Date: 1935

Restored by: Shellharbour City Council and the Tongarra Heritage Society

Location: Shellharbour Council Collection – located Russell Street, Albion Park

This coal loader was manufactured in the USA by Joy Mining Machinery, and used at Tongarra Mine from 1947 until the mine’s closure in 1965.

In the late 1850s, William Brownlee purchased 236 acres in the foothills of the escarpment at Tongarra. He built a cottage of local sandstone which still stands today. After discovery of coal on his property in the 1870s, he began mining a coal seam. By 1893, he had excavated a horizontal tunnel 800 feet above sea level. The tunnel had cut into a seam of the purest and best gas coal. The quality was regarded on par with Newcastle, which was the best.

The Albion Park Butter Factory opened in Calderwood Road in 1885, and coal from the mine was sold to the factory for machinery operations. When Tongarra Mine opened in the late 1890s, there was every prospect Lake Illawarra would be developed into a major port to export coal from the mines on the escarpment. The project never eventuated.

Coal produced from Tongarra Mine was delivered to the Tallawarra Power Station and AIS Port Kembla Steel as required. Output reached 1000 tons per day.

Owen, Dawson, Gilchrist and De Latorre, Excellsior Colleries, and Yuill and Company, made further development to Tongarra Mine, before it closed in 1965: the result of the closure of the Tallawarra Power Station. Over the years, the mine provided steady employment for the men of Albion Park and the surrounding districts.