Kemira Colliery

Site history. The Mt Keira (later Kemira) Colliery is of major importance in the history of mining in the Illawarra - both for the fact that it was the first commercial mine in the Illawarra, and because over its 143 years of operation5 it was a prime example of the major changes which occurred in the organisation of work, coal mining equipment, and the transport of coal over that period. (For example, in 1965 the first successful fully mechanised retreat longwall mining system in Australia was installed at this mine - a method now standard throughout the industry.) Opened in 1848 by a retired sea captain James Shoobert, its first coal was hauled through bush to a nearby depot by ox-drawn carts/sleds. In 1849 the first coal left that depot by horse-drawn cart for Wollongong Harbour, to be loaded on the steamer "William the Fourth" - the first commercial shipment of coal from the Illawarra.