Awaba Colliery.

Awaba was a state enterprise from the start. In June 1947 the government reserved 8,500 acres in the district for state mining, and small-scale production was expected within months. The mine was run first by the State Coal Mines Control Board, then from 1950 by the State Mines Control Authority, and it passed to the Electricity Commission of New South Wales in 1973. Its purpose was fixed throughout: coal for the state's power stations, and for Wangi above all.

The coal came out by bord and pillar, cut by continuous miners, and in the later years by working back through the pillars left in the first passes. Forty pit horses worked underground in the early decades, and the last of them were still in service in 1965. Over its life the mine produced more than 35 million tonnes, though by the end it was a small operation, about 85 workers raising some 800,000 tonnes a year.

In 2002 the state sold its Powercoal mines to Centennial Coal, and in 2011 Centennial was bought by the Thai company Banpu. The last shift at Awaba was on 23 December 2011, and underground work ceased in March 2012 with the seam worked out. The drifts and shafts were sealed the same year. The surface pit top was kept on as a service yard for the neighbouring Newstan mine, and a proposal to flood the sealed workings as a pumped hydro reservoir reached a feasibility report in August 2022.