Testing Room

The testing room at Elrington Colliery near Abernethy was where the breathing apparatus came back between uses. Self-contained breathing apparatus sets had to be tested, inspected, and recharged on a regular cycle. In a colliery with documented recurring problems with underground gas accumulations and fires, a functioning SCBA programme was not procedural box-ticking. It was the difference between a man walking out of the pit and not walking out. Elrington Colliery was developed from 1924 by BHP Collieries Proprietary Limited, with principal shareholders the Broken Hill Pty. Company Ltd. and Hebburn Limited, to supply coking coal to BHP's Newcastle steelworks. Two concrete-lined shafts, each 18 ft in diameter, were sunk to the Main Greta Seam at 1,190 ft below the surface. The coal they were after was a hard, bituminous seam with low ash content, well suited to steelworks supply, and deep enough to concentrate gas. The colliery's safety record drew ministerial attention at least once during its operational life. NSW Mines Minister Ernest Baddeley was in the Hunter coalfield in September 1944 and, according to the Newcastle Morning Herald of 12 September that year, intended to return to inspect Elrington Colliery on the Friday of that week. Heritage Management System records for the site independently note recurring problems with underground fires throughout the mine's life. Coal production at Elrington Colliery continued from 1930 until December 1962, when BHP closed the operation citing persistent operating losses. Approximately 90 men were affected by the closure. The seam was not exhausted, large reserves of coal remained unworked. The mine simply stopped being economical to run. The testing room recorded here in 2017 sat undisturbed for decades after the last shift. The fittings remained. The room still reads as what it was: a place where equipment was checked and made ready, because the men who wore it needed it to work.