AGY-4924 | Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Mount Kembla Colliery Disaster

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The Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Mount Kembla Colliery Disaster in which ninety-five miners were killed was appointed by Letters Patent on 6 November 1902.(1) The Commission was “to make a diligent and full inquiry into the causes of the explosion that recently occurred at the Mount Kembla Colliery . . . and also to investigate all the surrounding circumstances, in order to ascertain whether blame attaches to any person or persons”; and to make recommendations affecting the general management, especially the ventilation of collieries, and to offer any suggestions deemed advisable for the amendment of the law relating to the working of coal mines, especially with regard to the treatment of coal-dust, the prevention of the accumulation of dangerous gases, and the use of safety lamps and explosives.(2) The following were appointed Commissioners by Letters Patent: Charles Edward Robertson Murray, a Judge of the District Court for the Metropolitan, Suburban, and Hunter District; Daniel Alexander Wilberforce Robertson, and David Ritchie.(3) A preliminary meeting of the Commission was held on 5 December 1902 and the Commission visited the Mount Kembla mine on 16 and 17 December. The examination of witnesses commenced at Wollongong on 6 January 1903, adjourned to Sydney on 29 January and concluded in Sydney on 20 March 1903.(4) The taking of evidence occupied forty-one days. The Commission concluded that the disaster at the Mount Kembla Colliery was caused by an explosion of fire-damp and air, which in turn, started a series of explosions of coal-dust, which wrecked a large portion of the mine, and killed a number of miners. These explosions of fire-damp and coal-dust generated a large quantity of carbon-monoxide, and it was this deadly constituent which caused the death of by far the larger number of victims of the disaster. This conclusion was at variance with that of the Coroner’s Jury.(5) The Commission made a number of recommendations to prevent future explosions including the making of a written report by miners in a book kept for that purpose if they discover gas, no matter how small the quantity, in addition to the required verbal report to the nearest official.(6) It was further recommended that the official to whom the report was made shall communicate the report to the mine manager or under-manager by the quickest available means. The Commission also recommended against the use of naked lights in any mine where any quantity of fire-damp has been discovered, greater ventilation, the closing of mine doors, raising the standard of mine managers and under-managers, and a range of precautions when using explosives in mines.(7) The Commission also reviewed and made recommendations on forty-eight suggestions for amendment of the existing Coal Mines Regulation Act from the Miners’ Associations of the Illawarra, Newcastle, and Lithgow Districts.(8) ENDNOTES
1. Letters Patent, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1903, vol.5.
2. Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Mount Kembla Colliery Disaster, p.xiii, in Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1903, vol.5.
3. loc. cit.
4. ibid., p.xix.
5. ibid., p.xxxvi.
6. ibid., p.xliii.
7. ibid., pp.xliv-xlv.
8. ibid., pp.xlvii – lxvi.