Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Balmain Colliery

Coal mine established at Birchgrove in 1897 in an attempt to access the rich vein of coal which ran under Sydney from Newcastle to the Illawarra. It was the deepest ever worked in Australia and later produced methane gas, but was not a commercial success.

-33.852508914322, 151.17778656903

Name
Alternate
Sydney Harbour Colliery
Property
Owned by
Occupied by
1928 - 1931
Owned by
1928 - 1931
Owned by
1932 - 1955
Type

Balmain Colliery

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2016

Attempts to mine the coal under Sydney started in the 1870s but, despite the efforts of several companies and a miners' cooperative, the Balmain Colliery was never a commercially successful producer of coal or gas and finally closed in 1950.