CHAPTER XIV 



The Southern Coalfield, N.S.W. 



The Southern Coal Field is in great contrast to most coal 

 fields so far as scenery is concerned. The surface works of the 

 various collieries are located in the scrub belt, rich in palnis, 

 creepers, ferns, and other vegetable life. When walking along 

 a bush track where the trees meet overhead, and an occasional 

 glimpse of the South Pacific Ocean is caught in the near 

 distance, coal mining, with its accompanying noise and dirt, 

 is one of the last things to enter one's mind. Yet it is going 

 on underfoot all the time. 



Some idea of the dip of the coal basin may be obtained 

 by observing the level of the outcrop above the sea along 

 the South Coast. At Mount Kenibla, which is the furthest 

 south productive colliery, the tunnels are about 800 feet above 

 sea level; at Mount Kiera they are about 715 feet; at Mount 

 Pleasant, 548; at Corrimal, 498; 011 reaching North Bulli (Cole- 

 dale) the outcrop is 300 feet above the sea; at South Clifton 

 (Scarborough) the seam is found outcropping 166 feet above 

 the sea, but although the travelling road has its entrance on 

 the face of the cliff, the coal is raised from shafts ir order to 

 gain height, as the coal is sent away by rail. At Coal Cliff the 

 seams crop out at sea level, while at the Metropolitan Colliery 

 (Helensburgh) nine miles further north, it is 1100 feet deep. 

 The Sydney Harbour colliery, the deepest in the State, reached 

 coal at 2880 feet. 



Of the five workable seams in the Illawarra series, opera- 

 tions have only been carried on in three. The Upper, or Bulli 

 seam, is the main one, which is being worked by all the col- 

 lieries. The four-foot seam has been worked to a limited 

 extent at the Mount Pleasant and Bulli collieries, and a bed of 

 kerosene shale was worked some years ago at the base of 



Mount Kembla. 

 I 



