page_title: Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales
section_title: Hexham
hierarchical_section_title: Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales / Coal ports & operations / Northern Coalfields — Hunter Valley & Lake Macquarie Region / The Hunter River ports / Hexham
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the coal loader of Hetton Bellbird Collieries Ltd. at Hexham NSW in 1936. It loaded ships at the rate of 500 tons per hour.
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: Hexham is located on the Hunter River upstream from Newcastle. It is where the Hunter River separates into its north and south channels. Upstream of Hexham the river, although still tidal, becomes meandering and more difficult for vessels to navigate. There were three coal loaders at Hexham.
  The most downstream loader was J & A Brown's staithes that were supplied with coal by the Richmond Vale Railway, via a right-angle crossing (across the Main North government line), from 1856 until November 1967.
  The next loader upstream was the R.W.Miller coal loader, located next to the Hexham Bridge, which was built in 1959 and supplied only by road. After the merger of R.W. Miller with Coal & Allied in the mid-1980s, it was used by Coal & Allied to load coal washed at the Hexham Coal Washery and destined for Sydney. This loader was closed 1988 after the closure of the washery.
  The most upstream loader was built in 1935 for the Hetton Bellbird Collieries and was sold to the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company in 1956. It was supplied via the South Maitland Railway up to the East Greta Exchange Sidings (near Maitland) and from there via the Main North (government) railway to the Hetton Bellbird Sidings at the loader. The coal was dumped at a dump station and was transferred via conveyor across the main line and highway to a ship-loader. The loader was closed in 1972 and demolished during 1976.
  As a river port, care had to be taken so ships made use of the tides to avoid running aground in shallow Fern Bay, when laden with coal and heading downstream, via the North Channel of the Hunter, to the sea.
caption: Hetton Bellbird Collieries Ltd. ship loader at Hexham. It was capable of loading at 500 tons/hour. (Unknown Photographer, Newcastle Morning Herald, 25 Jan 1936, Page 7.)[62]
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