1C8 OUR COAL AND OUfi COAL POUTS. 



I may here mention, smelt annually on the river bank at Port 

 "Waratah no less than 25,000 tons of poor Moonta copper ore 

 from South Australia, which averages only 6 per cent, of copper, 

 and yet pays well. 



I trust that these suggestions for Newcastle may find more 

 favour than the only other plan I have heard of for facilitating 

 the coal shipping trade — namely, by the costly utilization of 

 Bullock Island, between Port Waratah on the river and New- 

 castle itself. By this plan I think the increased accommodation 

 could be made available in less than a quarter of the time, and 

 for less than a quarter of the expense, than by the proposed 

 adoption of Bullock Island — for the present, at any rate. I may 

 mention here that it is probable that in remoter days, and when 

 Sydney itself may require relief from overgrowing trade, a rail- 

 way branch line from the Great Northern will cross the Hunter 

 Eiver at Hexham, and go direct to deep water at Salamander Bay 

 (Port Stephens), by an easy line, not exceeding twenty-five miles, 

 and then make that port the great outlet for all or most of the 

 general northern trade, and for coal ships of greater draught than 

 can enter the splendid harbour of Port Jackson. 



So much, then, for our northern coal ports. But having headed 

 this paper " Our Coal and our Coal Ports," I must add a few 

 remarks on the subject of our coal fields and coal ports south of 

 lake Macquarie, herein expressed. 



Coming south for the utilization of more of our wonderful coal 

 fields, it is, I think, extremely doubtful whether our fine port at 

 Broken Bay may ever come in for coal shipments. Broken Bay 

 lies too near the inA'erted apex of the great coal basin on oiir coast 

 (between Coalcliff" and Bulli to the south, Lake IMacquarie to the 

 north, and Bowenfels and Nattai to the westward) to sanction 

 the belief that the deep sinking that would be required there 

 could be warranted. In the Old World alone could such a parallel 

 case be profitably availed of. 



Farther south, and below Sydney, we come to the north-easterly 

 dip and out-crop of the great coal basin at Coalclifi*, Bulli, and 

 Wollongong. The illimitable supplies of coal immediately at 

 those places and on the seaside can only be used by the adoption 

 of steam colhers and small vessels plying to and from Sydney or 

 Melbourne. Such shipping appliances from that direction can 

 never do more than make a small impression on the future demand 

 from all parts of the world. 



About forty miles south of Wollongong, at Kangaroo Creek, 

 in the Shoalhaven country, we have one of the finest seams of 

 coal existing anywhere, being 12 feet thick. It is, however, 

 extremely improbable that these coals will be used for export, as 

 tlie access by the Shoalhaven Eiver, or by Jervis Bay, seems to 

 be impracticable. 



