page_title: Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales
section_title: Port Bellambi
hierarchical_section_title: Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales / Coal ports & operations / Southern Coalfields — Illawarra Region / Port Bellambi
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of South Bulli Jetty at Port Bellambi c 1909. From book 'The Mines of the Bellambi Coal Company Limited', published in 1909.
context_page_description: The Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales involved the shipping of coal—mainly for local consumption but also for export or coal bunkering—by sea to Sydney from the northern and southern coal fields of New South Wales. It took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. It should not be confused with the export coal trade, which still exists today. There was also an interstate trade, carrying coal and coke to other Australian states that did not have local sources of black coal.
  Coal was found to the north and south of Sydney in the last years of the 18th century by colonial settlers. Coal seams run under Sydney but at great depth and mining these seams proved impractical. As Sydney grew in size as a city and as a major port, coal was needed for steamships, town gas production and other industrial uses.
  Small ships—colloquially called 'sixty-milers'—carried coal to Sydney from coal ports that were established on the northern and southern coalfields of New South Wales. The coastal trade was well established by the time Sydney was first linked to the coalfields by railways.
context_section_description: There were originally two jetties at Bellambi, the South Bulli Jetty named after the mine of the same name and the Bellambi Coal Co. Jetty used by the Model Mine at Woonoona. The South Bulli Jetty built in 1887 was on Bellambi Beach immediately to the north of Bellambi Point. The Bellambi Coal Co. Jetty (also known as the "Woonoona Jetty") built in 1889 was located on a small rocky outcrop just to the north of the South Bulli Jetty, The port had also been the site of an earlier coal jetty completed around 1858 but only used for a relatively short time.
  The Bellambi Coal Co. Jetty was damaged in a storm in 1898 and thereafter all coal went across the South Bulli Jetty.
  Coal was sent from the mines by rail to the jetty, where there were two rail tracks on the jetty—one for full wagons and the other for empty wagons—and two loading chutes (one for each hold of a 'sixty-miler').
  The wagons were separated for tipping. One end of the coal wagon was raised by a steam ram, acting on a wagon axle, tipping the coal through a hinged panel in the other end. The coal then passed through a chute, directly into one hold of the ship moored alongside the jetty. In 1909, six colliers were loaded with a total of 4,500 tons in 14-hours.
  Bellambi was a particularly dangerous port. Bellambi Point protected the jetties from the south but its reef extends 600m to seaward and was a hazard to shipping. In total, twelve ships were wrecked at Bellambi between 1859 and 1949, of which seven ran aground on the reef.
  The South Bulli Jetty operated until 1952. The jetty partially collapsed in 1955 and was demolished in 1970.
caption: South Bulli Jetty, Port Bellambi c1909.[77]
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