THE TOP OF THE BOWEN BASIN - COLLINSVILLE AND PIT PONIES (15 - 16 AUGUST 2017)

As our wanderings around Collinsville were to reveal, this is most decidedly a mining town. It looks like a mining town and it feels like a mining town, and for very good reason.....it is.

This town lies at the northerly tip of the Bowen Basin, the name given to approximately 60,000 square kilometres of Queensland which hold the largest reserves of coal in the country and one of the largest deposits of bituminous coal in the world.

As this map of the area (courtesy of 'bowenbasin.qce' ) shows, this is a sizable chunk of Queensland which extends south from Collinsville to Theodore, two of the sixteen towns in the basin which rely directly, or to a very large degree, on coal mining for their continuing existence.

As we were to discover later on our journey south through the basin to Biloela, quite a few of these towns were purpose built to house the miners needed to extract the coal, something akin to the development of Leigh Creek in South Australia, but from what we saw in Glenden in particular, far better done.

Over thirty mines are operational throughout the basin and the staggering amount of high quality coal mined here (over 100 million tonnes annually!) provides the Queensland with it most valuable export commodity.

As for the discovery and development of these deposits, I'll let the excellent Queensland Government website article on the basin take up the story.

"The Queensland geological surveyor, Robert Logan Jack, reported on the Bowen River coal field in 1878, but exploitation of the field awaited State government investment in the early 1920s at Collinsville. Other coal mines in the general area included Blair Athol and Callide, but these are west and east of the Basin. 

By the late 1950s there were mines at Baralaba and Bluff (the south of the Basin) and at Kianga near Moura, further south. The massive developments in the middle of the Basin lay ahead.

By the 1960s it became the practice to form townships away from the coal fields, and the middle Basin's new towns were (from north to south), Glenden (1983), Moranbah (1970), Dysart (1973), Middlemount (early 1980s) and Tieri (1981). In other instances existing towns or villages rapidly increased their populations, eg Blackwater on the Capricorn Highway between Rockhampton and Emerald. Biloela grew as the dormitory town for the Callide coal field.

(My thanks go to 'jellinbah' for the use of this map showing the rail lines and export points)

The coal is railed to Mackay and Gladstone for export. New lines were constructed, from the  mines to older trunk lines, the largest being built in stages (1972-82) to service mines north and south of Dysart. The Mackay coal-loading facilities are at Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point, both about 25 km and 30 km to the south of the city. Gladstone coal-loading is done at Barney Point in the port of Gladstone. Collinsville coal is used on site on a power station, or railed to Bowen for coke production or for export from Abbot Point."

So we now know that we were in the town where this all really began. How things have blossomed since the 1920's, and how things have changed in terms of the methods by which the coal is obtained.

The Glencore operated mine at Collinsville, about four kilometres west of the town, began operations in 1921 as an underground pit. Whilst it is now fully open cut, a transition which began in the early 1950's, pit ponies were used to haul the coal from the underground drives from the mine's opening until 1990. 

By this time the Collinsville mine was the last in Australia to employ these stalwart beasts, and much is now made of this fact. The last serving duo of these Clydesdale 'ponies' were 'Wharrior' and 'Mr Ed' (shown here courtesy of the ABC country hour and Wayne Munro).

Despite their size, these incredible workhorses were still known as 'ponies', a reflection on the name given to their British counterparts which were indeed much smaller. These 'ponies' were much loved by all who laboured in the mines alongside them, not only for their strength, but for their intelligence and even temperament which allowed them to plod on unruffled through the worst of the noise and dust of an underground coal mine. 

When their service came to an end, the good folk of Collinsville were not about to let their contribution go unrecognised. A project to erect a bronze statue of a pit pony was launched at a time when many local miners had been retrenched and moral was low in the district. The project fired the imaginations of many. Apart from providing a focal point for renewed civic pride, it was recognised that the realisation of this endeavour may well provide a great tourist attraction for the town.

Within no time public and private contributions raised a staggering $150,000 and the statue of the Collinsville Pit Pony became a reality.

This memorial to the work of these stirling animals stands proudly in Sonama Park, the small triangular park past which all entering the main CBD must pass. 

The wall behind the statue lists all who contributed to the project (and this goes on on the other side!) It is not hard to see just how involved the entire community became.

Apart from the statue, various signs and murals dotted around the town serve to continually remind visitors in particular of the service of these stout hearted plodders, and of the fact that Collinsville was the last mine in Australia in which pit ponies were employed.

They pop up all over the place, on the walls of shops

and on roadside bill boards. Well done Collinsville. A point of difference very well exploited.

Mind you, we quickly learnt that the previous woes of the Collinsville mining labour force is a thing of the past. The number of mine workers ensconced with us in the local caravan park was testament to that. But we soon found other evidence of the fact that this is a mining town through and through.

Collinsville lies in a depression surrounded by hills. Although there are no formal lookouts, this did not deter the Mobile Marshies from finding one of our own. The tank on the top of this hill looked a likely spot, if we could find our way up there.

We could, and it was! What was essentially the dead end top of a suburban street provided us with a wonderful overview of the town,

and the ring of hills which surround it.

From here we could also look down on the small pocket which is Sonama Park and 'the pony' (the town 'main street' is off to the left past the blue roof).

From this vantage point we could also see out to the west and just make out the top of a section of the huge overburden heap at the nearby Glencore coal mine.

As we drove back to 'Collinsville central', we noticed something we had never encountered before...blocks of what appeared to be units, all with similar signs in front of them.

This oddity warranted a closer inspection, and we soon discovered that these were indeed blocks of small units of varying shapes and sizes, but all with one thing in common.....

....they all belong to the 'Morris' group which, the sign boasts, is 'sustaining working communities'. Well, I'm not sure about the 'sustaining' bit (that seems to be the role of the mine), but they are certainly housing this community in large numbers. 

These complexes were abundant throughout the suburbs and served to further indicate that the coal industry around Collinsville is alive and ticking. Interestingly, some of what is mined here is used locally in a large power station (another similarity with the now defunct Leigh Creek) whilst the remainder is taken by rail to Bowen and the export facility at Abbot Point.

From our perch overlooking the town, we wandered back to the 'CBD', such as it is. Peering here through the trees of Sonama Park, we can see that the road into town curves past

the local pizza palace (home to one of the town murals)

and on down to the roundabout off which, to the right, 

runs Stanley Street, the main commercial street of the town where we found Dougalls Rural Depot at one end.

The local Catholic School complex lies on the other side of the road, 

beyond which we came to the business section of the street,

which included an arts and craft shop and the large and somewhat battered Central Hotel.

This building had obviously suffered at the hands of Cyclone Debbie,

as had the motel complex on the other side of the road where tarped roof edges and piles of debris were evidence of the highly destructive winds which howled through this town some months previously.

Beyond the Central Hotel the far end of Stanley Street hosts a clutch of various commercial enterprises including the second of the two town pubs, the Pit Pony Tavern.

Although we did pop in there for a drink, for some inexplicable reason I forgot to take a single snapshot (and to all you sniggering cynics, it was only two pints...my trigger finger was quite steady!) but thanks to the odd sounding website of 'mypolice.qld.gov', I've been able to bring you some pictorial evidence (such as it is) of the somewhat modest exterior of this watering hole






and its bistro room in which we imbibed equally modestly.







As I mentioned before, there is not a lot to the Stanley Street Collinsville CBD. It doesn't even include the town supermarket which can be found on the opposite side of the roundabout, together with the local chemist in the rather presumptuously named 'Collinsville Plaza'.

The rest of the local infrastructure includes essentials such as a hospital,








a high school,















the town Post Office,















and a fine looking swimming pool complex which was clearly also battered by Debbie.













Apart from the murals and other signs lauding the service of the pit ponies of Collinsville, snippets of its history can be found on many of its more major streets in the form of these very well designed informative stands which I have to confess came as something of a surprise given the general 'feel' of much of the town (I'll have bit more to say about this comment later).






As a community, the good folk of Collinsville have clearly grasped the fact that grey nomads and other travellers will profit the local economy greatly if encouraged to spend time here. And they have done something about it.



Apart from the very good caravan park in which we chose to stay, we did have an alternative option, the excellent 'free camp' located just beyond the CBD, but within easy walking distance of Stanley Street.








A stay here of something longer than short term is encouraged. Potable water is 'on tap' (sorry, a bit obvious I know!)












and for those who arrive early enough (or fluke it), a spot around the lovely grassed picnic area can be theirs for the taking.










Not only is this camp site very well set up, any who arrive here with a yen for a night out have but to cross the road where all will be provided at the Collinsville United Mineworkers Club (for quite reasonable prices from what we saw during a very brief visit).






Visitors with a penchant to belt a little white ball around a grassy paddock are also well catered for in Collinsville,








where the green fees are by far and away the cheapest we have ever seen in all our travels. But player beware...there is a dress code. No singlets or footy shorts on these fairways or greens thank you!








Right next door to the club stands a poignant reminder of the fact that coal mining was, and can still be, a dangerous business. Alongside the statue of a miner and the pit pony on the brick wall behind him, stands this odd little building, which I could not make out at all initially.











A nearby plaque soon solved this little mystery.

All those killed on this wretched day, and others who perished in this mine, are remembered individually on the short brick columns standing in the rose garden which surrounds the adjacent lawn (pictured in the shot of the club).

I won't expand on the history of the disaster in No 1 Tunnel, other than to say that there is plenty of evidence to support the contention that the fatal build-up of gas was a direct result of over hasty modernisation of the mining operation there, a project which continued in the face of strong expert opinion about the dangers involved and advice to cease the redevelopment in the form it was taking. A subsequent judicial enquiry absolved all officials from any responsibility or blame, an outcome which was greeted with justifiable scepticism and outrage at the time. The whole story is a very interesting read and a real reflection on the social mores and politics of the era.

So on that rather sad but very local note we say farewell to Collinsville. To us the fact that this is very much a 'blue collar' town was evident in the general standard of the housing and the commercial hub. But this comment must be read as  an observation rather than a criticism. 

Several of the town welcome signs note that this is a place 'you will visit again'. We may well do so. There is definitely something about this town and the spirit of the folk who live here. As we discovered in the next few days, the route to Far North Queensland through the Bowen Basin is a very interesting and viable alternative to the busy Bruce Highway, and as we now know, Collinsville sits right at the top of it.