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Events/Disaster · 1898

Dudley Colliery explosion

Disaster, 1898-03-21, Australia.

What happened

An explosion at 9.20 am on 21 March 1898 killed 15 mineworkers at Dudley Colliery in the Redhead area of Newcastle. The mine employed 292 workers and had produced about 77,000 tonnes in 1897. It was considered dry and dusty.1,2

Why it matters

The regulator describes the mine as dry and dusty, with 292 workers.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Bulli Colliery explosion

    It followed a strike that ended in February 1887, and the inquiry blamed lax safety practice by both management and miners.3,4

  2. Hamilton Colliery roof fall at Glebe

    The bodies were recovered over a rescue effort that took almost 10 weeks.5,6

  3. Balmain Colliery shaft bucket accident

    The regulator uses it as a case study of shaft winding risk.7,8

  4. Stanford Merthyr fire and explosions

    The explosion was heard as far away as East and West Maitland.9,10

  5. Monongah mine explosion

    E-WV links public outrage to the creation of the US Bureau of Mines in 1910.11,12,13

  6. Peak year for US coal mining deaths

    The figure shows the scale of the safety problem before federal regulation.12,14

  7. Senghenydd colliery disaster

    It led to tighter mine safety enforcement in Britain.15,16,17

  8. Mineral Leasing Act

    The BLM says that since 1920 the federal government has leased fuels and certain other minerals, while locatable minerals stay under the 1872 Mining Law.18,19

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Where next

Events

An example ofMount Kembla coal mine explosionMount Kembla killed 96 in 1902, the worst mining disaster in Australian history.20An example ofHamilton Colliery roof fall at GlebeNine years earlier, a roof fall at Hamilton entombed 11.5ExamplesStanford Merthyr fire and explosionsDudley's 1898 explosion killed 15 near Newcastle.1

Sources

  1. 1898 Dudley Colliery case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  2. Dudley (item Q5311786), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. 1887 Bulli Colliery Explosion case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  4. Bulli (item Q4996904), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. 1889 Hamilton Colliery (Glebe) Fall of Roof case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  6. Merewether (item Q6819071), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. 1900 Balmain Colliery - Winder case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  8. Balmain (item Q2881464), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. 1905 Stanford Merthyr Mine case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  10. Kurri Kurri (item Q1793195), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  11. Monongah (1907) e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia (WV Humanities Council)
  12. Coal fatalities, 1900 to date US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  13. Monongah (item Q2731020), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. United States (item Q30), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  15. Miners' lives at 5.5p each: the Government Enquiry into the 1913 Senghenydd mine disaster Amgueddfa Cymru, Museum Wales
  16. Site dedicated to thousands of lives lost officially recognised (12 Mar 2024) Cadw (Welsh Government)
  17. Senghenydd (item Q3404686), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  18. About Mining and Minerals US Bureau of Land Management
  19. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  20. 1902 Mount Kembla Coal Mine Explosion case study NSW Resources Regulator

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.