COAL RIVER workshop 5/4/2003 Notes re John Platt

Coal River –workshop 5/4/2003 Notes re John Platt

Jim Comerford’s book ‘Coal and Colonials’ is a mine of information on Coal River, the beginnings of the coal industry and work of convict coal miner John Platt.(1763-1811)

Coal is the energy of the industrial revolution and still comprises 80% of the tonnage exported from Newcastle, NSW, which is the largest coal export port of the world.

Jim writes fondly about the miner John Platt and incisively on the significance of coal and the beginnings of the coal mining industry.

Captain Cook when he noted the ‘small clump of an island’ that was Nobbys on the 10 May 1770 was carrying in the bunker on board the Endeavour coals perhaps from Newcastle on Tyne.

Coal was used for cooking and heating and extended the range of sailing ships like the Endeavour.

Platt a convict with mining experience was aged 35 years when sentenced at Shrewsbury on August 18th 1798. He was transported for life and arrived in Sydney aboard the Royal Admiral 22/11/1799.

Sydney Traders who had been interested in the coal resources at Coal River applied to have Platt assigned to their coal gathering enterprises. He had been examining the coal outcrops south of Sydney and had developed the belief that the north and south outcrops were part of a single extensive coalfield. Platt was intelligent and had a grasp practical mining problems.

Governor Phillip Gidley King set Platt and eleven other convicts to work boring for coal bearing strata in the Georges River area using boring gear that had been made by Wapshott toolmakers for Joseph Banks and brought out to the colony by Governor King.

They sank a vertical shaft 24 feet in six months and bored down a further 50 feet without striking the seam. The final depth was to be 98 feet before abandoning the shaft.

Prospect Creek where they were working was long known as Coal Creek.

The Balmain Colliery shafts were put down to the coal seams 90 years after Platt’s work and were 2,880 ft. deep. They were abandoned in 1933.

Simeon Lord and Hugh Meehan, transportees turned traders, were the new owners of the 170 ton ex-Spanish ship Anna Josepha. This vessel was sent on a number of trips to Coal River between June and October 1800 for cargoes of coal and timber which they sold for a hansom profit.

Governor King was convinced of the need to make preparations to begin coal mining at Coal River. Colonel Patterson and James Grant together with six soldiers, 2 Sawyers, a Pilot, a Miner and a Native (Bungaree) were in the party as well as surgeon Harris and Louis Barrallier. The Lady Nelson and the sloop Francis arrived off the Hunter on Sunday June 14^th after checking the entrance of the Lake Macquarie (Reid’s Mistake).

Platt guided the miners to where he had won coal for the Sydney Traders.

Colonel Patterson named Nobbys Coal Island and the mainland headland Colliers Point.

Dr D F Branagan 1966 identified the seams mined by the convict miners as the Dirty or Dudley Seam and the bottom seam as the Yard Seam, which yielded the best quality coal.

Archaeological and geo-technical work proving the systemic way Platt had set out the convict mines has not yet been carried out. It is obvious however that the bell mining technique was not used and the more modern bord and pillar was adopted for the underground layout.

Robert Harle General Collieries Manager for the AA Company told the Royal Commission on Earth Subsidence in 1908 of convict built ventilation shafts. Other convict workings were entered at Glenrock and found to be neatly formed with drives and ribs.

34 Irish convict survivors of the March 4^th insurrection at Vinegar Hill were sent to establish the permanent settlement at Coal River to be named ‘Newcastle’. Lieutenant Charles Menzies and party landed the 30^th March 1804. The convicts were put to work at Colliers Point under the Chief Miner John Platt. John Platt died in Sydney Hospital June 10, 1811 aged 48 from ‘Asthma’.

The convict coal miners with their flesh blood and sweat have rendered the most valuable service to the fledgling colony of NSW.           Notes D. Lithgow inspired by ‘Coal & Colonials’ 1997-Jim Comerford.

Dear Colleagues,

A quick rundown on the Rail issue Newcastle which started in  May 1988 with the Hirst Consulting Services P/L NEWCASTLE CBD BUSINESS PLAN and is now part of the Baird Government’s sell off of public assets.

Mike Baird thinks he is a once in a lifetime opportunity for NSW to sell off public assets  and buy the infrastructure that we all know we need!  Look what he did for Newcastle. He sold off the Port of Newcastle 98year Lease and with some of the money he started the destruction of the Newcastle rail infrastructure and he now tells us he intends to sell that too for nice waterfront buildings.

He thinks truncating (closing) rail services to Newcastle is a good thing and that’s what Labor wanted to do anyway. Mike doesn’t understand that the labor woman in the seat of Newcastle was voted out last election basically because she was going to close the railway.

Ironically it was the not so honest Right Wing of the ALP that put the former ALP Member in the seat and finally undermined her to get rid of her too. Sadly for Newcastle it got a not so honest Liberal Party to replace her. The Liberal Party just listened to the same vested interested  ALP/Lib property lobbyists rather than help instigate the good transparent governance that the we so desperately needed. Now the Liberal Member has had to depart the scene disgraced by the revelations in ICAC before he could be voted out.

1)      No Hunter candidate who has promised to close rail services has ever been elected.

2)      No Hunter politician who has promised to close rail services has ever been re-elected.

3)      The three recent elections in the Hunter have returned candidates who have promised to return rail services.

The ‘Remove the Newcastle Railway & Open the City for Real Development’ Lobby groups’ were the City centre Committee 1988, The Newcastle Alliance 2000, and the Newcastle Now 2012 (Newcastle Business Improvement Association Inc). These groups were all established by the Newcastle City Council and well funded since 1988 through the Council’s committee system. They seemed to have operated outside of Council but helped along with a 9% Special Rate Levy on CBD properties.  They were originally setup to improve commerce and encourage vitality but they became the lobbyists for removal of Rail services and for property interests. One would have hoped that Councillors who wanted to keep passenger rail services to Newcastle would have acted over the years in Newcastle Council to oversee the way rate funds were used by these committees.

It doesn’t look as if ICAC can now look at these committees, the Carpet-man or former Lord Mayors.

On top of normal Council operations Newcastle has had the powerful HDC in Newcastle’s central area with $100milion Commonwealth seed funding. It has operated as a not so transparent  planning and development arm of Government. HDC was formerly the Honeysuckle Development Corporation and has had the removal of rail services as a principal part of its Approved Scheme since 1993. Successive Ministers for Planning have never bothered to see that HDC varied their Approved Scheme in accord with the Growth Centres Act 1974.

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Old Newcastle is a unique and precious heritage town with its Cathedral on the Hill and its birth site at Nobbys and Colliers Point. Planners should  identify the good things and encourage commerce and vitality.

The Baird Government mired itself in bad faith at Newcastle with its disgraced members and in arbitrarily starting the rail closure without transparency or parliamentary approval.  Baird should bring back the  passenger rail service and replace  the rail crossings taken away in recent years by the HDC straight-jacket planning.

All political parties should know that closing railways in this day and age is not a vote winner. I hope that the ALP is returned at the election on the 28^th March and is able to restart the Newcastle revitalization in a transparent way and restore Passenger Rail services to Newcastle as promised.

Doug Lithgow     Freeman of the City of Newcastle & President of P&PM

Another Sad Planning Saga for Newcastle - Public Accountability is Needed

Newcastle was a leader in Town  Planning up until the December 1989 Earthquake and with the establishment of  the Honeysuckle Development Corporation with its 1993 approved scheme and Concept Masterplan. This created a non-transparent quasi planning authority in conflict with the statutory planning machinery of the State that ordinary people can see and comply with.

This conflict played havoc in the Newcastle the City Council when HDC wrongly called for expressions of interest for its first Central Honeysuckle development at Merewether Street Wharf before planning proposal had been officially gazetted.  Appallingly Newcastle councillors were blamed and their Consent Authority status for Central Honeysuckle was taken over by the Minister.  Later the HDC closed off and built out the Merewether Street View Corridor to the Harbour.

Deplorably the HDC has not had an appropriate ‘Approved Scheme’ as required by statute to guide the development of their gazetted Growth Centre.  Furthermore following their failure to vary their scheme to comply with the Regional Environmental Plan (Central Honeysuckle) made by  Minister Knowles in December 1997 they have been unrestrained without an approved public Scheme.  Outrageously a new HDC Scheme was only secretly given approval by Minister Hazzard in  September 2012 even though the Growth Centre was enlarged in 2008 to encompasses every Local Government area in the Hunter Region. The Parks Movement is on record that it had been asking that the HDC vary its scheme in a transparent way to bring it up-to-date and comply with the Growth Centres Act.

The recent collusion between the Minister for Planning and the Minister for Transport culminating in compulsory acquisition orders  issued the 17th and 19th December  implementing a device aimed to confuse the people of the region and bypass the NSW Parliament to close the Newcastle railway is unpardonable. It is in direct contravention of section 99A of the Transport Administration Act and transfers the land and rail infrastructure to Hunter Development Corporation who have never been an appropriate transport authority.

This sad planning saga can only be given clear direction by a comprehensive public planning commission of inquiry.

Doug Lithgow
President, Parks and Playgrounds Movement
Freeman of the City of Newcastle

Community Calls Upon Minister To Establish Planning Commission Now

The Hon Gladys Berejiklian MP
Minister for the Hunter and Transport
1 Farrer Place
Thursday, 22 May 2014

Dear Minister,

Request for the Hon Pru Goward MP to establish Planning Commission of inquiry to hear
objections to the current Newcastle revitalisation proposals and alternatives

Parks and Playgrounds Movement is opposed to the illogical termination of the rail connection to historic Newcastle. Trams are a separate issue and a tram network could be established for Newcastle and suburbs quite separately to the current rail debacle. The existing rail corridor from Newcastle Station to Hamilton Station is principally a question of Tram/Train rolling stock to be used between Hamilton and Newcastle or existing rail services with the re-establishment of the over bridges and level crossings removed in recent years.

We ask the Minister for Planning the Hon Pru Goward MP to establish a Planning Commission of inquiry to hear objections to the revitalisation proposals and alternatives in a fair open and transparent way.

The announcement by Planning Minister Brad Hazzard in March 2013 that the rail would be cut to Newcastle and a new Terminal Station and Interchange built at Wickham is the sort of arbitrary announcement that is not acceptable as a base for the Newcastle Renewal Strategy. We insisted at that time that an Environmental Impact Statement should be prepared and exhibited setting out the social and environmental impacts and alternatives to justify this extraordinary announcement. Because of the lack of official consultation it is essential that a Commissioner be appointed to hear objections to the Revitalisation Proposals. This is made even more important because of the extent of the current ICAC corruption inquiry.

The Movement has watched proposals for removal of rail connection to the city as since 1952. Such proposal may have had some sense in 1952 when private transport was beginning to supplant public transport but today they are misguided and based on a false understanding of the morphology of Newcastle and future trends in public transport. The Development Application for GPT is another outrage and blight on the planning history of the heritage city of Newcastle. GPT has had a negative influence and the current proposals are unacceptable.

Ironically the rot began when the Newcastle City Council adopted a special rate in 1988 over properties within the Newcastle Business District to fund the activities of the Newcastle CityCentre Committee (registered 1996 deregistered 2008). In 2000 the Newcastle Alliance Inc was set up by Newcastle Council to implement the Council’s Merchandising Plan. The Newcastle Business Improvement Association Inc. registered in 2011 is now Council’s recipient of the rate funds. These bodies have been Council Committees spending rate funds in excess of $10million dollars. An enquiry should be held into the amount of funds collected and how the funds have been disbursed. The Movement was particularly concerned when the Alliance, became involved in political advertising for the last state election.

 

We believe that the property lobby through the Hunter Development Corporation and Newcastle Alliance have pursued revitalisation without transparency and public scrutiny. The HDC’s life as a renewal body began in 1993 with the endorsement of the Honeysuckle ‘Approved Scheme’ by Minister Mr Robert Webster 15/3/93.

 

This Scheme prepared under Section 14 of the Growth Centres Act and ordered for implementation under Section 17 of the Act is an embarrassment in that it was never exhibited publicly and revised. The HDC has now been given reign over the whole Hunter region. Truly the HDC has done good work in the renewal of the former railway yards, Carrington and the Marina Precincts but has failed to implement their key objectives in the Honeysuckle Central Area. HDC encouraged existing development from the traditional CBD. (Notable examples include Hunter Water, the NSW Planning Department and Newcastle Museum) This has been the opposite of Urban Renewal and the Parks and Playgrounds Movement believes the HDC should now be disbanded.

Passenger rail services to Newcastle’s historic Station are germane to Newcastle Urban Renewal growth. The existing passenger rail stations are located in strategic positions within the identified renewal area and are the critical focus areas that should feature in any effective renewal strategy. Improved access to Wickham and Civic Stations as recommended by the Director General of Planning are 15 years overdue and should be implemented immediately.

1. Coal River Heritage Corridor: (Nobbys (Whibayganba) Aboriginal Dreaming site, Birth site of

Newcastle,1801 coalmining settlement, Lumber Yard, Macquarie Pier Port Development, Military
Works and Fort Scratchley)

2. Pacific Park Heritage Corridor: ( Convict Hospital and Convict Gaol sites and Customs House

3. Government House Heritage Corridor: (Earliest wharf and Government Administration Governor’s
House, Borough Council Chambers and King Edward Park)

4. Courthouse Heritage Corridor: (Newcastle Post Office, Historic Courthouse, Military Barracks )

5. Cathedral Heritage Corridor: Christchurch Cathedral 1828 focus of Town Axis, Cathedral
Cemetery, Borough Market and produce wharf (Queens Wharf)

6. Civic Heritage Corridor: (City Council and City Hall, Honeysuckle railway works. Civic Park and
Cultural Precinct).

7. Transport Heritage Corridor: (Great Northern Railway 1857, Newcastle Railway Station and Civic
Station, rail heritage)

 

Revitalisation has been progressing since 1988 but the integrity of the city renewal has been held-up by the straightjacket of the Honeysuckle Development Corporation and vested property interests for twenty years because they have been wrongly targeting the removal of railway services and destruction of the unique heritage values of the city of Newcastle.

We believe that the previous Minister for Planning acted recklessly in 2013 in announcing a termination of passenger rail services to historic Newcastle Station. He disregarded the rights of the disabled, the young and the elderly, indeed all railway users and the people of the region. The Planning Minister in 1998 should have directed the HDC to vary their approved scheme in accordance with the provisions of the Growth Centres (development corporations) Act to include the city’s heritage rail spine and comply with his Regional Environmental Plan Honeysuckle Amendment 3 shown below.

Under today’s circumstances the two new replacement Level Crossings should be completed at Steel Street and Worth Place. (The roads each side of the railway have been in place for many years) and the three pedestrian over-bridges should be replaced at convenient locations between Wickham and Newcastle. The only other logical way to modify the rail is to introduce a number of Tram/Train carriages to run continuously between an improved terminal station at Hamilton and a revitalised Newcastle Station with a proposed Arrival/Departure concourse featuring views to heritage building and providing , travel facilities and food outlets. This could allow for as many road or pedestrian crossings as required in the future.

 

The Newcastle Railway Station is a heritage place having the distinction of being a unique terminal station of the Great Northern Railway which is the second passenger rail system in NSW (Newcastle to Maitland-1857). The existing station is beautifully situated in the heart of historic Newcastle close to the harbour Foreshore and the Newcastle Beaches. It is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register and is surrounded by other State Heritage Items including the Coal River Precinct, Nobbys Headland and Fort Scratchley and the Convict Lumber Yard. The wonderful Customs House with its distinctive clock tower and Time Ball and the Great Northern Hotel are heritage listed sites adjacent to the station. Many elderly and disabled people as well as commuters from the Central Coast and from the Hunter Valley including Maitland travel to Newcastle rail station to access this unique destination and appreciate its excellent accessible platforms with their easy access to the harbour and Stockton Ferry wharf and bus terminal.

 

Newcastle Railway Station is a heritage place of distinction with many State Heritage listed Items

The Movement proposed that an Arrival/Departure Concourse be established as an activity hub at the rail terminal.

The mistakes of HDC, for example, in buying the longshore wharfs and removing them. The building-out of the planned Flinders Cove project which was a feature of the 1993 Civic Design proposal was a mistake as was the destruction of the view corridor from Merewether Street to the harbour with the ugly Crown Plaza Hotel development. It is essential that an independent Planning Inquiry be held to advise the Minister for planning so that the people of the Hunter region can be guaranteed a fair undistorted input to the decision making process.

Clearly there is much to be done to reappraise the Renewal Strategy in a fair and transparent way and retain convenient rail access and the heritage values of the historic Newcastle.

Yours faithfully,

Doug Lithgow
President Parks and Playgrounds Movement Inc

ACT NOW - Crown Lands Amendment (Multiple Land Use) Bill 2013

DANGER -  ALIENATION OF CROWN LAND RESERVES - ACT TODAY

Please write or phone Upper House Members of Parliament:

The Premier of NSW (premier@nsw.gov.au)
The Hon Tim Owen    newcastle@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Leader of the Opposition LOP@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Shadow Minister  Luke.Foley@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon. Robert Brown robert.brown@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon. Robert Borsak  robert.borsak@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon Fred Nile F.Nile@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon Paul Green paul.green@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon. Jeremy Buckingham jeremy.buckingham@parliament.nsw.gov.au

WHAT IS THE ISSUE? 

Crown Lands Amendment (Multiple Land Use) Bill 2013 is now before the NSW Legislative Council (Upper House).

This Legislation will give the Minister and his delegate controlling Crown Lands the power to alienate the lands with extra uses without notification. The meagre safeguard of public notification and management principles in the current Act will be bypassed.

The changes further weaken the current Crown Lands Act and deny the public protection of Public Reserves and should be rejected. It will only clear the way for clandestine corruption.

PLEASE REJECT THIS BILL

FURTHER BACKGROUND  - ALIENATION OF CROWN LAND

There is currently before the NSW parliament a bill to amend the Crown Lands Act. It has passed the Lower House and will be debated in the Upper House on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The amendment allows the Minister to override the dedication of the land and grant a lease without the present constraints of the Act.

Presently, the Minister has the power to grant a lease for purposes that are contrary to the dedication of the land but the lease has to be gazetted and subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.

These checks and balances will be removed if this bill is passed.

Crown Land will no longer be protected.

It will allow the effective sell-off and commercialisation of some of the most important and prominent pieces of real estate in NSW.

It is done under the guise of protecting the validity of existing leases. This is a nonsense!!
Scout halls, kiosks, surf clubs are valid community uses of public land and are hardly likely to be challenged. This is a grab by the state government for precious public land that is supported by many cash strapped Councils who can see a cheap and easy option to make money out of crown land.

Friends of King Edward Park Inc. have been fighting for 2 years in the courts to protect publicly dedicated land in NSW against development that is contrary to its dedication and to preserve the Headland Reserve. This has been acknowledged in the Land and Environment Court as a test case with merit. The introduction of the amendment neatly absolves the Minister of his liabilities.

Don’t let this bill pass through parliament. Put your objection in an email today. Preserve our precious public spaces for future generations. Use the points above if you can for your email or forward the attached form letter.

Doug Lithgow
President of the Parks and Playgrounds Movement
A Freeman of the City of Newcastle