Kembla Grange Colliery

(Rev 1.0)

                Opened: 1909

Location: West Dapto – Lots 193 and 182, parish of Kembla. [Note: RT138 shows lots 192,193 and 16.]

                Owner:   New South Wales Brick Company

Manager: Mr G.W. Howlett

Closed: RT138 as the abandonment plan shows single entry workings in lot 193 only and abandoned  on 24-02- 1975.

1909 – “The work of opening up a new mine at West Dapto by the NSW Brick Company is being rapidly pushed on. All the surveys have been completed for the incline, and an open cut 25 ft. wide is being put into No. 3 seam, which is about 16 ft. thick, of good coal. This is now in about 60 yds. The Manager (Mr. Hawlett) in developing the property intends to stope up to Nos. 1 and 2 seams in the main heading, and by going in about 12 ft. wide and 8 ft. high anticipates striking solid coal. In the three seams it is expected that there will be 21 ft. of working coal. A large plat is being cleared for an entrance to the mine and the incline will be about three-quarters of a mile long. A water supply is to be obtained by putting in a concrete dam 30 ft. high. The water will be pumped up to the top workings, but as not a very great quantity is used, this will not prove a drawback. The system of haulage decided upon from the mine to the screens, a distance of one mile, is the endless rope, the grade being suitable in every way for such haulage. So far the roof struck in No. 1 is a sort of flinty shale, while in that of No. 2 the bottom is excellent fireclay and at the top of the seam is of clean sandstone. There is plenty of timber available and a good road has been cut down from the mine through Reen’s property. The manager expects to send away trial samples of the coal in about a fortnight.” (SMH 23^rd Aug 1909)

1909, 25^th Sept. - Mr. G.W. Howlett notifies DoM that he had commenced a drive for the purpose of opening out a coal seam on lots 193 and 182, parish of Kembla, and the name of the mine would be “Kembla Grange”. Also listed as being “abandoned” (DoMAR 1909)

1909 – A. Stewart listed as Owner and G. B. Grant as Manager (DoMAR 1909)

1910 - Kembla Grange Colliery, West Dapto – recommenced. Also listed among mines having “very little” work undertaken during the year. (DoMAR 1910)

1911 – DoMAR – Extract from a report by L.F. Harper on a “Coal-bearing area held by the Kembla Harbour Colliery Syndicate”. Good sections of the Measures obtained elsewhere in the neighbourhood reveal the presence of seven seams of coal and the relative positions of the four of the seams located on portion 193, parish of Kembla, and the large accumulation of talus with dense brush lends weight to the assumption that the other three seams are present but hidden from view.

Kembla Grange Colliery location – 1915 Map