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Events/Disaster · 1900

Greta Colliery fire

Disaster, 1900-12-05, Australia.

What happened

A fire at Greta Colliery on 5 December 1900 killed five men. Seven earlier gob fires at the mine had caused no deaths. The pit was sealed the next afternoon, and remains of two of the men were recovered in early 1902.1,2

Why it matters

The regulator uses it as a case study; seven earlier gob fires there had not killed anyone.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. Coal Mines Act 1911

    It was the main British coal mine safety code of the early twentieth century.14,15

  7. Ludlow Massacre

    The National Park Service links the massacre to the debate on the eight-hour working day.16,17

  8. Battle of Blair Mountain

    Battle of Blair Mountain. Wikidata records 95 deaths.18

Open the full timeline

Where next

Events

An example ofStanford Merthyr fire and explosionsFire again in 1905: an explosion at Stanford Merthyr killed six.9An example ofBalmain Colliery shaft bucket accidentThe same year, a shaft winder accident killed five at Balmain.7

Sources

  1. 1900 Greta Colliery Fire case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  2. Greta (item Q5607629), 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. Coal Mines Act 1911 UK National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
  15. London (item Q84), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  16. War in the Coalfields: the Ludlow Massacre and its impact on the eight-hour workday US National Park Service
  17. Ludlow (item Q1003486), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  18. Wikidata item Q3329738 (Battle of Blair Mountain)

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.