1.2.2.1 Coal


Operating and historical coal mines in the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion are shown on Figure 4. At present, only one mine, the Jeebropilly Mine near Amberley west of Ipswich in south-east Queensland (Figure 8), operates within the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion. Jeebropilly Mine is an open-cut mine owned by New Hope Group, which has been operating since 1982. Operations temporarily ceased in 2007, but resumed in 2008.

There are multiple coal mines in the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion which are now closed. These closed coal mines are clustered in different parts of the bioregion (Figure 4):

  • Walloon-Rosewood Coalfield: open-cut mines in the Walloon-Rosewood Coalfield targeted the Walloon Coal Measures; this field includes recently closed coal mines such as the New Oakleigh Mine as well as Jeebropilly Mine. The Walloon-Rosewood Coalfield became a significant coal mining area supplementing production from the Ipswich Coalfield to supply the needs of south-east Queensland (Matheson, 1993).
  • Ipswich Coalfield: includes historical open-cut and underground operations that mined the Ipswich Coal Measures (Figure 4). Until 1966, coal was exclusively mined from underground mines. Open-cut production started to exceed underground mining in 1985 (Staines et al., 1995).
  • Nymboida Coalfield: About 927,000 tonnes of economic resources of coal have been recovered from the Nymboida Coal Measures in the south-western part of the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion (Figure 4).
  • The Walloon Coal Measures have been mined at Bonalbo, Ramornie, Nimbin and Tyalgum in NSW (Wells, 1995) (Figure 4). These mines have been small operations for local supply (e.g. Relph, 1958). For example, at the Lions Colliery at Nimbin, 11,115 t of coal were mined between 1942 and 1950, supplying coal to a local power station (Rayner, 1950).

Currently, no coal is produced from the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion in NSW.

For a description of this image, please contact bioregionalassessments@bom.gov.au

Figure 7 Coal exploration wells, inferred coal resources and historical and current coal exploration titles in Queensland and NSW in the Clarence-Moreton bioregion

Last updated:
7 January 2019