Key Storage

The mine manager's office at Elrington Colliery retains a numbered key board covering positions 1 to 30, still fixed to the wall where it was mounted during the colliery's working life. A section of the dividing wall has since been knocked through, opening the space beyond it, but the board itself has not moved. Elrington Colliery sits near Abernethy, approximately 6 miles south-east of Cessnock in the Hunter Valley. BHP Collieries Proprietary Limited, with Hebburn Limited as a principal shareholder, developed the site to supply coking coal to BHP's Newcastle steelworks. The railway branch reached the site in January 1924. Shaft-sinking commenced in January 1925, and BHP appointed H. M. Hindmarsh as the first manager at that time, previously under-manager at the Balmain Colliery. Two concrete-lined shafts, each 18 ft in diameter, were sunk to the Main Greta Seam at 1,190 ft below the surface. Coal production commenced in 1930. The colliery was designed to produce 3,000 tonnes of coal per day. It never reached that figure. By 1950, actual output averaged approximately 1,500 tons per day, roughly half the planned capacity. BHP closed the mine in December 1962, citing persistent operating losses. Approximately 90 men were affected by the closure. Large reserves of coal remained in the seam, unworked. After the mine closed, BHP opened an engineering works at the former colliery workshops. Elrington Engineering Pty Ltd commenced operations on 17 June 1964 and employed approximately 50 tradesmen by 1965. The key board in the manager's office records none of that history directly. It records only the fact of the office, the fact of the keys, and the number of things that once needed to be accounted for.