Keeping Hunter mining's historic wheels of time in sight

Considering the Wallsend district's rich mining past, Cameron Park is a very fitting site.

That was the original buzz after Weekender stumbled across a mystery mine pit head wheel on the ground at Booragul.

First spied several months ago, the lonely wheel of a mine poppet head is today still temporarily stored in the open on grass (and rusting) behind the re-badged Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, or MAC yapang.

Initial inquiries revealed that the momentum for this new art installation at the Sugar Valley Library Museum seemed to have stalled, with staff involved in the original initiative apparently moved onto projects elsewhere.

After several days of inquiries, a Lake council representative rang to say that: "The wheel you inquired about is being repaired and will be in the (Sugar Valley Library Museum) public strategy for the future".

Well, maybe, or maybe not. Time will tell.

Part of the problem is the Sugar Valley Museum doesn't have a lot of external space, being part of a shopping plaza precinct.

The sole mining wheel was apparently donated from somewhere by mining company Glencore.

Three days later as the last-minute deadline approached for this article, it emerged that Lake Macquarie City Council staff might now be considering other plans for the coal mining relic.

Weekender was assured proposals were under way to relocate it (from Booragul), "but a suitable site is yet to be finalised".

That's good news for Hunter Valley families who have mining links going back generations.

It's also hoped though that the relic doesn't fall into the too-hard basket.

For many people still remember the huge mining frame and poppet head that once towered over the King Street/Stewart Avenue intersection at Newcastle West, behind the old Newcastle Museum, before that institution moved to Honeysuckle.

The heritage landmark reflected the city's now distant past, including 19th century estuary mining, long before BHP Steelworks (now also a memory) came in 1915 to dominate the industrial scene.

By all reports, this gigantic metal framework ended up in storage, unwanted for now, at City of Newcastle's Summerhill while awaiting a new use.

Meanwhile, coal mining has been the lifeblood of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Northern Coalfields, and now the Upper Hunter, for more than 190 years.

It's little wonder then Newcastle Harbour is regarded as the world's largest coal export port, despite recent seismic shifts in attitudes over future energy sources with climate change.

Coal mines once dotted Lower Hunter sites, and although few now survive, their passing is often marked by conspicuous mining memorials.

So, while some old mining townships such as Kurri Kurri today mark their history by erecting objects like the impressive pit horse statue and coal skip (since late 2021 ) in its main street, other places have chosen to remember the pioneer days of Hunter mining in a more subdued way.

Besides memorial plaques, the most common form is often erecting a lower, mini replica of a poppet head, minus its tower frame, but highlighting a colliery wheel, or wheels, rescued from an historic mine.

Before open cut pits, underground mining dominated the Hunter Valley. Poppet heads then used to sit atop the towering metal framework above a mine shaft.

The twin wheels supported the winding mechanism that hauled coal, miners and equipment to the coalfaces deep below.

There are already at least five such reminders in Lake Macquarie alone, from a Kahibah Park to Elermore Vale, to reflect the former importance of mine sites as workplaces and early community hubs.

There's even one, now often overlooked, by the busy highway at Charlestown to remind us how the suburb of Charlestown (from 1876) originated from "Charles' Pit" in the former Raspberry Gully, below today's suburb.

Today, this memorial is very easy to miss, sitting on the edge of a small park beside the Pacific Highway and opposite the turnoff to Dudley.

Completed in December 1973, the Rotary Park sculpture commemorates the mining venture leading to the early settlement of Charlestown. It comprises a three-metre tall shaft headframe wheel salvaged from the Raspberry Gully coalmine site (1873-1961).

The memorial is dedicated to the coal mining pioneers, and the wheel is one of the last relics of the famous Waratah Colliery there that was demolished in 1969.

Look closely, and almost obscured by plants below the wheel is the sculptured figure of miner Tom Boyd, who is bent over with a pick engaged in the back-breaking work hewing coal long ago.

Undoubtedly the best, most intact example of a poppet head (and its mining frame) is also the tallest, and comes with a bit of history.

It's the eye-catching structure standing in the grounds of the Newcastle Mines Rescue Station at Argenton.

The historic poppet head was first installed at the West Wallsend Colliery in 1884.

Then, in a later bid to preserve it for posterity, it was moved to the Freemans Waterhole Music Shell and Mining Museum in April 1977.

It was then finally moved to its present location in Kindyerra Reserve at Argenton in 2009.

And what a lifesaver coal was in the Lower Hunter in years past.

I knew, say, that the Greta coal measures supported 66 collieries between 1861 and 1995, but the overall pit numbers were much higher.

Surprisingly, a rough count of mines between 1831 and 2010 revealed more than 120 pits once existing in just the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie areas, including at least 59 in the lake region alone.

And mines turned up in the most surprising places, in the modern age anyway.

One existed even in Newcastle's popular Blackbutt Reserve (from 1955 to 1979).

Perhaps the most practical, if truncated, version of a poppet head mining memorial you might easily find though is at the former John Darling Colliery (1925-1987) at Belmont North.

It's hard to believe that the site, now a Christian college, once employed an estimated 3400 workers over its 62-year operating life. Up until 1969, when shortwall mining began on site, the mine was also famous for its big surface stables and employing an army of "pit ponies" instead of heavy machinery underground.

Now, let's return to Booragul's large, spoked orphan mining wheel.

If all else fails, may I humbly suggest consideration be given to installing a new artwork at some future stage in the spacious grounds of the lake's only waterside art gallery (MAC yapang) in the sculpture park near the former Awaba House?

There are already 15 striking artworks dotting the lawns representing the region's cultural diversity.

It's a great initiative and while the lone, donated Glencore mining wheel isn't a sculpture in the traditional sense, let's think creatively to reflect the Lower Hunter's mining heritage.