History
Coal was discovered by explorer William Hovell at Cape Paterson in 1826, and was subsequently mined from the Powlett River fields in the region, between 1859 and 1864. However transporting the coal by whale boat through the surf to larger ships anchored offshore proved costly and dangerous and mining activity was soon curtailed.
Much of the coal for the colony of Victoria was sourced from Newcastle and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, along with local supplies from private and co-operative coal mines at Outtrim, Jumbunna and Korumburra in Gippsland. After the 1909-1910 strike by coal miners in the Hunter Valley, the Victorian state government were determined to ensure stability in local supplies of coal. The State Coal Mine and the town of Wonthaggi came into being in 1910 to supply coal for the steam trains in Victoria.
The Post Office had opened on 11 November 1887 in a rural area. On 1 August 1910 this office was renamed St Clair and on the same day Powlett Coal Mine PO, opened earlier that year, was renamed Wonthaggi.
In 1911 miners formed the Wonthaggi Co-operative Workmen's Club, a social club with 300 members and a membership fee of 10 shillings. Miners were also prominent in establishing the local hospital, friendly society dispensary, union theatre, and a co-operative store, and in supporting miners in New Zealand in the 1912 Waihi miners' strike.
Mining continued for 59 years, extracting 17 million tonnes of coal from 12 separate mines. The State Coal Mine closed in 1968 and is now operated by Parks Victoria as a visitor experience, with a well-presented museum.
The railway line through Anderson to Wonthaggi has been converted to the Bass Coast Rail Trail for the use of cyclists, walkers, and as a horse trail.
Read more about this topic: Wonthaggi
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“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)