.
Natural Gas
Based on 2008 CSIRO report, Australia estimated have stranded gas reserves with about 140 trillion cubic feet or enough to fulfil the needs of a city with one million people for 2,800 years.Economics
A number of large multinational mining companies including BHP BillitonBHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, Newcrest
Newcrest Mining
Newcrest Mining Limited engages in the exploration, development, mining and sale of gold and gold-copper concentrate. Newcrest is an Australian based Company which initially incorporated in Victoria in 1980. Today it has become Australia’s leading gold mining company...
, Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
, Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...
, Chalco
Chalco
Aluminum Corporation of China Limited, also known as Chalco , is a multinational aluminum company headquartered in Beijing, People's Republic of China...
, Shenhua
Shenhua Group
Shenhua Group is a state-owned mining and energy company in China. It is the largest coal-producing company in the world. It was founded in October 1995 under the auspices of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.-Activities:...
(a Chinese mining company), Alcan
Alcan
Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...
and Xstrata
Xstrata
Xstrata plc is a global mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is a major producer of coal , copper, nickel, primary vanadium and zinc and the world's largest producer of ferrochrome...
operate in Australia. There are also a lot of small mining and mineral exploration companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange
Australian Stock Exchange
The Australian Securities Exchange was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006. It is the primary stock exchange group in Australia....
(ASX). Overall, the resources sector represents almost 20% of the ASX market by capitalisation, and almost one third of the companies listed.
Mining contributes about 5.6% of Australia's Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
. This is up from only 2.6% in 1950, but down from over 10% at the time of federation in 1900. In contrast, mineral exports contribute
around 35% of Australia's exports. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal (35% of international trade), iron ore, lead, diamonds, rutile
Rutile
Rutile is a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide, TiO2.Rutile is the most common natural form of TiO2. Two rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known:...
, zinc and zirconium, second largest of gold and uranium, and third largest of aluminium. Japan was the major purchaser of Australian mineral exports in the mid 1990s.
Of the developed countries, perhaps only in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
does mining play as significant a part in the economy; for comparison, in Canada mining represents about 3.6% of the Canadian economy and 32% of exports, and in Norway mining, dominated by petroleum, represents about 19% of GDP and 46% of exports. By comparison, in the United States mining represents only about 1.6% of GDP.
Despite its export importance, the mining sector employs only a small proportion of the workforce – roughly 129,000 Australians, representing only about 1.3% of the total labour force.
Technology and services
Australia's high labour costs and first-world safety regulations, distinctive geology, and the importance placed on mining research by successive governments and businesses has meant that the Australian mining sector is quite technologically advanced. A large proportion of mines worldwide make use of Australian-developed computer software, such as specialised Geological Database and Resource Estimation Modelling software by Micromine and geology/mine planning software by Runge Ltd and Maptek Pty LtdMaptek
Maptek provides 3D modelling, spatial analysis and design technology to the global mining industry with 3 products; Vulcan, I-Site and MineSuite....
. Australia's mining services, equipment, and technology exports are over $2 billion annually.
The world first large scale remote operations centre for operation of the Rio Tinto mines in the Pilbara is located in the airport precinct in Perth – operating mines sites, ports, rail and logistics from a central remote location.
Lifestyle
Many mines in remote areas have a traditional company townCompany town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
(for example Roxby Downs or Leigh Creek
Leigh Creek, South Australia
Leigh Creek is a coal-mining town in the north of South Australia. At the 2006 census, Leigh Creek had a population of 549....
), or support towns that used to be company towns such as Broken Hill
Broken Hill, New South Wales
-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
and Mount Isa
Mount Isa, Queensland
-Culture and sport:The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, or MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months or so....
.
Most mines in remote areas are operated on a fly-in-fly-out
Fly-in fly-out
Fly-in fly-out is a method of employing people in remote areas. It is often abbreviated to FIFO when referring to employment status. This is common in large mining states in Australia...
basis where the miners' "home" and family remains in a major city, and the miners fly out to their mine for two weeks of solid work, then fly home for one week of rest. The roster may vary from site to site. 3 weeks on / 1 week off rosters are not uncommon and the working away period can be for much longer than 2 or 3 weeks. A fly-in-fly-out roster is common on offshore oil platform
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
s, as well as minesites located inland of Australia, such as Century, Challenger
Challenger Mine
The Challenger Mine is a gold mine in the Far North of South Australia, 165 km west of the Stuart Highway and 740 km north-west of Adelaide. It is operated by Dominion Mining.-History:The ore body was first discovered in 1995...
, Bronzewing and Yandicoogina minesites.
Free meals and accommodation are provided for employees as a means to offset the time spent living away from home. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are consumed and collected from the 'mess hall' at the mining camp. Living quarters provided at camp sites range from 2 by 4 metre portable homes to permanent 6 by 8 metre rooms with ensuites. Fridges, single beds, television, electricity and water are also provided with rooms.
Environment and politics
Bendigo, Victoria
Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...
and Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
can still be seen today. Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown, Tasmania
Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....
's mountains were also completely denuded through a combination of logging and pollution from a mine smelter, and remain bare today.
Uranium mining has been controversial, partly for its alleged environmental impact but more so because of its end uses in nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
and nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s. The Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, one of Australia's two major parties, maintains a policy of "no new uranium mines". As of 2006, the increased world demand for uranium has seen some pressure, both internally and externally on the ALP, for a policy change. Australia is a participant in international anti-proliferation efforts designed to ensure that no exported uranium is used in nuclear weapons.
Mining disasters
New Australia Gold Mine
Creswick in the Victorian goldfields was the site of the The New Australasian No.2 Deep Lead Gold Mine. At 4:45am, Tuesday 12 December 1882, 29 miners became trapped underground by flood waters that came from the flooded parallel-sunk No.1 mine shaft, only five men survived and made it to the surface. Despite two days of frantic pumping the waters filled the mine shaft. The trapped men scrawled last notes to their loved ones on billy cansBillycan
A billycan, more commonly known simply as a billy or occasionally as a billy can , is a lightweight cooking pot which is used on a campfire or a camping stove.-Usage and etymology of the term:...
before they drowned. Some of these have been kept and still bear the messages. The men that perished left 17 widows and 75 dependent children.
Mount Kembla
In 1883 a coal mine was opened near Mount Kembla in the Illawarra District of New South Wales. In 1902 there was an explosion in the mine and 96 men and boys lost their lives, either while at work or in the course of trying to save the lives of others. Every family in the village lost a relative. A service of commemoration is held annually on 31 July at the Mount Kembla Soldiers’ and Miners’ Memorial Church. This is the worst mining disaster in Australia’s history.Balmain Colliery
Balmain Colliery was located in BirchgroveBirchgrove, New South Wales
Birchgrove is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Birchgrove is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and produced coal from 1897 until 1931 and natural gas until 1945. During this period, 10 miners lost their lives in three separate incidents:
1900
On 17 March 1900, six miners were being lowered down the Birthday shaft. At 1,424 feet the bucket they were travelling in caught on a projection, tipped over and five of the six men fell to their death in the shaft. As a result of this accident, the Mining Act was amended to provide guide rails in shafts to prevent bucket swinging or overturning.
1932
In 1932, a year after the mine closed, a six inch bore was sunk below the Birthday shaft to pipe Natural Gas to the surface. During the sinking of the bore, two men were killed when the gas ignited and exploded.
1945
During the sealing of the Birthday shaft on 20 April 1945, a rudimentary test was being undertaken which ignited escaping gas and caused an explosion below the seal. The company manager and two men were killed in the accident and another two men injured.
North Mount Lyell
On 12 October 1912, the North Mount Lyell Fire1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster
The 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster refers to a fire that broke out on 12 October 1912 at the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company operations on the West Coast of Tasmania...
caused the death of 42 miners, and required breathing apparatus to be transported from Victorian mines at great speed, to rescue trapped miners. The subsequent royal commission was inconclusive as to the cause.
Mount Mulligan
The 1921 Mount Mulligan mine disasterMount Mulligan mine disaster
]]The Mount Mulligan mine disaster occurred on 19 September 1921 in Mount Mulligan, Far North Queensland, Australia. A series of explosions in the local coal mine, audible as much as 30 km away, rocked the close knit township....
occurred in Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...
. These explosions, caused by using naked flame for lighting, killed seventy-five men.
Moura
Four serious accidents have occurred at mines in the Central Queensland town of Moura, Queensland|Moura. The first accident took the lives of 13 men in September 1975. In July 1986 there was an explosion at Moura Number 4 Mine. 12 coal miners lost their lives in this disaster that sparked controversy after experts claimed the accident was avoidable. Another explosion killed two men in January 1994 and just eight months later another explosion deep underground took the lives of 11 men.Bronzewing
On 26 June 2000, at the Bronzewing Gold MineBronzewing Gold Mine
The Bronzewing Gold Mine is a gold mine located approximately 83 km north-east of Leinster, Western Australia. The mine, owned by Navigator Resources Limited, was, until early 2010, in care and maintenance after its previous owner, View Resources Limited went into administration.The mine is...
in Western Australia (400 kilometers from Kalgoorlie), 18,000 cubic meters of sand-slurry, sludge, mud and rock broke through a storage wall. Three men (Timothy Lee Bell, 21, Shane Hamill, 45 and Terrence Woodard, 26) were killed and eight escaped the 'accident'. It took over a month to retrieve the men from the site.
Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield, Tasmania
Beaconsfield is a town near the Tamar River, in the north-east of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 40 kilometres north of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway. It is part of the Municipality of West Tamar...
in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
collapsed. One miner, Larry Knight, was killed by the rock fall, and two others, Brant Webb and Todd Russel, were trapped, leading to a rescue mission that took two weeks to get them out alive.
Bulli
1887At 2.30pm on 23 March 1887, an explosion at the mine in Bulli
Bulli, New South Wales
Bulli is a northern suburb of Wollongong situated on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Bulli is derived from an Aboriginal word signifying "double or two mountains"....
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
killed 81 people. A special commission was set up to investigate the explosion and concluded:
This gas explosion propagated a coal dust explosion and travelled towards the fresh air at the surface. The commission was also of the opinion that the Deputy, Overman and to a lesser extent the Manager, were all guilty of contributing negligence.
1965
On 9 November 1965, a pocket of gas ignited in a panel several hundred yards from the main shaft and killed four miners. Ten mining rescue teams and the Southern Mines Rescue Station worked all night to extinguish the fire.
Box Flat Mine
At the Box Flat MineBox Flat Mine
The Box Flat Mine or Box Flat Colliery was located in Swanbank, Ipswich, Queensland. The mine opened in 1969 and operated until its closure in 1972. Its coal was mined for the operation of the Swanbank Power Station.-Explosion:...
in Swanbank
Swanbank, Queensland
Swanbank is a suburb of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The predominant land usage in Swanbank is industrial. The origin of the suburb name is from a place in Lanark, Scotland called Swanbank. It is named after the home of the Swan family birthplace of granddaughter Catherine, the wife of an early...
, South East Queensland
South East Queensland
South East Queensland is a region of the state of Queensland in Australia, which contains approximately two-thirds of the state population...
, 17 miners were lost after an underground gas explosion occurred on 31 July 1972. Another man died later from injuries sustained in the explosion. The mine tunnel mouths were sealed and the mine closed shortly after.
Australian mining in literature, art and film
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(1979 film, based on the play by John Power, who also wrote a novelisation of the film).