Mussel Point, cliff face coal mine at Nine Mile.1931- 35. - ALBUM -

About this image

DescriptionMussell point mine 1931 to 35 for 8750 ton. I got up into this old mine in the weekend, its a very low seam like Kayes mine at 12 mile. You hear of the men shoveling while kneeling on sacks This would be one of those. The timber looks good in places. The coal went up the frame pic one and the men climbed down it to work..

Opened by Clifton Curtis and Party in 1931,this small operation obtained coal from the outcrops on the escarpment immediately above the beach.The party erected a 50 ton bin by the road,and a winding plant and rails for their one box railway hoist was constructed down and over the cliff nearly 60 metres.Access was always going to be a problem for the shareholders.At high tide travelling along the beach is impossible.With mainly development work in the first few months only 391 tons was produced in 1931 but the hard work paid off in the following year when 2,500 tons was produced, but any further development was difficult as numerous small step faults hindered expansion.The workings in the eastern section of the mine were prematurely faulted by an upthrow fault, so work was shifted to the South. Unfortunately this part of the seam soon thinned down to less than a metre, and it necessitated the introduction of the short-wall metod of mining.On Nov 4th 1943,Neil Forsyth the mine manager found that a quantity of slack coal that had been put in a disused heading, had heated.7 men were employed at the time.To cool the affected area sufficiently, water was used to get the materials temperature down,so that it could be dumped outside.This was the only recorded hiccup in the mine`s operation.The mine closed in 1935 and the total production was 8,785 tonsDate of Photo1931 - 35Map^[1]Contributor Moe Bowes

Shown in this image

Location (city or town)Mussel Point9 MileLandmark (Place)Mussel Point, cliff face coal mine Organisation (eg business)Mussel Point, cliff face coal mine

Category Information

Category TagCoal Mining

From Facebook

Date Created11th January 2021

OCR Text Transcription Edit Edit +-Close