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The University of Wollongong Archives, through the efforts of Mr Ray Brown of the Black Diamond District Heritage Centre, Bulli, recently acquired an important collection of material relating to the former Bellambi Coal Company and associated enterprises such as the Federal Coke Company. These records (cat. no. D185) date from the 1860s and are the only substantial collection of Illawarra coal company archives at present housed in a public collection. Despite the very long tradition of coal mining in Illawarra - the first mine was opened at Mount Keira in 1849 - and the important role coal mining has played in the local economy, no substantial archival collection of this nature has previously been made readily accessible to researchers and the general public.
The collection includes correspondence, minute books, wage and production sheets, personnel records, maps, mining leases, publications, and reports dating from the 1860s, with the most substantial part covering the period 1890s-1940s. Supplementing the archive is a 1909 illustrated publication The Mines of the Bellambi Coal Co. Ltd. Southern Coal District, New South Wales, which presents a pictorial outline of the company’s operations. This book is characterised by perhaps the best images (with regards to quality and content) available of workings both above and below ground on the southern coalfields during this period.
Some illustrative material from the Bellambi Coal Company archive, along with other items relating to the coal mining heritage of northern Illawarra, are at present on display at the Black Diamond District Heritage Centre, Bulli Railway Station. Opening times: Sunday, 10am - 4pm.
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'Wheelers', Bellambi Coal Co. 1909 |
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