Interview transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project Frank Coltman

 

Interviewer Richard Raxworthy.

 

Interview date 1 October 1998

 

Richard Raxworthy This is Mt Keira Mine Tramway Workers Project, tape 8A. The 1st of the 10th ’98. Talking to Mr Frank Coltman. This is Richard Raxworthy interviewing. I’ll ask you first Mr Coltman, ah, could you spell your full name?

Frank Coltman Frank Coltman, C-O-L-T-M-A-N.

Richard Raxworthy And your name is Frank, not Francis?

Frank Coltman Francis is my real name, I usually get Frank.

Richard Raxworthy How do you spell that?

Frank Coltman F-R-A-N-C-I-S.

Richard Raxworthy No other name?

Frank Coltman No – John. Francis John Coltman.

Richard Raxworthy And what year were you born?

Frank Coltman1930

Richard Raxworthy And whereabouts?

Frank Coltman Ah, Mt Keira Road, next door to the house where we are now.

Richard Raxworthy And you work round here I take it?

Frank Coltman Worked here all my life.

Richard Raxworthy The school, which school.

Frank Coltman Christian, Ah, West Wollongong Public School and then, ah, West Wollongong Catholic School when it was opened and then Christian Brothers in Wollongong.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, where did you go to work first?

Frank Coltman Worked all my time at Mt Keira mine.

Richard Raxworthy What as?

Frank Coltman Ah, started off as apprentice fitter and turner and actually went to, to an assistant engineer.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, where did you work first?

Frank Coltman On the surface of Mt Keira.

Richard Raxworthy And what was your job around there?

Frank Coltman Ah, apprentice fitter and turner.

Richard Raxworthy So exactly what were you doing?

Frank Coltman Um, lathe work, machining and, ah, fitting and sometimes underground repairing, ah, the machinery.

Richard Raxworthy What sort of machinery?

Frank Coltman Ah, coal cutting and coal mining.

Richard Raxworthy And what about the skips, did you have to do any repairs on them?

Frank Coltman, We used to do a little bit of work on the skips but there wasn’t very much work to do on, on the skips. They were looked after, well they looked after themselves really.

Richard Raxworthy So what years, ah, did you work at the Mt Keira mine from and to?

Frank Coltman 1946 till about 1980. And then I went to, ah, Wongawilli for, ah, last seven years and I took early retirement in about 11 years ago, 1988.

Richard Raxworthy You were involved in an accident?

Frank Coltman I was involved in an accident in 1962 underground at Kemira.

Richard Raxworthy What was that about?

Frank Coltman Ah, a runaway, ah, runaway, ah, ran into us. Come down, ah, two 10-tonne empty skips they came down the hill as we were coming out of the mine on a loco and they run into us at the bottom of the cliff.

Richard Raxworthy When you first went to work at Mt Keira were the, ah, horses still down the line, pit ponies?

Frank Coltman Yes. Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy And what did they, ah, did they pull one skip at a time or more?

Frank Coltman Oh, more. I, I wasn’t underground very much in that era. It was in a few years after I started there they did away with a horse and, ah, put the machinery in.

Richard Raxworthy And what about, were you there when they started to longwall?

Frank Coltman Yes. Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy So you’d now Bob Reed?

Frank Coltman Bob Reed, I knew Bob very well.

Richard Raxworthy Have any run-ins with him?

Frank Coltman Not with Bob. Oh, I know a lot of people who did, but, ah, Bob and I got on pretty well.

Richard Raxworthy Farming down at Dapto, I’m seeing him this afternoon.

Frank Coltman Oh, yes. Oh well tell him you saw me.

Richard Raxworthy Bong Bong Road, Dapto, just past the, ah, just past the, ah, the Gun Club.

Frank Coltman Ah, that’s right. Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy Now, what about the tramway, um, do you remember how the, ah, how were the skips moved out of the mine when you first went there?

Frank Coltman On an incline, right…

Richard Raxworthy And where was the rope, um, wound from?

Frank Coltman Ah, from, from the surface, ah, at, ah, outside of the entrance to the mine at Keira. There were two ropes, one from, ah, underground and another one down the incline to the tramway.

Richard Raxworthy So the, the tramway wasn’t operated on, ah, on gravity, it was operated, ah, by the winding engine.

Frank Coltman By the winding engine.

Richard Raxworthy What sort of engine was it?

Frank Coltman Ah, electrical engine-, everything was electric.

Richard Raxworthy Oh, right. When you first started, it was an electric. Ah, the, the boiler house had gone, had it?

Frank Coltman The boiler house had gone, mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy I Know that it’s no longer there.

Frank Coltman No, it’s gone now.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, the present, um, I’ve been up there recently, ah, the present Wash House was that there when you first went there?

Frank Coltman Ah, yes.

Richard Raxworthy And, um, the hot water, was there a boiler there for that?

Frank Coltman Ah, hot water, no, it was all electrical.

Richard Raxworthy Right.

Frank Coltman Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy So they, they must have electrified it when they, when they did away with the, ah, steam.

Frank Coltman Did away with the steam and the boilers and all electric then.

Richard Raxworthy Now, the, the cable of the, ah, of the tramway, ah, the incline, um, how did they clamp onto it when, ah, how did the Clippers clip onto it when, ah…

Frank Coltman Oh, they had special, ah, clips that, ah, were a different sort of clips they used to use on the underground with what they used on the incline on the surface.

Richard Raxworthy Could you describe both of them?

Frank Coltman Yes, the, ah, the clips underground was a, um, put a clip over the, ah, over and under the rope and screw it down with a, ah, screw 25 mm screw and clamp it onto the rope. And the same, ah, coming down the incline, but it was a bigger clip altogether.

Richard Raxworthy Did you ever see any of the old figure of eight clips?

Frank Coltman Ah, no.

Richard Raxworthy They must have been finished for a fair while before, yes.

Frank Coltman Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy They were like an elongated figure of 8.

Frank Coltman Um, I have seen them, but I haven’t had anything to do with them.

Richard Raxworthy And, um, how many Clippers did they have?

Frank Coltman Well…

Richard Raxworthy. Roughly

Frank Coltman Ah, there’d be about, ah, six working at the top of of the incline, probably two un-, undoing the clips from the underground and probably four doing the surface clips.

Richard Raxworthy And were they clipping and unclipping halfway down the incline, or did it go straight down?

Frank Coltman No, it went straight down.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah, well that changed at some time or other.

Frank Coltman Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy And what about down the bottom?

Frank Coltman Down the bottom they were, ah, the same, ah, same apparatus was used. You had to undo it by hand and push the skips through to the, ah, dumping pad and then

turn the skip over and the skip, ah, ?? underneath the rubber.

Richard Raxworthy How did that work, the, the turning over of the, of the skip?

Frank Coltman It was all, ah, mechanically done.

Richard Raxworthy Was it, um, by gravity or was there a pow- any power to it?

Frank Coltman Power. Mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy Electric power?

Frank Coltman Electric power.

Richard Raxworthy And was it on a, on a quadrant system or what?

Frank Coltman As the full skip would go into the into the, ah, dumping station, they dumped the, the skip and they turned it over and up righted it again and push it through to a around a bend onto another track and they’d be clipped onto the, ah, rope again and they’d be pulled up the incline to the prop again

Richard Raxworthy How many at a time were clipped on?

Frank Coltman One.

Richard Raxworthy Only one?

Frank Coltman One was clipped, but you’d have, ah, anything up to two or two to four skips, empty skips, going back up the hill.

Richard Raxworthy What about coming down where they one at a time or..?

Frank Coltman One at a time.

Richard Raxworthy And what, what was the, were these skips tipped into?

Frank Coltman Into a hopper.

Richard Raxworthy And what was at the other side of the hopper?

Frank Coltman Ah, under the hopper they used to push the, ah, rail trucks through and they’d hold anything up to well, I guess we get, ah, anything up to 20 tonne of coal.

Richard Raxworthy And what about the gauge of the rail, the rails coming in the mine and coming down the incline, what was that?

Frank Coltman They were -you got me thinking now.

Richard Raxworthy Or was it narrower than the other gauges?

Frank Coltman Narrower than the other gauges on the railway.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah, well it’s been put to me as 2 foot on the top and, ah, 4 foot 8-1/2 down the bottom.

Frank Coltman I think was around 2 foot, a bit more.

Richard Raxworthy Were there any screens there when you were there?

Frank Coltman Ah, at the bottom of the incline there was.

Richard Raxworthy So they would tip from the hopper in, onto the screen?

Frank Coltman Onto the screens.

Richard Raxworthy Then into the trucks?

Frank Coltman And then into the trucks.

Richard Raxworthy Now were they motorised screens or were they ??flaming?? just sitting there?

Frank Coltman Just sitting there, yeah.

Richard Raxworthy So on an angle was it?

Frank Coltman On an angle and the coal would slide down.

Richard Roxworthy And did they, um, separate the, the two, what was on top of the screen and what was under?

Frank Coltman No, everything went, ah, went through into the…

Richard Raxworthy So what was the point of the screen?

Frank Coltman Well, well, now I must say I might be wrong in that there, the finer flap it might have fallen through, and they dumped it on the ground, then they put it into a different, different heap altogether. And then they’d load that into a oh, another waste.

Richard Raxworthy But you don’t know.

Frank Coltman I’m, I’m not exactly sure about that.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah. But apparently, they did different things at different times.

Frank Coltman Yes, they did, mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy Anyway, um, so what about the tramway from there. Did you have anything to do with maintenance of the engines?

Frank Coltman Yes, I worked on engines.a fair bit of time at the bottom of the incline.

Richard Raxworthy How many engines there?

Frank Coltman Used to have three engines, two, two working and one on standby.

Richard Raxworthy And what sort of repairs did you have to do?

Frank Coltman Oh, mainly, ah, side rod repairs. They were white metal side rods on, on the engines. Repair them. Might have to or roll some tubes if the tubes were leaking in the, in the boiler. You had to wait till the engine either cool down so you get up into the firebox and have the, repair the tubes. Things like that.

Richard Raxworthy What about wagons, did you repair any of them?

Frank Coltman Didn’t, have to touch, touch the wagons.

Richard Raxworthy Now were, were the government, ah, were they government wagons or where they, belong to the colliery?

Frank Coltman No belonged to the colliery.

Richard Raxworthy Now where did the, the incline, ah, where did the tramway go from the bottom of the incline from the screens?

Frank Coltman Ah, down now, it’d be, where, ah…

Richard Raxworthy I’ve got the route, but I mean what I, what I really meant is, um, where did they take the coal? Oh, that’s the second page here is a, is the one that you want to look at, that one there. Where did the call go to, was it taken away, ah..?

Frank Coltman It was taken away. It was taken down to the, near the Cokeworks.

Richard Raxworthy Yes.

Frank Coltman Ah, there were Cokeworks down or, or one of them at Gwynneville, between Gwynneville and North Wollongong. And the coal was, was taken there by our own loco and then taken away by by, ah, the government railway then.

Richard Raxworthy Now did, did all coal go to the Cokeworks or did it, did it get taken away to, at the steelworks or various other places?

Frank Coltman A lot of got taken away to the steelworks. Ah, I wouldn’t be sure just where, where they finished up taking it.

Richard Raxworthy It was generally coking coal?

Frank Coltman Mostly coking coal.

Richard Raxworthy Now, what about the old line below the, the government line, um, the right-of-way as I understand it, it would have been pulled up before you went to work there. Do you remember it as a boy though?

Frank Coltman Ah, no, no.

Richard Raxworthy What about the harbour end of it, did you remember anything down there?

Frank Coltman, I remember it, but it was finished before I, I left school.

Richard Raxworthy Well, down in the harbour, do you remember the coal stays or had they been pulled down?

Frank Coltman They’d been pulled down.

Richard Raxworthy And what about the Smith’s Creek bridge, was that still there? It must have been because it’s still there now. Some of it anyway.

Frank Coltman Some of it’s still there. It is, it’s still there some, some of that, that bridge.

Richard Raxworthy But you remember it?

Frank Coltman Yes. Mm-mm.

Richard Raxworthy Now, what about, were there any railway lines there when you first remember?

Frank Coltman Yes there was.

Richard Raxworthy And what about the area around, was it grassed or not?

Frank Coltman Um, mostly grass.

Richard Raxworthy Was there any trees had been planted at all?

Frank Coltman Oh, there was a few trees but not a lot.

Richard Raxworthy, Do you remember the old hot-, the old Brighton hotel, was that there when you, or was it already gone?

Frank Coltman Ah, it was already gone, the Brighton.

Richard Raxworthy And do you ever remember seeing an Aboriginal, ah, midden, a shell midden anywhere?

Frank Coltman I can’t, ah, recollect that, no.

Richard Raxworthy And what about, um, where, what about the fishermen, were there, do you remember them and where they used to tie up?

Frank Coltman In Wollongong Harbour? Yes.

Richard Raxworthy Where did they, what part did they tie up in?

Frank Coltman Oh, in, in the main, in the harbour itself. Not not, not outside the harbour as they do now, mostly in the harbour itself.

Richard Raxworthy, You know where the fish market is now?

Frank Coltman Yes.

Richard Raxworthy Did they tie up there or was it further around?

Frank Coltman No, just there.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, where did they sell the fish?

Frank Coltman Well, I think it was some was locally, and some was sent away.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah but did you remember them selling any fish?

Frank Coltman Yes, mm.

Richard Raxworthy So do you remember your family buying any?

Frank Coltman Oh, yes, I think I can remember our, my parents going, ah, to Wollongong harbour to buy fish.

Richard Raxworthy And what about, um, do you remember the, the fisherman selling, ah, fish around the town?

Frank Coltman Yes.

Richard Raxworthy What do they sell it from?

Frank Coltman Oh, from their own shop, or, ah, they, they’d come around in ah, a wagon and sell it from the back of the wagon.

Richard Raxworthy And they were fishermen selling it?

Frank Coltman Fishermen.

Richard Raxworthy Right. And was there any, um,

were there any cafe or any food outlets down around the harbour in those days?

Frank Coltman No, nothing, no outlets round the harbour in those days. Not like there is now.

Richard Raxworthy Did anybody picnic around there? Do you ever have a family picnic around there?

Frank Coltman Oh, yes, on the, on the sand or on the grass.

Richard Raxworthy Whereabouts?

Frank Coltman Oh, near, ah, near Brighton beach they call it now. They still do it now, or more so now than what they used to before.

Richard Raxworthy Was there a kiosk there?

Frank Coltman Um, not, not in those days.

Richard Raxworthy What about further, further round at Fairy Creek, was there a kiosk there?

Frank Coltman Ah, yes, there was a kiosk around I think it’d probably be around Bourke Street. Bourke Street or, or Cliff Road.

Richard Raxworthy Is there anything else you can remember about the, the harbour? Do you remember the crane being there in the, in the middle, there’s only a post left there now. Frank Coltman Only the post there now, yes. I, I don’t remember it being left alone,  but I know where it was.

Richard Raxworthy Yes, you can still see where it was. And do you remember the crane being there?

Frank Coltman, I do not, no.

Richard Raxworthy So all that had gone. And the, the coal space, all the machinery there, for, ah, and the tipping, ah, shutes, had that at all gone?

Frank Coltman That had all gone.

Richard Raxworthy, I don’t know whether, what else I can ask you about down that end. And did you have to do any repairs, um, further down the line on the, ah, to the lines, um..?

Frank Coltman No, the, ah, there was men on the line all, like all the time, there was someone working, re-, repairing and maintenance on them all the time.

Richard Raxworthy What about bridges down the line?. There was one at Fairy creek across the Wisemans Park way.

Frank Coltman Ah, yes, one at Fairy Creek at Wisemans Park and, ah, the bridges, there was a bridge at, ah, the top Acacia Street now where it runs off, ah, Gilmore and Acacia Street. There was a bridge there, there is a bridge.

Richard Raxworthy What about further down, do you remember, um, any, I mean any of the li-, lines and sidings around there – you had to work on anything?

Frank Coltman No, I did not.

Richard Raxworthy There’s still a piece of line left in the old, ah, Coll-, in the Collegians club car park.

Frank Coltman There is, that’s right. That’s where the, where the, ah, track went through there.

Richard Raxworthy Isn’t that, it’s still a right of way there, but I understand that the Collegians are trying to buy it off the Council.

Frank Coltman I wouldn’t be surprised, uh-mm.

Richard Raxworthy There’s a whole lot of containers sitting there with amenities for the blokes who are working in the club.

Frank Coltman Mm-mm.

Richard Raxworthy I’ve alerted the Council to the, to that, you know. I, I don’t see why they shouldn’t have it, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t leave the lines as well.

Frank Coltman Well it’s been there a long time, hasn’t it.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, did you ever walk down the right away after it was pulled up?

Frank Coltman Ah, yes, I have walked, walked that distance.

Richard Raxworthy Now, where exactly was it after you come past the, ah, the gas works? Was it on Smith Street or off Smith Street?

Frank Coltman Ah, it was, ah, yes off Smith Street.

Richard Raxworthy Between there and, ah, and Campbell Street.

Frank Coltman Between Smith and Campbell Street.

Richard Raxworthy, Do you remember when you used to walk right down there?

Frank Coltman Yes, you could walk right through there. Just beside Campbell Street, right thru to there

Richard Raxworthy What did he walk down there for if you walked there?

Frank Coltman Oh, it was only for, just a, an out-, outing.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah, that’s interesting.

Frank Coltman A walk for the boys and just, we wouldn’t, wouldn’t exactly know where we were going, we’d just finish up there.

Richard Raxworthy One of the men reckoned that he used to use that as a shortcut going to Tech.

Frank Coltman Yes, they could’ve too, mm-hm.

Richard Raxworthy Where was the Tech at that time?

Frank Coltman It was, ah, on, ah, it was a fair way away.

Tech college would be, well, down behind the Piccadilly now, and down, ah, what’s that street, ah – Gladstone Avenue –

the Tech they’d, they’d go to then.

Richard Raxworthy And the types of coal that used to be brought out of, ah, of Mt Keira, was there any different, ah, different coal from different seams or what?

Frank Coltman No. They all worked the No.1 seam and later on they put, ah, opened up a No.3 seam up near the same, ah, same part of the mine.

Richard Raxworthy Were you there when the incline was closed down, when the tunnel was opened up?

Frank Coltman Yes. It went to Kemira, the coal went through Kemira tunnel.

Richard Raxworthy And what did they do with all the skips at that time?

Frank Coltman, I think they all went for scrap. Or perhaps they might have taken some good ones to be sold somewhere, but I think most of them went for scrap.

Richard Raxworthy And, ah, and no coal came out of the, out of the mine there after that.

Frank Coltman After that it all went through, ah, over Mt Kembla.

Richard Raxworthy Now, um, how did it go to Mt Kembla?

Frank Coltman It was, ah, taken out on, ah, diesel, like they used to pull the, ah, 10 tonnne loader, ah, skips out of the mine out Kemira tunnel.

Richard Raxworthy, I heard stories about them tipping coal down a shaft there. Where was that?

Frank Coltman That was at, ah, Kemira tunnel. The, ah, skips would come out of the mine, they’d be tipped down a shaft and then onto a conveyor belt onto the, ah, the the big bins where the government trucks used to come and be filled from the, ah, bins.

Richard Raxworthy You got any stories about the, about the incline about the Clippers and any people playing up or accidents?

Frank Coltman Oh yeah. Used to be a runaway every now and again on, on the incline, not very many, but, ah, well. Have some time before we were working, I was working at the, ah,

the workshop at Mt Keira, might be something go amiss with the loco, perhaps down, down below. Well, you’d put your bag of tools on your back and you’d, you’d sit on the skip and ride, ride the skip down to, down the, down the hill.

Richard Raxworthy Was that allowed?

Frank Coltman Well, people used to shut their eyes to it. The men used to know what was going on but, ah, it was too rough to walk down, down the incline at all. It was all spilt coal and very rough.

Richard Raxworthy, Do you remember any kids riding the skips?

Frank Coltman Yes.

Richard Raxworthy, They used to chase them off?

Frank Coltman Yeah, well, I didn’t chase him off, but, ah, I know people who did.

Richard Raxworthy Yeah. What about accidents, apart from the runaways, anything else?

Frank Coltman Well, ah…

Richard Raxworthy Ever remember a cable being broken?

Frank Coltman, I don’t remember a cable being broken, ah, at all. Not at, ah, Keira while I was there.

Richard Raxworthy Right.

Frank Coltman I have heard of other mines, but not at,up there.

Richard Raxworthy Now, ah, is there anything more that you can think of that, um, that we haven’t discussed either up on the incline or on the rundown with, where the locos took the,

the coal to the main line, or alternatively right down on the wharf, ah, in the harbour. Is there anything you can think of?

 

Frank Coltman Nothing I can think of more now, nothing more than what you’ve asked me.

Richard Raxworthy All right, well thank you very much Mr Frank Coltman.