We take up the story in January 2015 where water is streaming inside our warehouse from under Maitland Road, Mayfield. At this time we don’t fully understand where the water is coming from but the intensity has increased and flowing from a number of locations out of the soil wall. One submersible pump is not enough to remove the water, so we installed 2 pumps. In this video water is not only coming from multiple locations to the left, but also from the centre of the soil wall, and, from the right of the soil wall. We contact Newcastle Council, ...
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Whilst our 38 Maitland Road Mayfield property is completely out of action, we still need to handle daily maintenance on this building as well as at the other buildings. This includes daily jobs such as mopping up excess water, cleaning pipes/pumps or solving subsidence issues – when door jams no longer can open/close properly, we are continuously adjusting hinges, door jams, and door locks in order to keep the office open. In today’s photos we are showing the cleaning of the submersible pumps and hoses. If we do not handle this work, water immediately fills the properties with brown sludge ...
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Its hard enough to have Newcastle Council repair a pothole.  So how do you explain rows and rows of streets being repaired in our area? If we had an open and transparent mine subsidence authority and related government agencies, we could quickly cross correlate data showing public assets (stormwater, sewer, drinking water, data cables, etc..) and how the legacy mines are impacting on these services. What is Newcastle’s pro-active mine subsidence policies for the old abandoned mine network – or, do we wait for damage first, then repair, then wait for the damage to return, then repair again….? Mine Subsidence ...
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Mine water from abandoned mines is destroying our buildings. Mine water is flowing permanently from abandoned mine workings that are located under the footpath and Maitland Road. The mine water runs into catchment pits we have created, and then this water is pumped into the drains. The mine water you see in this video is water we cannot catch and is sitting under the concrete slab and “seeping” out of the expansion joints. We have 8 locations the mine water is running into our warehouse property ...
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Below is an extract from the Royal Commission in 1886 where the commissioners chatted with the manager of Ferndale Colliery; 65. You have worked the coal under the Maitland Road, I believe? Yes. 66.. What depth is the coal from the surface under that road? It is about 1.5 feet from the surface down to the roof of the coal. 67. Of what rock is the roof composed ? Soft past. 68. And to the south -west of the Maitland Road, what is the depth of the coal ? It crops out just beyond the Maitland Road. 69. In that ...
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Permanently flowing from under Maitland Road Mayfield we have mine water coming from abandoned mine workings. Mine Subsidence Authority suggests the water is coming from old mine workings that were abandoned in the 1800s. Over the last years, the mine water in these abandoned mines has spread from one building, to now affecting all 3 buildings. It has also spread to our neighbours properties as well as Myola Street and Litchfield Park. abandoned mine water mine water 38 Maitland Road Mayfield warehouse mine water 38 Maitland Road Mayfield Carpark mine water 38 Maitland Road Mayfield Carpark mine water 38 Maitland ...
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From the Royal Commission;   It appears that No.2 south headings were commenced with the ulterior intention of working out a considerable area of coal owned by the company south of Tighe’s Terrace street, and probably, also, of anticipating some of the small colliery owners referred to in working the coal from under the Maitland Road in the direction of the bridge across that creek.   The colliery officials, on being interrogated on the point, affirmed that these bords, on reaching the western fence of the road, were stopped. Mr Inspector Dixon, however; suspected that these bords had crossed the ...
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From the Royal Commission; A few months before the accident as many as twenty-one water-hailers were required to keep the working-places and roads in a comfortable and passable condition. Two special steam-pumps were placed at the bottom of the pumping-shaft that forced about 16,000 gallons of water per hour to the surface. These pumping-engines were supplied with steam from boilers on the surface. Ferndale Colliery Tighes Hill ...
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From the Royal Commission; “To the south and east, and in close proximity to this shaft, three small collieries have worked the coal from under a number of building allotments, leaving no barriers. The workings to the west of these “headings” approached the Maitland Road, and a ‘spirited rivalry or competition seems to have existed among the conterminous small collieries as to which could work the greatest area of coal from under this important thoroughfare. No restrictions seem to have been imposed on the workers. In consequence, this road has been honeycombed with workings for a considerable distance, and is ...
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Before we explain our current situation, its important to understand the historic legacy mines in our area. With the great help of the Royal Commission into Collieries document, I will be quoting word for word abstracts. Later, I will use current day reports and evidence to match with historical data. The Royal Royal Commission into Collieries 1886 was initiated because of the Lithgow Valley and Ferndale Colliery disasters and a near disaster at Maryville Colliery in 1886. With regards to Ferndale Colliery (the major colliery in the Tighes Hill region), on the 18th March 1886 a miner drowned and “water ...
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