98 COALFIELDS AND COLLIERIES OF AUSTRALIA. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



NEW SOUTH AY ALES AYESTEEX DISTRICT. 



The coal lands in this district (Fig. 36) are either free- 

 holds belonging to the companies that work them, or are 

 leased from the Government. 



The seam worked has better coal in the middle than top 

 and bottom, where it is dirty, though individual bands of coal 

 are good in the top and bottom coal. AA 7 ith the exception of 

 the colliery owned by the Great Cobar Limited, only the 

 middle coal is worked. The top coal makes a good roof, and 

 above that the true sandstone roof stands well. The coal con- 

 tains pyrites, not as nodules, but as films in partings and 

 cleavages, as if it had been painted on. In this form it offers 

 no difficulty in winning the coal. The facings in the coal do 

 not continue for any great distance, though occasionally a 

 main facing is met with, but these occur too far apart to be 

 systematically made use of. The coal is too jointy to hole in 

 for more than fifteen to eighteen inches, and rarely three 

 feet. aSTo shooting is required, and if powder was used, the 

 force of the explosive would be largely expended in 

 the numerous joints. Rolls or washaways are found con- 

 fined to the coal, which do not extend to the roof or floor. The 

 mines are not wet, but the coal is moist, so no dust is formed. 

 The coal is not subject to fires, neither is firedamp found, so 

 naked lamps are used for lighting purposes. Those collieries 

 at the western end of the valley are worked from tunnels, 

 while those at the eastern end are worked from shafts. 



Besides the seam of coal worked, which thins out at the 

 edge of the basin (first the top coal and then the rest of the 

 seam, giving place to a carbonaceous shale), there is a poor 

 splint coal, one to two feet thick, about 50ft. higher up, also 

 another seam about 250ft. higher still, but neither of these 

 vseams are any good about Lithgow, though they become better 

 near AYallerawang. 



The Lithgow A r alley Colliery. 



This colliery belongs to the Lithgow Valley Colliery Com- 

 pany, which also owns the Hermitage Colliery. They are 

 both under the management of Mr. J. Campbell, who has 

 been in the company's employment for twenty-six years. For 

 the past twenty years he has been manager, that is since 

 the death of the former manager, who was unfortunately 

 killed by fumes caused by a fire in the Lithgow Valley Col- 

 liery, that was started by an underground boiler igniting the 

 coal near it. The miners played water on the fire and filled it 



