Exterior entrance of a brick and corrugated-iron workshop building, looking outward toward an open yard. Doorway open to daylight. Overhead structure visible at the frame edge. Concrete floor at threshold. Rail infrastructure implied by the wagon-repair function of the space.
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The electrical workshop at Elrington Colliery near Abernethy, NSW, was a working hub within the colliery's surface infrastructure. Under one roof it held the electrician's shop, the machine shop, and the compressor room. Standard-gauge rail ran into the building so coal wagons could be brought directly inside for repair, a practical arrangement that kept the surface operation moving without having to shift heavy rolling stock by hand. This photograph, made in 2017, records the workshop entrance looking out toward the yard, the open doorway framing the flat light of a Hunter Valley afternoon. Elrington Colliery was developed by BHP Collieries Proprietary Ltd, with principal shareholders the Broken Hill Pty. Company Ltd. and Hebburn Limited. The mine was purpose-built to supply coking coal to BHP's Newcastle steelworks, with coal production commencing in 1930 after two concrete-lined shafts, each 18 ft in diameter, were sunk 1,190 ft through rock to the Main Greta Seam. BHP designed the colliery to produce 3,000 tonnes a day. It never came close. The mine earned the nickname "the Peter Pan Colliery" because, like Peter Pan, it never grew up. The surface railway operated on standard gauge, connecting through the Hebburn Limited private railway network to the South Maitland Railway and thence to Newcastle port, roughly 36 miles away by rail. Underground, battery locomotives ran on 3 ft 6 in gauge track. The workshop building serviced both the surface rolling stock and the underground mechanical and electrical plant that kept the mine running. BHP closed Elrington Colliery in December 1962, citing persistent operating losses. Approximately 90 men were affected. Large reserves of coal remained unworked in the seam at closure. The Elrington railway branch was dismantled the following year. On 17 June 1964, BHP opened Elrington Engineering Pty. Ltd. at the former colliery workshops, employing approximately 50 tradesmen. The engineering operation continued under private ownership into the 1970s. The workshop buildings that once serviced the mine's wagons and compressors remained standing and in use long after the coal stopped coming up.
04·FROM THE FIELD NOTES
The electrical workshop at Elrington Colliery near Abernethy, NSW, combined three functions in a single building: the electrician's shop, machine shop, and compressor room. Standard-gauge rail ran inside so coal wagons could be brought in directly for repair. The colliery, operated by BHP Collieries Proprietary Ltd, produced coal for the Newcastle steelworks from 1930 until December 1962, when BHP cited persistent operating losses and closed the mine with large reserves still in the ground.
Brett Patman
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