Shipping and maritime service in the Illawarra: a mining industry perspective
Coal mined in the Illawarra region played a pivotal role in maritime, mineral and national history, as its high quality made it the preferred fuel for steamships and was in high demand for vessels traveling to and from Sydney and beyond.
A single-word term for a coal mine is a ‘colliery’ and a ship transporting coal is referred to as a ‘collier’. Sailing ships and steamships transported coal from the Illawarra coast to Sydney and overseas as early as 1857, from jetties built by the coal companies who owned or chartered ships to transport their coal.
Soon after its introduction into the industrialised world as a source of power, steam became a dominant force in land transport with steam powered locomotives, and a dominant force in sea transport with the introduction of steamships. Steamships used the power of steam for propulsion and steam was generated by feeding coal into the furnaces on board the ship.
Coal from the Bulli coal seam was highly regarded for its quality as a fuel to provide steam on steamships. Ships that transported supplies and people from Britain to Sydney preferred to refuel with Bulli coal for the return journey.
Coal from the Bulli coal seam was also the preferred coal for Sydney steam trams and trains. Sydney steam trams liked using coke that was made from Bulli coal mined at Corn Beef Colliery, that was also known as Bulli Pass Colliery.
Fuel for ships
The term for the fuel used in ships is ‘bunker’. The term ‘bunkering’ originated in the days of steamships when coal was stored in bunkers. A person dealing in trade of bunkering is called a bunker trader.
The steamship Albert was bunkered at Wollongong Harbour with coal from the Mount Keira coal mine, which was the first coal mine to open in the Illawarra in 1849. This is the earliest example of bunkering in the Illawarra. Coal from the Bulli coal seam soon became highly regarded for its quality as a fuel to provide steam on steamships.
In 1857 the second coal mine to commence mining in the Illawarra was opened by Thomas Hale, a Woonona businessman. He built a jetty as a means of providing sea transport for coal from the mine to Sydney and other locations. The first load of coal was transported to the jetty in 1857, and 40 tonnes of coal was shipped to Sydney to bunker the steamship Washington.
In 1863 the first cargo of coal from Bulli Colliery was shipped from the Bulli Jetty at Waniora Point, now known as Sandon Point, in the brigantine George. In the same year the company that owned Bulli Colliery ordered from England a screw steamer they named the Waniora, which was the first collier built specifically for the Illawarra trade. This vessel and the company owned Bulli 1 steamer both transported coal to Sydney on a daily basis.
The Bulli 1 iron steamship was rigged for additional sail power.
Bulli Jetty at Sandon Point, circa 1905.
Sixty-miler is the colloquial name for the ships that were used in the coastal coal trade of New South Wales. The sixty-milers delivered coal to Sydney from ports and ocean jetties to the north and south. The name was derived from the approximate distance of sixty miles (100 kilometres) by sea from Nobbys Head in Newcastle to Sydney Heads.
The heyday of the sixty-milers was from around 1880 to the 1960s. During this time Sydney was dependent upon these ships for its supply of coal. In 1919, a Royal Commission identified twenty-nine colliers engaged in the coastal coal-carrying trade.
South coast shipwrecks
Up until the 1950s, shipping was the main means of transport that linked South Coast communities with Sydney and elsewhere. By today’s standards, the ships that serviced the South Coast were small and the steamships were grossly underpowered. As such, they were severely affected by strong winds and rough seas from storms.
The result was that more than 300 ships were lost along the coast between Sydney and the Victorian border. NSW coastal shipping was described as ‘a scheme for manufacturing widows and orphans’.
There are multiple reasons for the shipwrecks:
- Weather conditions can change very quickly, often placing unwary crews of vessels in a precarious position. For example, many of the vessels that came to grief in the aptly named Wreck Bay were victims of the weather, and at least 26 ships were lost in and around Wreck Bay between 1805 and 1928.
Examples are the Nancy that ran aground in 1805 during a fierce storm; the Hive was wrecked during gale-force wind and a dense fog in 1835; the Juniper ran aground in 1850 during a severe south-east wind squall; the Mynora became enveloped in a thick fog, before hitting a reef in 1865. - There is a strong current flowing south called the Eastern Australian Current which runs offshore along the NSW South Coast. This current is not as strong close to the shore, so ship’s masters often navigated close to the shore when heading north to minimise the power of the current. All too often that had tragic consequences.
- The vessels that operated up and down the coast were small, and they were either sailing vessels or very underpowered steam vessels. These ships had limited capability to respond rapidly to impending dangers.
- Many reports of shipping tragedies along the NSW South Coast contain suggestions that the ship captains were drunk or neglecting their duties when the ship came to grief. Captains of the steamships that regularly serviced the South Coast were often attempting to keep to tight timetables and they were less cautious than they should have been.
- There are few ‘safe havens’ from a storm along the South Coast. Jervis Bay is a safe haven and Twofold Bay is another.
The Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company’s vessels regularly visited Wollongong, Port Kembla, Shellharbour, Kiama, Gerringong, Berry, Nowra, Jerrara, Huskisson, Ulladulla, Bawley Point, Pebbly Beach, Batemans Bay, Nelligen, Broulee, Moruya, Tuross Head, Potato Point, Narooma, Bermagui, Tathra, Merimbula and Eden.
Some of these locations involved crossing a dangerous sand bar at a river mouth, as at Moruya, or avoiding other natural hazards. Batemans Bay is at the mouth of the Clyde River and Nelligen is upstream on that river. Steamships stopped at Nelligen and the Steampacket Hotel at Nelligen still exists today. - Maps were either non-existent or rudimentary in the early days and there were no aids to navigation. Lighthouses, intended to provide ‘a highway of light’ to shipping along the coast, were constructed in an attempt to reduce the number of shipping losses.
A comprehensive list of shipwrecks along the South Coast of NSW is available on the South Coast History Society website here.
The Illawarra Steam Navigation Company
The Illawarra Steam Navigation Company was a shipping company that serviced the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia from 1858 to the early 1950s. It was formed through the amalgamation of the General Steam Navigation Company, the Kiama Steam Navigation Company and the Shoalhaven Steam Navigation Company, each of which serviced parts of the South Coast with their respective vessels. After merging, the new company held a near monopoly in regard to shipping on the south coast, and their fleet visited every significant port between Sydney and the border of Victoria. The company transported both passengers and a range of produce, including livestock, and hence it became known as the 'Pig and Whistle Line'. It was said that ships would wait an hour for a pig but not a minute for a passenger.
Over the years more than twenty steamships were a part of the fleet, including the 1,112 ton Merimbula and the 693 ton Eden. Many of these vessels were purpose-built for the company's needs and were constructed at shipyards within Australia and abroad. The company's eventual demise resulted from several factors, including increased competition from road and rail, the cost of replacing ships, two waterfront disputes and rising costs. As a consequence, after almost 100 years in operation, the company was placed into voluntary receivership and was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange in 1955.
Steelworks shipping
The components needed for steelmaking are iron ore, coking coal and limestone.
The steelworks at Port Kembla obtains most of its coking coal from local coal mines and the steelworks still operates its own cokemaking facility, originally opened in 1937. Former cokeworks located at Coal Cliff and Corrimal are now closed.
Limestone comes from company owned leases near Marulan. The state government completed a new branch railway line from near Moss Vale to Port Kembla in 1932, and that is used to transport limestone to the steelworks at Port Kembla.
Iron ore is brought to Port Kembla by ship. The first iron ore arrived in a BHP owned ship called the Iron Warrior in July 1928, with the first blast furnace ‘blown in’ during August 1928.
The Iron Warrior ship was owned by BHP.
In the early days of the steelworks, iron ore was transported from an iron ore mine near Whyalla in South Australia. In the modern era, the iron ore is sourced from Western Australia. Ships that transport iron ore can often be seen anchored offshore while they wait their turn to be unloaded at Port Kembla.
Australia produces nearly 40 percent of the world's iron ore and the bulk of that is transported by ship.
The last steelworks owned ship was the Iron Monarch which transported steel from Port Kembla to other ports. This 179.3 m length “Roll-on, Roll-off” (RoRo) vessel was built in the Whyalla shipyard in 1973, and that ship was sold for scrap in 2012. The BlueScope steelworks now relies on truck and rail to transport its steel within Australia.
The Iron Monarch ship in position to be loaded with steel.