A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.
A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.

Basement

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
15mm · f/8.0 · 13.0 sec · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the mid-ground. An overturned office chair sits on top of a desk. Long shadows stretch across the concrete floor. Chain-link fencing lines one wall with bright rectangular windows visible beyond it. White PVC pipe runs down a column to the right. Exposed timber joists cross the ceiling overhead.

Edition
Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD
Size
Type
Colour
✓
Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.
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In situ

A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.A coiled rope hangs from a brick column in the basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery, with an overturned office chair on a desk and shadows across the concrete floor.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Basement
Series
Awaba Colliery
Catalogue
AWB-023
Process
Giclée
Captured
20 December 2015
Camera
NIKON D7000
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
13.0 sec s
ISO
100
Focal length
15 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Location
Awaba
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Awaba

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The basement of the administration building at Awaba Colliery sits below ground level, its brick columns, timber ceiling joists, and concrete floor intact long after the last shift. A coiled rope hangs from one of the columns. An office chair has been tipped onto a desk. Chain-link fencing lines one wall, and beyond it rectangular windows let in flat, even light. White PVC pipe runs down a column on the right. The space reads as a room that was cleared in a hurry and then left. Awaba Colliery, formally the Awaba State Coal Mine, began development in 1947 on a lease of 8,500 acres in the Awaba district of Lake Macquarie, reserved by the NSW Government for state mining operations that same year. The mine was formally opened on 14 July 1948 by Premier James McGirr. It was built specifically to supply thermal coal to Wangi Power Station, and a dedicated railway branch line was opened on 25 May 1954 to carry the coal there. Underground access was via an inclined drift rather than a vertical shaft, which meant no headframe ever stood on the surface above. The primary seam was the Great Northern Seam, worked by bord-and-pillar methods using continuous miners. Over 65 years the mine changed hands several times. The State Mines Control Authority managed it from March 1950, followed by the Electricity Commission of New South Wales from 1 July 1973, then Pacific Power and its coal subsidiary PowerCoal. In August 2002, PowerCoal was sold to Centennial Coal Company Ltd for $331 million, and Awaba became part of the Centennial Newstan operation. Centennial Coal was itself acquired by Thai group Banpu Public Company Ltd in 2011. By the time Centennial announced closure in November 2011, the mine had 85 workers and was producing approximately 800,000 tonnes of thermal coal per year. The last shift ran on 23 December 2011. Final cessation of all underground mining followed in March 2012, when the Great Northern Seam reserves were exhausted. All mine entries were sealed that year. The surface pit top, including this administration building, was retained to service the adjacent Newstan Colliery. This photograph was made in 2015, three years after the last coal came out of the ground.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The basement level beneath the administration building at Awaba Colliery holds the remnants of an office that long outlasted the mine it served. A coiled rope hangs from a brick column, an overturned chair rests on a desk, and shadows stretch the length of the concrete floor. Awaba operated from 1947 until March 2012, when coal reserves in the Great Northern Seam were exhausted. By the end, 85 workers remained on site. After closure, all underground entries were sealed and the surface pit top was retained as a service facility for the adjacent Newstan Colliery.

Brett Patman

Awaba Colliery

The series

Awaba Colliery

1947 to 2012 · 24 photographs

Awaba Colliery worked the Great Northern Seam at Awaba, on the western side of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, from 1947 until 2012. The state opened the mine to supply thermal coal to Wangi Power Station, and from 1954 a branch railway carried the coal there. It was a drift mine, entered by an inclined tunnel rather than a vertical shaft, so it never carried a headframe. Mining ended in March 2012 when the workable coal in the seam ran out, and the entries were sealed that year.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM AWABA COLLIERY

23 other prints in this series

All prints
Yellow crane isolator sign and electrical switching panels on the workshop wall at Awaba Colliery, with a metal ladder and orange electric shock warning cabinet visible.
Workshop Switchroom $100.00
Rusted workshop shelving and faint floor rail tracks inside the colliery workshop at Awaba, with a crane bearing the name "Morison Bearby" visible overhead and a white cup resting on the concrete floor.
Workshop Shelves $100.00
A large vent fan in green mesh caging in a basement workshop at Awaba Colliery, with a partial red danger sign on a brick column and a drill press with coiled hoses in the foreground.
Vent Fan $100.00
Empty shelving units and a faded fire extinguisher sign on the rendered wall of a workshop bay at Awaba Colliery, with graffiti near two windows and exposed pipes overhead.
Workshop Bay $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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