Mining heritage
Australia has a rich mining history. It goes back much further than 1791, the year when the great coal industry of the Hunter region began on the 'Nobbys Tuff' coal seam. Aboriginal toolmakers had been mining Nobbys Tuff for generations before this.
Gemstones, gold, shale, coal - these have all been mined in NSW. You'll find evidence of this varied mining heritage in and around the state's national parks and reserves, including:
- Hill End Historic Site, an old gold rush town
- Newnes in Wollemi National Park, where there are impressive shale mining remains
- Kiandra, a gold rush town in Kosciuszko National Park
- the Albert Goldfields, near Tibooburra, which hold an important place in Australian mining heritage. They were the first of the arid country mineral fields, and marked the beginning of mineral exploration in the Australian interior.
What people have said
Fancy a deep gully, into which it is necessary to descend with considerable caution, unless you have the feet of a goat or a Hill End miner, blocked up a way now and then with gigantic boulders, washed from above, and the passage further complicated by a thick shrubby undergrowth…
Then imagine an outcrop of quartz occurring in the midst of the most serious of these complications and the sight of golden specks shown on breaking the stone, and then think of how you would look if asked to drive in upon that outcropping vein, with no foothold beyond that which you can only maintain by the exercise of no small amount of balancing skill.
Random Notes by a Wandering Reporter, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 January 1872: 117, in Harry Hodge, The Hill End Story Book 2: 117
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Page last updated: 26 February 2011
