Main Workshop Cross View

The main workshop at Elrington Colliery near Abernethy was where the machinery of a coal mine was kept alive. A 15-tonne overhead electric crane spans the workshop, mounted on rails running the length of the ceiling, capable of lifting the kind of ironwork that would stop a mine dead if it failed underground. Standard-gauge rail is set directly into the floor, allowing coal wagons to be wheeled inside for repair rather than manhandled across an open yard. The blacksmith's work area occupies the far end of the space, where metalwork was shaped and repaired for the colliery's equipment needs. BHP Collieries Proprietary Limited, with principal shareholders the Broken Hill Pty Company and Hebburn Limited, began developing the Elrington site from 1925. The company sank two concrete-lined shafts, each 18 feet in diameter, to the Main Greta Seam at 1,190 feet below the surface. Coal production commenced in 1930. The mine was designed to supply hard bituminous coking coal to BHP's Newcastle steelworks and was intended to demonstrate modern extraction methods on the Hunter coalfields. BHP had set a target of 3,000 tonnes per day. The mine never reached it. Production ran at roughly half the planned rate through the 1950s, and in December 1962 BHP closed the colliery with large reserves of coal still unworked in the seam, citing persistent operating losses. Approximately 90 men were affected by the closure. The workshops themselves did not stand idle. On 17 June 1964, Elrington Engineering Pty Ltd opened on the former colliery grounds, employing around 50 tradesmen on mining equipment and general industrial orders. The site has remained in industrial use since. This photograph, made in 2017, records the workshop as it stood: crane overhead, rail in the floor, the blacksmith's corner still visible across the space.