Mines

Rosewood Colliery (Photo: Harold Boughen)
Early coal loading gantry. Merv Nichol on the left. Harold James on the right.

Mines in Rosewood

Mines have existed in the Rosewood – Walloon area since the 1870’s.  Two that operated in Walloon were flooded in 1889 and closed and a new shaft called the Caledonian was opened on the north side of Walloon. Around the same time, coal was discovered in several locations close to the Rosewood rail line. In the 20th century, more mines opened to the west and north of the town.

A lot of the mines were found when the farmers were digging wells for water. If they found coal, they would dig and see how deep it was, and if they thought it was likely to be a good producer, they would start mining the area. Many mines only lasted two or three years unless they had enough reserves.

Mining began as underground which meant there were many dangers involved in the industry. One of the main dangers was from gases, including methane, ‘black dump’ and other poisonous gases. Ventilation shafts and exhaust fans were put in to help alleviate the problem. Other accidents occurred when the miners were hit or crushed by falling roof stone, skips overturned, or they fell down shafts. (Link to accidents blogpost)

In the early years, coal was wheeled out in barrows and later in skips that were winched out with a wire rope. Some used pit ponies. As shafts were sunk deeper, winding engines were used to raise and lower cages of men and equipment into the shafts. The ‘headframe’ or ‘poppet head’ was built above the shaft, and a cable ran from the winding engine over a wheel at the top of the head and was then attached to the top of the cage. The skips were wheeled into a cage and hauled to the surface with a winch operated by steam and later by car or truck motors before electricity became available.

Coal from north Rosewood was taken to Rosewood railway station by drays until a branch line to Marburg was built. Two railway branches from the main line were constructed to the mines at Lanefield Colliery (1934 to 1965) and Westvale Colliery (1929 to 1960).

Miners frequently had to crawl to dig the coal when the tunnels leading off the main shaft had low roofs. In Rosewood, some miners reported seeing fossils of plants and dinosaurs in the layers they dug into. One was found at Glencoe.

Image: Timber being used at Glencoe Mine around 1950. (Picture Ipswich)

Timber was used for holding up the shafts. The small brick building in the background of the Glencoe mine photo housed the explosives, and the smaller brick building that is partially hidden held the detonators. Nothing was wasted in the early days, especially during the depression years. The Stubbs family reported they had furniture made from old gelignite boxes in their house and others were used outside to make seed raising boxes to produce plants for their garden.

It was harder for the many small mines to compete. As mines became more mechanised, the dangers sometimes increased as miners could not hear above the noise of the machinery the sounds of roofs falling in. Handpicks were replaced by Pneumatic drills and rubber conveyor belts replaced skips.

Image: Merv Boughen using pneumatic pick 1946 miners’ strike, Poppy Joynson looking on (Picture Ipswich)

The coal produced at Rosewood was the quality needed for steam but as the trains moved over from steam power to diesel, shaft mining in Rosewood declined. Open cut mines began in 1973 allowing more coal to be accessed more easily and open cut replaced shaft mining.

Map: A map of mines in the Rosewood area. Qld Dept. of Mines.

Mines in the Rosewood area. This is not a definitive list and can be added to.

  • Amberfield – Amberley
  • Ardath Colliery, Lanefield
  • Bedwood – North Rosewood
  • Caledonian No. 1 to No. 6 – Thagoona, Mt Marrow and Haigslea areas.
  • Clarefield Colliery – 1924 -1925 west of Morlands opened by Thomas Burnside Clark in the 1930s and closed in the 40’s due to new ventilation rules.
  • Clydebank – Lanefield 1925 – 1928
  • Coalfield – Amberley
  • Commonwealth Colliery east of Rosewood
  • Commonwealth Colliery Ltd – 1903, northern side of the rail – same seam as Morelands
  • Duckenfield Colliery Tallegalla
  • Edenbank – near Perry’s Nob
  • Excelsior – North Rosewood
  • Glencoe – North Rosewood 1904 opened briefly and closed until 1911 when the Rosewood – Marburg branch line was built to make transporting coal less costly.
  • Gowrie Fern – near Clydebank 1923 – 1925
  • Hudson’s – North Rosewood
  • Lanefield Extended 3 on the south side of the Bremer River
  • Lanefield No. 1 opened in 1918 on Ned O’Donnell’s property. Closed 1927.
  • Lanefield No. 2 opened 1921 and extended into Lanefield No. 4 untll 1955.
  • Lowfield
  • Moorfield – Amberley
  • Morlands Mine – 1877 South of Rosewood rail line operated briefly
  • Mountain Ash No. 1 mine – 1924 – 1925 just south of the railway between Tallegalla and Birru. A total of 11 mines were operating in the Tallegalla area when coal production was at its peak.
  • Mt Elliott – Amberley area
  • New Mountain View – Tallegalla from 1945 – 1949 owned by the Rule family and Mr Eric Petie. Rule then acquired Oakleigh Colliery so they could use their licensce to sell the coal then Petie stayed with New Mountain.
  • Normanton Colliery was registered in 1923. No. 1 Colliery worked from 1922 to 1974 at North Rosewood. No. 2 Colliery at Mt Marrow from 1947 to 1954. The open cut mine at North Rosewood worked from 1974 to 1979. Normanton was started by John and Norman Boughen taking on Jock Trewick who held a mining ticket.
  • Oakleigh mine 1948 – 1999 – Rule family, became New Oakleigh mine when purchased by New Hope in 1999 and closed 2013. New Hope continued mining at its other mine Jeebropilly.
  • Rosemount Colliery
  • Rosewood Collieries Ltd – 1904 south of the rail line, 200m east of the Railway station. William Andrews, Thomas Murray and Will Haenke
  • Rosewood Colliery – North Rosewood – James Boughen took on a partner Jack Bruce 1916-17 and worked Little Jim for 3-4 years. James closed it, then in 1929 he reopened the tunnel and drove further down. He now called it Rosewood Colliery.
  • Roughrigg CollieryNo. 1 – Perry’s Knob opened 1927. Roughrigg No. 5 closed 1969
  • Smith field – near Clarefield
  • Tallegalla mine 1924-1925
  • United – North Rosewood
  • Westfalen – Near Caledonian
  • Westvale – Lanefield

 

Resources

Books

The best guide to the history of coal mining in this region is the series of three books by R. L. Whitmore.

Whitmore, R. L. (Raymond Leslie), 1920- (1981). Coal in Queensland : the first fifty years : a history of early coal mining in Queensland. St. Lucia ; London ; New York: University of Queensland Press.

Whitmore, R. L. (Raymond Leslie) (1991). Coal in Queensland : the late nineteenth century, 1875 to 1900. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.

Whitmore, R. L. (Raymond Leslie) (1991). Coal in Queensland : from federation to the twenties, 1900 to 1925. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.

 

Places

Cooneana Heritage Centre, 1041 Redbank Plains Road, New Chum, Qld.

Here you will find Jim Donald House, an early 20th century miner’s cottage, named after the hardworking unionist and parliamentarian, Jim Donald. It is used to display coal mining exhibits, together with the exterior displays of mining machinery. It is the only specialised coal mining museum in the Ipswich area.

Our Coal Mining Heritage. (n.d.) Ipswich Historical Society.

 

Films

The New Ipswich
Made by the National Film Board, this video was made at the suggestion of those in Ipswich, England to show them Ipswich, Queensland and share the typical Australian country centre, which was possibly named after them. It contains some rare video footage, showing workers beginning their day shift at an Ipswich Coal Mine, in 1947. This is what it would have been like in the Rosewood mines. You can view the full video showing life in Ipswich in the 1940s online, with the miners appearing at the 2:40 mark and running to 3:23.   

The New Ipswich 2018. National Film and Sound Archives. 3 August.

Ipswich Rosewood Coal Miners Memorial A night-time ceremony marks the completion of stage 2 of the Ipswich Rosewood Coal Miners Memorial. (4:04mins)

Ipswich Rosewood Coal Miners Memorial. 2016. YouTube 14 December

 

Interviews

Betty Boughen in an interview on Picture Ipswich said there were 27 working mines in the area and 527 miners. “Before the war they started because anybody that was in the mines, although they were called up, they wouldn’t take them. They were classified. 527 miners. You’d get them from Ipswich. They’d walk from Ipswich some of them. Some of them would ride bikes.”

 

Monuments

Ipswich & Rosewood Coalminers Memorial – The monument commemorates the 186 miners who died while digging for coal in the Ipswich and Rosewood mines between 1858 and 1997.  It features two cement pylons, representing a stratigraphic image of the Ipswich and Rosewood coalfields, placed in front of a 20-metre bronze wall bearing the names of those miners lost.

Ipswich and Rosewood Coalminers Memorial. 2024. Monument Australia. https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/disaster/industrial/display/98862-ipswich-and-rosewood-coalminers-memorial

 

Images

Picture Ipswich Images collated on Pinterest