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Over the years, Tomago, near Hexham on the Hunter River, has been famous for a popular speedway, the former Courtaulds factory, industries, a detention centre and shipbuilding, as well as aluminium.
Much less known, perhaps, is that it's also the location of a lost Lower Hunter coal mine lasting almost 20 years.
Well-known Hunter coal mining historian, the late John Shoebridge, made it his mission to discover as much as he could on the subject before passing away in 2019.
His meticulous research into the pioneer pit has luckily not vanished. Shoebridge was a prolific contributor to specialist magazine Light Railways, and was preparing new material when fate intervened.
That's when the magazine's NSW secretary, Ross Mainwaring, stepped in to ensure that his story wouldn't be lost to Hunter history.
"The article was all on his computer. I just completed it for publication with maps and photos. Very few people probably realise a mine was active at Tomago so many years ago," Mainwaring said.
The Tomago coal seam, however, proved inferior to the famous Borehole seam.
The result is John Shoebridge's final article that appears in the recent June issue of Light Railways magazine (LRM).
Entitled Failed dreams and broken promises - the sad saga of the Tomago Coalfield (1854-1873), it's spread over 11 pages with illustrations.
The pit was a valiant undertaking (being about 400ft or 121m deep) with an isolated colliery railway leading to a shallow river. The solution was a unique "drop ship" anchored in the deepest part of Newcastle harbour. This was serviced by coal barges, hauled by a steam tug, shuttling coal from the company's Tomago wharf.
The Tomago coal seam, however, proved inferior to the famous Borehole seam. Compounding problems was the introduction of cranes on Newcastle waterfront helping coal rivals.
New owners came and went, and Shoebridge reported that by 1888 the waterlogged mine had been long abandoned. By 1891, it was also the end of the Tomago village of 40 cottages and the Tomago Inn.
Construction of the Courtaulds (Australia) factory making Rayon fibre from 1944 meant that most of the mine site and Tomago village was obliterated in the process.
In 1983, the Tomago Aluminium smelter began operations instead on the site, removing any traces of the bold colonial coal enterprise.
It all reminded me, however, of how dangerous mining could potentially be. No fatalities apparently occurred at Tomago, or at least Shoebridge didn't highlight any.
But about 1800 Hunter mining deaths have occurred over the past 200 years. Known fatalities are today remembered on the Jim Comerford wall at Aberdare.
In a recent Weekender article, I also wrote about the former Mining Music Shell at Freemans Waterhole that opened in 1972 to commemorate Hunter Valley mining deaths. This was built in direct response to the 1966 Wyee State Mine tragedy when five miners died.
Soon after the article appeared, June Hill, now 84 of Maryland, contacted me to speak about a personal connection to the October 1966 mining disaster.
Two members of her family, including her brother George, of West Wallsend, died in mining accidents within a few years of each other.
"My uncle Steve was among those who died in a roof fall, from memory, on October 21, 1966, at Wyee," she said.
"He was the mine deputy, and was 44 years old when killed with the others.
"Soon after, in 1972, the commemorative music shell opened at Freemans Waterhole. All our family were there at the opening.
"My brother, George Barr, said to me at the time, 'I wonder who's next'. And he was the next one killed, only about weeks later from memory. Both were lovely blokes.
"Everyone knew George in West Wallsend. He trained the young soccer players there. They later formed an honour guard at his funeral.
"He was an outstanding man who left a 10-year-old daughter. I go up to the Comerford memorial mining wall (at Aberdare) to see his name there.
"We all said, 'I wish George hadn't gone to work that day', but he did. The odd thing was that he had hurt his foot, he had a sore foot. Then, down the mine when they heard the roof cracking, I believe he couldn't run quickly enough to get away.
"Others escaped, but then came back to help, but it was too late.
"A relative later told me that by co-incidence soon before George went to work he'd actually been reading about the earlier mine tragedy," Mrs Hill said.
FORGOTTEN PIONEER
AUSTRALIA'S wild frontier was always dominated by men, or was it?
Author Jeff McGill is the great-great grandson of Rachel Kennedy (1845-1930), who was once a legend around the remote Warrumbungle mountains (now NSW's fourth national park), north-west of Merriwa.
McGill said he first met Rachel in 1982, half a century after her death, and became totally fixated with the oft-repeated stories of this folk hero.
In warm prose in The Bulletin a writer once even described the noted horsewoman as "Australia's greatest pioneer women of them all". Unfortunately, however, Rachel didn't leave behind any diaries or journals, so it was up to former newspaper editor McGill to painstakingly piece together the puzzle of her life story over decades of research.
Initially, McGill feared the stories might be exaggerations, or, at worst, plain lies. But he was proved wrong, and he has created a compelling tale of a generally unknown pioneer who broke all the rules, even building rare friendships with Aboriginal people of the era.
The result is his 324-page book, Rachel. In it, a vivid, passionate pen portrait emerges of an extraordinary woman, who even today casts a long shadow.
"I hope this book still sounds like oral history, a campfire yarn . . . but with a firm skeleton of evidence," McGill writes.
And what a life. The resilient Rachel caught brumbies, went to war with wealthy wool kings (and troopers), hid bushrangers, worked as a bush nurse, fed starving families during shearing strikes and fought for the underdog after seeing how the Chinese were treated on the goldfields.
Rachel was long labelled a troublemaker by the rural gentry, but her wild flame burned bright to the end.
McGill's book moves at a cracking pace, packed with fascinating insights about an often brutal and unjust country life in "the good old days". An impressive achievement.
Rachel by Jeff McGill, Allen and Unwin, $32.99
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