Derelict Trestle, Merrywood Coal, Stanhope Mine, Avoca, Tasmania, Australia
Image by Stuart Smith.
Around the slopes of Mt Christie coal was found in 1902. Minor prospecting workings known as the Buena Vista mine later became the site of the Excelsior (Stanhope) colliery, which operated from 1923-57. Extraction was mostly by the bord-and-pillar system, although the longwall system was adopted briefly in 1944. In 1960 a bushfire swept across the mine site, and the seam outcrop at the portals caught alight. The old workings are still smouldering, and parts of the ground surface over the mine workings have collapsed. The New Stanhope Colliery, 1.3 km north of the (old) Stanhope, opened in 1957; a washing plant was installed in 1959 and mining continued until 1973.
The Mt Christie Colliery was opened in 1959, in the vicinity of older prospecting adits on the southern flank of Greenstone Hill; it produced about 1800 tonnes of coal per year, but closed in 1965.
Recently a new mine has been opened in this area, the Fenhope Colliery, which opened in 1980 close to the (old) Stanhope workings. The mine is owned and operated by Mr D. Fenton; the seam is 3.6 m thick and mining is all done by hand, the coal being wheeled along an impressive wooden gantry to a large wooden storage bin.
