New South Wales Coal: A Microview Of The Future

New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland dominate Australian black coal production and exports. NSW produced 86 Mt (95 million st) of saleable coal in 1994, a doubling of output since 1980. Asian demand for thermal and coking coal has driven this growth. This high Asian demand is expected to continue and NSW will seek to secure its share. History The history of the New South Wales (NSW) coal industry can be traced to 1797 when coal was first taken from Newcastle to Sydney (Ellis, 1969). At that time, NSW was a British colony, independent from the other colonies, such as Victoria and Queensland. Australia, as a federation of colonies, did not exist until 1901. The Newcastle coal industry grew through the 1800s in line with the growth of the colonies. Several events spurred demand for Newcastle coal. These included: ? The NSW and Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s and associated population growth. ? The development of steamship traffic at the expense of sail. ? The development of railways and town gas supplies. By 1900, Australia was producing 6.4 Mt (7 million st) of coal, most of it from NSW. By then, NSW had established strong export markets in Indonesia, China, Japan and New Zealand. The history of energy consumption is marked by continual competition, changing intensity of use and substitution. From 1900 to 1940, the Queensland, Victorian and Indonesian coal industries developed at the expense of NSW exports. Similarly, New Zealand developed its hydroelectric industry and thus declined as the largest customer for NSW coal. Oil replaced steam in the shipping and railway markets and electricity replaced gas for lighting. Industrial efficiencies also affected coal. Between 1928 and 1938, coal consumed in generating power fell from by 17% on a kilowatt hour basis and, during the same period, the amount of gas produced per ton of coal rose by 18% (Shaw and Bruno). Faced with these pressures, production and exports stagnated. By 1941, Australian black coal production was 14.2 Mt (15.6 million st). NSW's production was 11.7 Mt (12 million st), up only 19% from 1912. Exports had virtually ceased (Fig. 1). In such circumstances, the industry had lost focus. Unions resisted the need for mechanization, for security of employment reasons, and owners were loath to invest. This reluctance to mechanize and the associated in-