For a number of years I travelled to Emerald...south-west of Mackay.
The then named Gordonstone Mine. Re-named Kestrell Mine nowadays.
On passing the turn-off to Middlemount township and travelling towards the mining town of Tieri. Many times the Road Maintenance gangs were erecting signs near the Central Colliery. It was continually under repair. The road was in terrible state of disrepair. (Years earlier it was even worse till they bitumined the complete stretch of road.) It was a few years later that I had the experience of actually seeing the Longwall coal operations in action. I was writing an article for a mining newsletter and attempting to take photos of the miners in operation. It is an amazing technique to watch. Taking the photo.. I had to open the lense of my camera and paint the photo of the scene using my miners cap lamp as the continual lighting, nodding my head up and down, like I was painting the scene, gradually moving my head around at the same time.. Camera flash units or anything metallic for that matter, were not permitted down below in any mine because of possible gas emissions that could be ignited by any sort of friction, metal against metal.
May I say that the men at the coal face in these jobs deserve all the money and bonuses they get. The threat of a cave in and being buried alive. is a constant threat.
Getting back to the subject of subsidence. The operation of Longwall Mining is achieved by the giant hydraulically operated 10 feet high
chocks (120 yards of them lined up and computerised to move forward as the work proceeds) holding up the mine ceiling, while the header out front constantly moves up and down the coal face shearing the coal from the wall. If you can imagine this happening continually, yard after yard, moving forward, all the coal transferred onto shutes travelling along the front of the chocks. What happens is.. You look behind you and there is this huge cave, the result of removing all coal from the area.
Without warning.. I know it happened to me. The miners do not give you a hint what is going to happen. It's their little joke. There is just a huge THUMP/THUD... you turn around and that cave has disappeared. Caved in completely, not 10 feet from where you are standing. Just rock and dust.
This is Longwall Mining. What happens above... naturally after weeks of this aforementioned procedure, hundreds of metres below, the earth drops. This mine was directly below the road I was travelling for so long. Everything fell into place. This was back in 199o/1993. I say it would still be happening.
The art work was designed by myself for a sticker used by the Saraji Open Cut Mine a few years back
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