Telford Cut facts for kids
| Location | |
|---|---|
 Telford Cut
Telford Cut
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| Location | Leigh Creek |
| State | South Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 30°29′00″S 138°25′00″E / 30.48333°S 138.41667°E |
| Production | |
| Products | sub-bituminous coal |
| History | |
| Opened | 1943 |
| Closed | 2015 |
| Owner | |
| Company |
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Telford Cut was an open-cut coal mine, now closed, in the Leigh Creek Coalfield in South Australia. For the 72 years between its opening in 1943 and its closure, the mine supplied sub-bituminous coal to fire Port Augusta's power stations. Production ceased in November 2015 but stockpiled product was transported to Port Augusta until the last power station closed down in May 2016.
Coal mine
The open cut mine operation was for low-grade, sub-bituminous black coal which is frequently referred to as hard brown coal or just brown coal. It is transported 250 km by rail to power stations outside Port Augusta on the east side of Spencer Gulf. The coal occurs in several nested bowl-shaped seams, each several metres thick. The coalfield at Leigh Creek was operated by the Alinta Energy and currently produces over 2.5 million tonnes a year of coal. Alinta energy also operates the power stations at Port Augusta which are the only remaining coal-fired generators in South Australia, and the only users of coal from Leigh Creek.
Development
In 1888, John Henry Reid discovered coal-bearing shale during the sinking of a railway dam in the Leigh Creek area (Henry Brown, Government Geologist confirmed the find in his visit to Leigh's Creek in February 1889). This discovery led to a geological examination of the area by a government geologist and the establishment of underground workings. No 1 shaft, sunk by the Leigh Creek Coal Mining Company, was abandoned on striking a heavy flow of water. A new shaft was sunk in 1892 but only small quantities of coal were extracted for experimental purposes and operations ceased in 1894.
It was not until 1940 when coal supplies became critically low because of the Second World War that Leigh Creek coal was considered again. The deposits seemed extensive and extracting the coal by open cut methods was considered feasible. Exploratory boring started in 1941 and plans were made to develop the first open cut mine. Excavation started in 1943 under the control of the Engineering & Water Supply Department. It was apparent that the electricity supply industry would be the largest user of Leigh Creek coal so control of the coalfield was transferred to the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) in 1948.
ETSA ordered boilers capable of burning Leigh Creek coal for the Osborne Power Station near Port Adelaide and, after thorough investigations, decided to establish a power station at Port Augusta to burn Leigh Creek coal exclusively. The combined A and B plants, with a total generating capacity of 330 megawatts, was named the Thomas Playford Station in recognition of the then South Australian Premier, Sir Thomas Playford.
The use of large excavating machines and efficient mining equipment at Leigh Creek, together with the rebuilding of a railway line between Leigh Creek and Port Augusta by the Commonwealth Railways, resulted in economic production and delivery of coal to the power station. Pacific National provided the coal freight service from 2001.
Expansion
In the mid 1970s it was decided to build a 500 megawatt station at Port Augusta, called the Northern Power Station. That decision meant enlarging the coalfield using new methods to extract deeper coal, increasing production, building a retention dam to prevent possible flooding of the field and diverting the main highway around the coalfield. The Northern Power Station, alongside Playford A and B, was commissioned in 1985. Because the existing town was located within the coal basin, a new town was built south of the coalfield and the new Leigh Creek became occupied in 1980.
Since the early 1990s, more changes occurred in Leigh Creek. Massive restructuring of mining operations resulted in the reduction of a workforce of over 750 to about 200. The township also became a lot smaller. The population dropped from about 2500 in 1987 to less than 700 today. The loss of residents also resulted in the loss of many services. A simple medical procedure may require a trip to Adelaide, which means a round trip of about 1200 km.
Closure
On 11 June 2015, Alinta Energy announced their intent to not operate the Leigh Creek coal mine beyond March 2018, closing it along with the related Playford B and Northern power stations. All of which may close sooner should business conditions worsen further.
On 30 July 2015, Alinta Energy announced they were bringing the closure dates of all three facilities forward by 12 months, and now intended to no longer operate them past March 2017 and could shut them down as early as March 2016. The closure date for the Port Augusta power stations was later delayed until 8 May 2016.
On 7 October 2015, it was confirmed that the Leigh Creek mining operations would cease on 17 November 2015.
Township
The nearby town of Leigh Creek supported the mine during its operation.
Rail transportation
Coal was originally transported by a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge railway that went in and out of the Flinders Ranges via Hawker (315m amsl) and Quorn (293m amsl). However, railway was not designed to handle frequent heavy loads. Instead of upgrading the line it was decided to build a heavier, standard-gauge line via the plains to the west of the ranges, which would not incur significantly higher construction costs. The new Marree line opened in 1957; the extension beyond the mine was justified by cattle traffic from that town.
Although the line was built to handle coal traffic, Marree provided an advantage of moving further north the point at which passengers had to transfer between a modern, air-conditioned train and the ancient narrow-gauge train, The Ghan, when journeying to and from Alice Springs. The change-of-gauge role was lost 23 years later, when a standard gauge line to Alice Springs – routed well to the west of the Central Australia Railway – was opened in 1980, rendering the narrow gauge line to Alice Springs redundant.
In 1987, the terminus of the standard-gauge Marree line was pulled back to Telford Cut, where a balloon loop was built to simplify train operations.
The railway ceased operation after the power station closed in May 2016.
