Abermain No.3 Colliery, New South Wales

Abstract

Colliery buildings and chimney viewed through a screen of eucalypts and undergrowth. The square, segmented chimney tapers as it rises. Silhouetted against the sky are the winding wheels, cables and timber framework of the machinery that operates the pit shaft lifts. A veranda with posts and railings runs along the near side of the building and continues into the upper right roof area. A pattern created by two rows of darker rectangles running along the roof may be skylights. This colliery was opened in 1924 and was one of three that mined volatile low-ash Maitland coal from the Greta seam, discovered in 1886. Cazneaux printed this image from a photograph he took for one of the many projects assigned to him by the art firm of (Ure) Smith and (Harry) Julius. He and artist, Albert Collins (died 1951) created the illustrations for a souvenir volume for Abermain Seaham Collieries. This image differs from that on page 38 by being more closely cropped. Cropping was one of the techniques used by Pictorialist photographers like Cazneaux to create compositions that resembled artworks made in more traditional media. The print is in the Adelaide Steamship Company's collection because in 1905 the company acquired large interests in the Abermain Colliery (near Cessnock), the Seaham Colliery (near Newcastle) and the North Bulli Mine (near Wollongong) in order to secure its source of bunkering coal - a move that was to prove advantageous when the price of British steamering coal rose dramatically in 1908. The interests of the Abermain and Seaham collieries merged in 1922 and in 1931 a further merger created J. & A. Brown & Abermain Seaham. The Adelaide Steamship Company remained the mining company's largest shareholder.