- Title
- Coalmining and manufacturing in Newcastle, 1797-1900
- Creator
- Turner, J. W.
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 1977
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- As the coals of Newcastle were the most accessible to shipping, the district became the premier coalfield of New South Wales in the Nineteenth Century, supplying the Australasian colonies as well as much of the Pacific region with over 60 million tons of coal. For the first half century the industry was organised in monopolistic fashion and a small area of the higher seams of the Newcastle Coal Measures was exploited by a single producer. Though the industry was hampered by the scarcity of skilled labour, this was not very significant until the introduction of steamships caused demand to strengthen markedly in the 1830s. Thereafter, with the introduction of immigrant colliers, the labour problem eased and in the following decade the main issue was the future of the monopoly of the Australian Agricultural Company. After its abolition virtually uncontrolled exploitation of the Borehole Seam by a large number of producers over the whole district produced such an excess of capacity that the struggle to maintain a rewarding price dominated the industry. The colliery proprietors were hard put to maintain their association and the district union, facing a constant oversupply of labour, was best with similar difficulties. Nevertheless during the 1870s the Vend was established to raise prices, wages and profits to levels which were not equalled before 1900 and its maintenance became the preoccupation of the district. Such prosperity stimulated further expansion; and growing disunity among the proprietors, as well as deteriorating industrial relations, weakened the industry to such an extent that it was unable to cope with depression in the 1890s. Thus the last decade was marked by mounting concern about the future of coal mining in the district. Had manufacturing developed on a comparable scale Newcastle might have been spared some of this dislocation, but that was not to be. Several early ventures failed to survive the gold rushes and, when manufacturing began to revive in the 1870s, competition from abroad and from Sydney proved to be too strong for most local producers. There were some exceptions but industries which depended heavily on coal, such as smelting, and the engineering trades, whose main function was to service the mines, were most successful. However by their very nature these did not help very much to reduce the dependence of the area upon mining and after a century of manufacturing effort Newcastle remained a "coally sea port".
- Subject
- coal mining; manufacturing; Newcastle, N.S.W.
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1321334
- Identifier
- uon:24328
- Rights
- Copyright 1977 J. W. Turner
- Language
- eng
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