Changeroom Handwash Basins

The washhouse at Elrington Colliery was a functional space built for a specific purpose: getting men clean after a shift underground. The handwash basins mounted to the wall here were part of that daily routine for every worker who came up from the Main Greta Seam, 363 metres below the surface, carrying the black dust of hard bituminous coal on their hands and faces. Elrington Colliery was developed by BHP Collieries Proprietary Limited, with principal shareholders the Broken Hill Pty. Company Ltd. and Hebburn Limited. The railway branch to the site opened on 14 January 1924, and the first train ran on 13 June 1928. Coal production commenced in 1930, drawn up through two concrete-lined shafts, each 18 feet in diameter, sunk to reach the Main Greta Seam at 1,190 feet below the surface. The mine was established specifically to supply coal to BHP's Newcastle steelworks. BHP designed the colliery to produce 3,000 tonnes per day. That figure was never reached. By 1950, actual output ran at approximately 1,500 tonnes per day, roughly half the planned capacity. The mine carried the informal name "the Peter Pan Colliery" for exactly that reason: like Peter Pan, it never grew up. The colliery closed in December 1962. At that point approximately 90 men were affected, and large reserves of coal remained unworked in the seam. BHP cited persistent operating losses. The railway branch was dismantled in 1963. These basins were photographed in 2017. The pipework is still in place. The wall surface behind them has aged and peeled. The washhouse has not been used for its original purpose for more than six decades, but the fittings record exactly what this room was for and who it was built to serve.