Lang’s Colliery

(1913 – 1955)

                Location: Mt Pleasant

                Owner:   Alexander Lang

Manager:

                Closed: 1922

                Reopens: 1951

Owner: AI&S

Closed: 1955

1909 - Owen’s Balgownie Colliery (Hon. Robert Owen M. L. C.) was formed from Portions 47, 48, 49 50 & 62 from Mt Pleasant Colliery. The tunnel was in ML 36 giving access to the Balgownie seam in Por 49.

The mine closed in May, 1913, to be taken over by Alexander Lang who held Lots 38 & 39 south of the Balgownie Coal Co land.

Lasted until 1922 at which time the Mount Kembla Extended Colliery was formed by a Mr. Adam Frost.

1951 – AI&S reopen Lang’s tunnels in Portions 52 and 53 of the old Illawarra Colliery extracting coal from both the Bulli and the Balgownie seams and using road transport to Port Kembla.

1955 – Dec, AI&S close the Lang Tunnels permanently.

(J. L. N. Southern 1984)

                Located immediately west of Balgownie.

The coal was used at a slaughter house nearby. The seam worked was 8 feet thick and would be the Tongarra? The coal burnt very well.

                from a paper by G. Sellers, 1976, The Illawarra Coalfield – A Brief History to 1905 presented at the AusIMM Conference, Illawarra, 1976.