South West Life

In the second half of the nineteenth Century, the industrial revolution was well underway, and while the colonies were not the massive centres of production that were to be found in Europe, and especially in Britain, there was a clear need for sources of energy to be found.

The British had used coal to power steamships, railways, textile mills, and indeed it was "black gold", to borrow a phrase from Jed Clampert. In Western Australia, expansion and industry had been rolling on, and the wide open spaces were producing a need for transport and infrastructure. In 1839 the government, understanding the need for a power source, put up a sizable reward of 2560 acres of land to anyone who found a viable source of coal. As is often the case when decisions are driven by political factors, the reward was claimed by AC Gregory for a deposit at Irwin River, north of Perth, which was never commercialised.

The need to find and commercialise a source of coal remained, and there were many eager to claim a lesser, more stringently assessed reward, knowing that energy would be both vital and lucrative with the growth of the colony.

The coalfields of Collie, east and a little north of the Port of Bunbury, have been that find. For decades they have provided light, warmth, and industrial power to the state.

The story of finding the coal involves (as we've come to expect), some good fortune, and a level of treachery and intrigue. The history books show that in 1883, one Arthur Perren laid claim to finding coal on the edge of the Collie River, about where we now know Allanson. The area was primarily a milling ground, but Arthur had leased significant areas on which to run stock. Arthur was more a business man than a hands on farmer though, and frequently hired workers to do the tasks of animal husbandry. One George Marsh had come to work for Arthur as a shepherd and was minding sheep about where the Black Diamond pool is now. In the morning George had made a fire and had used some dark rocks to stand a billy on. Interestingly, when George had moved the billy, he found that the rocks were burning, and did not extinguish easily. He kept the rocks and later showed them to Arthur, who is said to have had them tested, and to have explained that "sometimes trees go like that if you bury them". George is never mentioned in the official records, and we can only assume that he bought the story, at least for a time.

Arthur immediately commenced to search for the coal around what we know as the townsite of Collie, well aware that the state's first real coal mine was well worth having. Reports suggest that while he had an eye for value, he had no notion of what it took to make it all happen. The coal lay undiscovered for some years, and stories of Arthur's attempts to cash in on them indicate that it was made more difficult by his not knowing how to negotiate his way through the bush, or to recognise a deposit if he saw it.

Arthur was never able to locate "his original find" again, but by a series of misadventures he found himself dealing with another business identity based in Bunbury, one David Hay. Hay was evidently as inept at the practice of finding coal, or bush survival as Perren, but had the presence of mind to involve others who were suited to the task. A report by one of them characterises Hay as "the worst bushman that I have ever seen".

Poor George was out in the cold, and an amount of subterfuge now found David Hay as a joint leaseholder of 300 acres with Arthur Perren, but sole leaseholder of thousands of acres surrounding it. In due course a party of men including Robert Heppingstone headed east up the Collie River to seek the elusive deposits. Some weeks later, at a bend in the river near what we know as Wallsend, the party were camped when David Hay heard Heppingstone utter words that must have been music to his ears. Up to his chin in the river, Heppingstone had called to his companions "I'm standing on hundreds of tons of coal". Dinner had just been served, and accounts note that it was never eaten.

So who found the coal? I believe it was George. The public record will give the honours to Arthur Perren. It seems that without the cunning of David Hay and the expertise of Robert Heppingstone apples and grapes might be Collie's biggest output. The combined efforts of toiler, capitalist, and expert seem to have been as necessary a century ago as they are now.

Even today the big black holes of Collie provide a significant component of the state's electricity, and are the central source of income for thousands in the south west. Arguments about the sustainability of our very lifestyle ebb and flow, with new technology sure to eventually produce and commercialise a power source which will be both renewable and able to warm and move us without significant damage to the environment.  Until we achieve that end though, coal will continue to be a source of power for the state, and income for many of us. Plans are afoot for one of the mine voids, the hole that millions of tonnes of coal came out of, to become a vital part of the state's recreation infrastructure, when it fills with water and becomes a lake more than 2500m long.

Would have been nice to tell George that he'd done well, don't you think?