Mount Kembla
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| Mount Kembla | |
 Location of Mount Kembla |
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| Location: | Wollongong |
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| State: | New South Wales |
| Country: | Australia |
| Coordinates: | |
| Elevation: | 534 metres |
| Area of Town: | 1.6 sq. km |
| Population of Town: | 934 |
| Post Code: | 2526 |
Mount Kembla (IPA: [maʊnt kemblə]) is a mountain in New South Wales, Australia, as well a suburb of the City of Wollongong, which gets its name from the mountain. Kembla is an Aboriginal word meaning "plenty of game". It is a former coal mining town and the home of the miners killed in the Mount Kembla Mining Disaster. The township contains a local primary school, general store/post office, church and graveyard, several hundred houses and the Mount Kembla Hotel, which was built in the 1887. The only two ways into the village are from Wollongong, up Cordeaux Road, and over from Mount Keira down Harry Graham Drive. The small village of Kembla Heights is part of the suburb but to the northwest, reached by Harry Graham Drive. The Mount Kembla Colliery was opened in in 1883. BHP Billiton is a mining/steel export company which owns substantial property on and around Mount Kembla. It is currently mining at the Dendrobium site, half a kilometre west of the village. Mount Kembla also has a second smaller peak, called Kembla West which is 512 metres above sea level, near where it joins the Illawarra escarpment.
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[edit] Mining Disaster
The Mount Kembla Mine Disaster was the worst non-natural, non-naval disaster in Australia's history. It occurred at the Colliery adjacent to the village at 2pm on 31 July 1902. The explosion was caused by the igniting of gas in the mine by the naked flames used as torches by the miners. 96 men and boys were killed in the gas and coal dust explosion. Hundreds of people helped in the rescue of the survivors of the disaster.
A quote from the mine manager, William Rogers, stated that the mine was "absolutely without danger from gases", the Illawarra Mercury reported that "gas had never been known to exist in the mine before" and the Sydney Morning Herald recorded "one of the best ventilated mines in the State".
However, after the explosion left 33 widows and 120 children fatherless; an enquiry returned a conclusion that Mt. Kembla Mine was both gassy and dusty and that the Meurant brothers and William Nelson "came to their death … from carbon monoxide poisoning produced by an explosion of fire-damp ignited by the naked lights in use in the mine, and accelerated by a series of coal-dust explosions starting at a point in or about the number one main level back headings, and extending in a westerly direction to the small goaf, marked 11 perches on the mine plan."
A Royal Commission into the disaster held in March, April and May of 1903, confirmed the gas and coal-dust theory accepted by the earlier coroners jury. Rather than holding any individual official of the Mt. Kembla Company responsible, the Commission stated that only the substitution of safety lamps for naked lights could have saved the lives of the ninety-six victims.
There are two graveyards where the bodies of the men and boys were buried. Mt Kembla Graveyard is in the center of the village, behind the village church. It also contains the 2.5 metre memorial to the disaster, listing the names of the miners who died on the day as well as two rescuers who perished saving other miners. The second is the more remote Windy Gully Memorial, which is a 1.5 kilometres South-West of the village. The explosion is still known as one of the worst disasters ever to hit the area and has since become part of the villages heritage. There is an annual festival dedicated to the disaster on the weekend following July 31 each year.
[edit] History
Local Aboriginal legends told of Mount Kembla and Mount Keira being sisters and the Five Islands being daughters of the wind. The mountain was first observed by a European by Captain James Cook on his voyage from Whitby. While navigating the east coast of Australia, he noted it as 'a round hill', its top resembling a hat. The village was first settled in 1817 by George Molle. An old pit pony watering hole on the ring track is still visible as is the visible attempt at a carriageway to the top (suspended in the 1800s and never completed).
[edit] Geography
Mount Kembla is in the volcanic fold of the Illawarra escarpment, overlooking Wollongong. The summit is 534 metres above sea level and is a prominent local landmark, where it has a lookout linked to a 5.5km ring track. The mountain has a unique collection of flora, being the fusing point for northern and southern types of eucalypt growth and containing many types of rainforest. It also has two orchards on the western slope. American Creek flows down the mountain, past the mine and village.
