| Physical description: | PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS - 1993:
Location: north of Wilson St & east of Johnson Park
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE CONDITION: Extensive recognisable structures.
See below for a more detailed description.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS(above or below ground):
Concrete mounting blocks for machinery, boiler house footings, workshop footings, concrete floor slabs, coal box piers, bottom of the 1st steel head-frame in NSW, railway cutting & embankments, brick magazine, engine pond, winding cable used in fences.
All these relics are readily visible and above ground.
Other relics would be revealed in the course of an archaeological investigation.
The very important top half of the first all-steel head-frame in NSW was relocated to Freeman's Waterholes.
It should be returned to the mine site.
DESCRIPTION of WEST WALLSEND No.1 COLLIERY
West Wallsend No.1 was formerly a major coal mine, with advanced equipment &
materials handling methods. The buildings & machinery have been removed, but
there remains much clearly visible evidence of the layout of the surface
workings of the mine. The evidence includes large concrete mounting blocks for
winding, ventilating & lighting machinery, concrete floor slabs, a sunken area
with piers (probably the boiler house), a large engine pond (which held water
for the boilers), an array of tall brick piers from a wagon-filling facility,
a broad curved cutting for the rail line from Cockle Creek, and a broad flat
embankment for the line which continued on to Seaham No.1. Colliery. At a safe
distance, there is a small arch-roofed brick maagazine, for storing explosives.
The focal point of the group is a concrete-capped shaft surmounted by the
bottom half of a steel head-frame. The headframe was complete until several
years ago, when the upper half was oxy-cut off and re-erected at a short-lived
mining museum at Freeman's Waterholes. The other displays have been removed
from Freeman's, but the partial headframe remains, set in concrete.
The West Wallsend No.1 Colliery is located close to the north-west side of
West Wallsend township, with one side of the mine site adjoining the back
fence of houses in Wilson Street. The open land slopes gently down from Wilson
Street to the mine, which is on flatter land near to a confluence of creeks.
To the south-west is the soccer field, Johnson Park. North & north-east, the
land rises towards Seahampton. Around the site is the remains of a typical
colliery fence, with condemned steel hoisting cable strung between posts.
CONSERVATION ACTION and INTERPRETATION
RECOMMENDED
West Wallsend Colliery is an archaeological site of very high potential for
interesting interpretation in an attractive open park-like setting, with the
heritage site as its centre. Ruins such as these are a rare resource. Lambton
Colliery has the only intact 19th Century colliery buildings in the region.
The West Wallsend ruins would be the most extensive 19th Century colliery
ruins in the region.
The colliery site (including surface works, railway cutting & embankment,
pond, & hoisting cable fence), could very well be converted into a public
recreation park, with interpretation of the mine as an easily accessible &
highly visible focal point in an industrial heritage trail. It would thus
become a valuable community asset.
Funding should be sought for a comprehensive archaeological study & management
plan for the site. The study should include mapping & recording the obvious
structures & relics, carrying out an archaeological investigation of the
colliery site & the railway & making recommendations for the conservation of
surviving relics & evidence, & for public interpretation & use of the site.
An essential part of this project would be to recover the top half of the
important steel headframe from Freeman's Waterholes, and re-erect it on top of
the half-headframe still at West Wallsend, with original or reconstructed
back-stays. Organisations such as the Institution of Engineers Heritage
Committee, the Newcastle Regional Museum, the Engineering Faculties of the
Universities of Newcastle & NSW could be recruited in the project & possibly
local engineering firms could be approached to contribute.
1991 IMAGES in this DATABASE
Image A - (Doring Neg.304.03) West Wallsend No.1 Colliery Site. View north along the 3 rows of coal box piers to the headframe base. Skips of coal ran on elevated rails from the headframe to discharge into bins on top of the piers. Photo also shows foundation blocks of other structures next to the headframe. Earthworks for the new Freeway can be seen in the background above the headframe.
Image B - (Doring Neg.465.34) The top half of the West Wallsend(No.1) Colliery steel head-frame, at present located at Freeman's Waterholes, a place with no connection to West Wallsend, & which has never had a coal mine.
Image C - (Doring Neg.304.01) West Wallsend No.1 Colliery Site. View looking north-east along the railway cutting towards the colliery site & the brick coal box piers in the background. At left is part of a fence made of old mine winding cables on timber posts, at the boundary between the colliery & the adjoining Johnson Park soccer ground.
Image D - (Doring Neg.304.02) West Wallsend No.1 Colliery Site. View looking north-east along the end of the railway cutting to the brick piers of the coal box, where two lines of railway coal wagons were filled with coal from storage bins above. Beyond is the base of the iron headframe. Earthworks for the freeway can be seen in the background above the headframe. The colliery railway continued on north between the trees (left) towards Seaham No.1 Colliery.
Image E - (Doring Neg.304.13) Looking north from close to the headframe. The railway embankment (covered with crushed coal) continued past the W.W. Colliery & north to Seaham No.1 Colliery. The railway now comes to an abrupt halt under the huge stone embankment of the freeway before Seaham is reached. The reed covered Engine Pond is on the right. This pond is quite large. It provided water for the colliery boilers, & for the first town water supply before piped Hunter water came in from Minmi. The Engine Pond wall has been partially broken down.
Image F - (Doring Neg.304.07) View looking north to the former colliery site from near the coal box piers. Shows base of headframe (L) & a small explosives magazine (R). There are a great number of relics in situ between these structures, between the camera & the bushes, & in dead ground behind the bushes. The relics all need mapping, researching, recording & interpreting.
Image G - (Doring Neg.304.15) West Wallsend No.1 Colliery Site. Base of the iron headframe, viewed from N-W & looking towards the backs of houses in Wilson Street. The fingers at the top of the remaining headframe incorporate guides for the cage bringing skips of coal up from the shaft, and a system of pawls and levers ("monkeys") to lock the cage in the raised position (above the remaining headframe portion) during unloading. In the foreground are several concrete foundation blocks for machinery (to be identified).
Image H - (Doring Neg.304.19) Looking S-W across the Colliery site to the coal box piers (centre) & the soccer ground dressing shed (R-background). Half-buried iron discs in the foreground are anchor bases of the former backstays for the headframe (R). Backstays were presumably oxy-cut off when the top of the headframe was taken to Freeman's Waterholes.
Image I - (Doring Neg.304.20) West Wallsend No.1 Colliery Site. Shows one of many concrete foundation structures and machinery bases around the site, all requiring mapping, researching, recording and interpreting. This base block was possibly for winding gear, as it is located east of the headframe in line with the backstays.
Image J - (Doring Neg.304.25) Explosives magazine at West Wallsend No.1 Colliery site. This small brick building, with cement-rendered barrel-vaulted brick roof, is in an isolated position away to the east of the headframe. It is similar to the two explosives magazines at W.W. Extended (Killingworth) Colliery, operated by the same company. |