Main Workshop Area

The main workshop floor at Awaba Colliery sits as it was left. Twin rail tracks run the full length of the concrete floor, converging toward a corrugated metal wall at the far end. A large cylindrical machine, light green beneath heavy rust, anchors the right side of the space below a gantry crane. A sign reading "Johnson-Hepburn" hangs from the crane. Along the left wall, a lubrication bay remains in place, yellow buckets and white bulk containers stacked beside a waste-oil drum, the grease fittings still nearby. Skylights push filtered light down through the dust onto equipment that has not moved since the mine closed. Awaba Colliery operated from 1947 to 2012, a drift mine sunk into the Lake Macquarie coalfield to reach the Great Northern Seam. The NSW Government established the operation as the Awaba State Coal Mine, with its formal public opening on 14 July 1948 by Premier James McGirr. The mine was built with a specific purpose: supply thermal coal to Wangi Power Station to support state-wide electricity generation. A dedicated railway branch line opened on 25 May 1954 to carry coal directly from the pit top to the power station. The mine passed through successive operators across its life. The State Coal Mines Control Board managed the early years, succeeded in March 1950 by the State Mines Control Authority. In 1973, ownership transferred to the Electricity Commission of New South Wales, with day-to-day management through its subsidiary Elcom Collieries Pty Ltd. The Electricity Commission was later corporatised and renamed Pacific Power; its coal mines consolidated under PowerCoal Pty Ltd. The NSW Government sold PowerCoal to Centennial Coal Company Ltd in August 2002 for $331 million. Centennial Coal was itself acquired by Thailand's Banpu Public Company Ltd in 2011. By the end, Awaba Colliery employed approximately 85 workers and produced around 800,000 tonnes of thermal coal per year. Mining ceased in March 2012 when reserves in the Great Northern Seam were exhausted. The last shift ran on 23 December 2011. The workshop, the gantry crane, the lubrication bay, and the equipment left on the floor were all photographed here in 2015.