Explore the old coal workings beneath Ipswich, find the collieries behind familiar suburb names, and read the stories of the people who worked them. This interactive coal mines map brings historical mine outlines, featured sites and drilling records together in one place.
How to use Mine Mapper
- Choose Street or Satellite. Street makes the mine outlines easy to follow. Satellite helps you compare historical workings with the landscape today.
- Switch layers on and off. The coloured buttons in the top-left toolbar control Featured, Underground, Openings and Boreholes. A filled button means its layer is on.
- Zoom in and click a feature. Use the + and − controls, your mouse wheel or a pinch gesture. Click a coloured area, star or point for its available records. Click a numbered cluster to zoom into the individual points.
- Compare sourced dates on desktop. The Historical year slider changes only underground workings with verified opening and closing years. Other outlines remain visible because their operating dates have not been established. The mobile layout leaves out the slider to give the map more room.
★Featured mines: selected collieries and coal-mining places with stories worth exploring. A star is a representative location, not an exact shaft entrance.
Underground workings: mapped areas derived from historical mine plans. Red means closed by the selected year or operating dates not established. Black means the selected year falls within a sourced operating period. These shapes show recorded workings, not a street-level drawing of every tunnel.
!Mine openings: recorded shafts, adits and other entrances where coordinates are available. Yellow numbered circles group nearby openings. An adit enters from a hillside; a shaft reaches down from the surface.
Coal boreholes: drilling records used to investigate the ground and coal seams. Orange numbered circles group nearby boreholes. A borehole is a drilled investigation point, not a mine entrance.
Surface pits: orange outlines appear when you zoom in closely. They mark mapped surface excavation areas, separate from the underground workings.
The black boundary traces Ipswich City. Some records just beyond it appear because the data is loaded for the surrounding map area. On desktop, open the Legend at the bottom for a quick colour key.
Dates checked 24 October 2026: Westfalen No. 3 has a sourced underground operating period of 1965–1987. Box Flat No. 5 closed in 1972 and Haighmoor Extended closed in 1974, but their opening years have not been established. Other underground outlines stay visible at every year and show unknown dates. Jeebropilly’s separate open-cut history spans 1982–2019. Dates for a mining company or district are not assigned to every working with a similar name.
Map data saved 24 October 2026. Individual mine-opening locations were unavailable from the government source on that date. A blank layer does not mean there were no mines or openings in that area.
The stories behind the featured mines
Open a name for its history, then choose Show on Map to find its star, highlight its mapped underground outline in yellow and open the mine’s information box. Where no outline is available, the button opens the featured location’s information. Several names cover successive shafts or a group of workings. The entries distinguish those wider stories from the particular numbered mine shown on the map.
Box Flat No. 5 — Swanbank
Swanbank · the 1972 disaster
The wider Box Flat mining story began in 1897, when William McQueen and his partners opened a mine at Swanbank. By 1912, Box Flat employed about 80 people and raised around 200 tons of coal a day. Coal travelled out by railway, with ponies still helping haul it underground.
On 31 July 1972, an underground fire and explosion devastated the Box Flat workings. Seventeen men were killed that day, including members of the mines rescue team. Clarence Wolski later died from his injuries, bringing the death toll to 18. Fourteen men remain in the sealed workings.
The disaster involved the connected No. 5 and No. 7 mines. The No. 5 label on this map represents one part of that wider site. The Box Flat Memorial at Swanbank remembers the men and the families whose lives changed that morning.
On this map: The star represents Box Flat Extended No. 5’s recorded underground workings, not a surveyed entrance. The history also describes the wider Box Flat enterprise.
Source: Mining and Energy Union — Box Flat remembrance
Jeebropilly Mine — the last Ipswich coal mine
Near Willowbank and Amberley · the final open-cut era
Jeebropilly was an open-cut coal mine near Willowbank and Amberley, west of Ipswich. It opened in 1982 and produced about 32 million tonnes of coal over 37 years. When it closed in December 2019, it was the last operating coal mine in the Ipswich coalfields.
Unlike the underground collieries featured elsewhere on this map, Jeebropilly extracted coal from open pits. The star marks its recorded Queensland Government mine location. Show on Map opens that marker and its details; there is no underground outline for Jeebropilly in the saved dataset.
On this map: The star uses the government’s Jeebropilly mine point, with a recorded location accuracy of 50 metres. This was an open-cut operation; no underground outline is available here.
Source: Ipswich First — Jeebropilly mine closure
Redbank Colliery and Queensland’s first recorded coal mine
Redbank · the beginnings of Queensland coal mining
Redbank is where Queensland’s recorded coal-mining story begins. John Williams opened a mine beside the Brisbane River in 1843, years before Queensland became a separate colony. The early riverside operation supplied the steam-powered river trade. It was the beginning of a much larger mining district, rather than one mine that operated unchanged for the next century.
Redbank also has a place in labour history. In 1861, eight miners at the Campbell and Towns mines barricaded an entrance after a dispute over wages. Ipswich Libraries identifies this as Queensland’s first mining labour strike. The men were arrested, then acquitted, and the strike lasted about two weeks. The 1843 opening and 1861 dispute refer to different stages of Redbank’s mining history.
On this map: The star represents the recorded Redbank Colliery workings. Redbank’s 1843 first-mine story concerns the wider district and does not identify this outline as the original mine.
Read more: The Story of Ipswich
Source: Ipswich Libraries: mining firsts and the 1861 strike (archived)
Old Tivoli and the coalfield behind the suburb
Tivoli · mines, railways and waterworks
Tivoli’s mines helped turn farmland north of the Bremer River into a working community. The State Library traces Davies Mine, later called Old Tivoli, to 1864. John Robinson and Harry Hooper financed the venture, supplying coal and coke as Queensland’s railways expanded. The origin of the Tivoli name is uncertain, although it has been linked to the Hooper family.
Transport became part of the landscape. A branch railway connected the workshops with Tivoli mines in 1898, and a tramway carried coal from Tivoli’s rail yard to Mount Crosby Waterworks from 1913. The map’s Old Tivoli point sits within this wider history. Old Tivoli, New Tivoli and numbered workings should be checked individually when tracing a particular shaft or ancestor.
On this map: This star marks the recorded Gullands Old Tivoli Tunnel, one working in the wider Tivoli mining district. It is not a verified Tivoli No. 1 location, and no matching underground outline is available in the saved map.
Source: State Library of Queensland: Tivoli / Tivoli Hill
Eclipse No. 4 and the Wright family’s collieries
Tivoli · the Wright family and the 1893 flood
The Eclipse name carries one of Ipswich’s hardest mining stories. During the 1893 floods, water entered Eclipse Colliery at Tivoli and drowned seven miners. Two were Thomas and George Wright, sons of mine owner John Wright. Volunteers recovered the men after the flood because no dedicated mine rescue service existed at the time.
The family’s coal business continued. Their three timber houses on Mount Crosby Road, including Oaklands, remain a visible connection to the people behind the mines. John Wright’s enterprise also produced coke and supplied railways, industry and waterworks. The featured map label is Eclipse No. 4. These stories describe the wider Eclipse colliery and Wright family, rather than dating every numbered working to the 1893 disaster.
On this map: The star represents Eclipse No. 4’s recorded workings, not an entrance. The 1893 flood story concerns Eclipse Colliery generally; the source does not identify No. 4 as the disaster site.
Read more: Oaklands and the Wright family houses
Source: State Library of Queensland: Tivoli and the Eclipse disaster
Aberdare Colliery and Ipswich’s ‘Coal King’
Blackstone and Bundamba · Lewis Thomas
The Aberdare name is closely tied to Lewis Thomas, the Welsh-born mine owner known as Ipswich’s ‘Coal King’. Demand from the expanding railways helped build his fortune, while the mines drew Welsh workers and their families to the Blackstone and Bundamba district. His wealth paid for Brynhyfryd, the grand late-19th-century house overlooking the coalfields.
The cultural legacy reached well beyond coal. Thomas supported the Welsh church, the Cambrian Choir and Ipswich’s eisteddfod tradition. A downturn in the 1890s also led him to turn his mining operation into a workers’ co-operative for about a decade. Aberdare included successive and numbered workings, so this is the broader colliery story behind the mapped Aberdare Colliery working, rather than a claim that every event happened at that exact shaft.
On this map: The star represents the government’s Aberdare Colliery outline, not a verified No. 1 shaft. The history covers Lewis Thomas and the broader Aberdare enterprise.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography: Lewis Thomas
Blackstone — coal, Castle Hill and the Welsh community
Blackstone · Castle Hill and Welsh heritage
Blackstone’s coal history is tied to Lewis Thomas, the Welsh-born miner who became known as the ‘Coal King’. Mining at Castle Hill ran from 1866 into the mid-1940s. Early miners cut shafts and tunnels with hand tools by candlelight, and Welsh workers and their families helped shape the surrounding community.
Thomas’s mining wealth paid for Brynhyfryd, the grand house that once overlooked Blackstone. His support also helped establish the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir and the local eisteddfod tradition. Castle Hill’s heritage trail links the coal workings with surviving traces of the house and its grounds.
The star marks Castle Hill Blackstone Reserve at Council’s published location on Mary Street. Show on Map highlights the government’s Old Aberdare Colliery outline at this location. That is one recorded working, not a boundary for the whole Blackstone mining district.
On this map: The star marks Council’s Castle Hill Blackstone Reserve location. The highlighted Old Aberdare outline is one recorded working here, not the boundary of the whole reserve or Blackstone mining district.
Source: Ipswich City Council — Castle Hill Blackstone Reserve
Rhondda collieries — coal and dinosaur footprints
New Chum district · dinosaur footprints underground
Rhondda’s best-known discovery came from the roof, not the coal face. In 1964, miners working 213 metres below New Chum exposed dinosaur footprints in the rock above them. A preserved cast and photographs later allowed researchers to study the tracks again. A 2021 reassessment identified a likely plant-eating dinosaur rather than the large predator once imagined.
The colliery also belonged to Ipswich’s long-running network of mining businesses. Architect and mine owner M. W. Haenke held interests in Rhondda, and New Hope records purchasing the Rhondda collieries in 1995. State Library of Queensland holds mine plans, inspection records and business papers from the operation.
Rhondda had several numbered workings. The featured name covers that wider history, while individual underground shapes carry the more specific mine names.
On this map: The star represents Rhondda No. 1’s recorded workings. The dinosaur story concerns the wider Rhondda operation; the star does not identify the footprint discovery site.
Source: University of Queensland — reassessing the Rhondda dinosaur tracks
Oakleigh Colliery — Rosewood
Rosewood district · underground and open-cut eras
Oakleigh belongs to the Rosewood district’s coal story, west of the main Ipswich coalfield. Several workings carried the Oakleigh name, followed by the later New Oakleigh open-cut operation. The Rule family took over Oakleigh in 1948, and New Hope purchased the Oakleigh collieries in 1999.
New Oakleigh continued producing coal until 2013. Rehabilitation included filling former pits and reshaping the land for revegetation. The underground outlines on this map show a different part of that long history from the later open-cut pits. When comparing old plans, photographs or family records, check the mine number and date: ‘Oakleigh’ can describe more than one operation.
On this map: The star represents the recorded underground Oakleigh workings. The later New Oakleigh open-cut mine is a separate part of the history; its 2013 closure is not the closure date of this outline.
Source: Rosewood History Group — local mines
Westfalen No. 3 — Collingwood Park
Several workings · the No. 3 story at Collingwood Park
The map contains several Westfalen workings, so the mine number matters. The best-documented is Westfalen No. 3 beneath part of Collingwood Park. A CSIRO investigation records coal production there from 1965 to 1987, with some sections working a coal seam more than 11 metres thick.
Miners used a bord-and-pillar layout: they removed coal in a network of passages and left columns of coal to support the ground above. Pillar failures at No. 3 caused the December 1988 and April 2008 subsidence events that damaged homes in Collingwood Park. Queensland Government continues to monitor the affected area.
That history belongs specifically to No. 3. Other Westfalen outlines on the map represent separate workings and should not automatically be given the same dates or subsidence history.
On this map: The star represents Westfalen No. 3’s recorded workings at Collingwood Park. Its dates and subsidence history are specific to No. 3.
Source: CSIRO — Collingwood Park investigation summary
Blackheath Colliery — William Robert Black’s mining business
Bundamba district · machinery and river transport
Blackheath was part of the coal business built by William Robert Black, who began delivering coal in Brisbane with a handcart. He later controlled river transport on the Brisbane and Bremer and bought about 283 hectares of coal-bearing land at Bundamba.
Black invested in electric haulage and advanced machinery at Blackheath. The Australian Dictionary of Biography records output reaching 600 tons a day, a Queensland record at the time. His interests also included Caledonian at Walloon and Abermain at North Ipswich.
He retired in 1920 and directed much of his wealth towards schools and Presbyterian institutions. The several Blackheath names on this map reflect the wider colliery’s separate shafts and workings, rather than one small excavation.
On this map: The star represents the named Blackheath Colliery outline. The wider business also included separate numbered workings; their dates are not interchangeable.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography — William Robert Black
New Chum — mines, workers and a growing community
New Chum and Dinmore · a mining community
New Chum was established in the early 1880s, when coal mining was helping turn the Dinmore area into an industrial community. Neighbouring Rylance and Whitwood collieries followed during the same decade, alongside brickworks, potteries and the railway station.
This was a place of working families as well as mine shafts. The Nunn family’s history records sons working as miners, playing for the Whitwood cricket team and hosting cricket and football matches on their family land. Work, housing and sport were closely connected.
The map records several New Chum workings, including Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Treat the featured marker as an introduction to that group, then select an underground outline to see its particular name.
On this map: The star represents the named New Chum Colliery outline. The history includes the surrounding mining community and separate numbered workings.
Source: Picture Ipswich — the Nunn family and Dinmore collieries
Dinmore — coal and clay country
Dinmore · coal, clay and the railway
Dinmore’s industrial story grew around both coal and clay. Lewis Thomas opened the Old Aberdare mine in 1870, and the district later included New Chum, Belmont, Rhondda, Rylance and Whitwood collieries. A railway station opened in 1884, followed by a post office in 1885 and a school in 1891.
One local discovery changed the direction of an entire business. Work intended to establish a mine shaft exposed clay good enough to make a pottery and brickworks the better prospect. Dinmore’s potteries went on to produce bricks, pipes and other goods.
The Dinmore Colliery outline is one mine within this wider district. These surrounding stories explain the landscape without assigning every nearby operation’s dates or history to that single outline.
On this map: The star represents Dinmore Colliery’s recorded workings. The surrounding district’s coal, clay and railway history does not establish this mine’s operating dates.
Source: State Library of Queensland — Dinmore
Rothwell Haigh No. 1 and Tivoli’s coke ovens
Tivoli · coke ovens and colliery yards
Rothwell Haigh, also written Rothwell-Haig in local histories, was one of the smaller mines working the North Ipswich coalfield in the 1890s. Its story includes the coke ovens at the surface as well as coal underground. A State Library photograph records its ovens and yards at Tivoli around 1908.
Coke-making was hard manual work. Workers shovelled coal into ovens, sealed the doors with bricks and fired the charge. After roughly three days, they cooled the coke with water and shovelled it out. Council records Rothwell-Haig among the district’s coke-making sites. This is a useful reminder that a colliery could include workshops, ovens and transport links as well as its underground workings.
On this map: The star represents Rothwell Haigh No. 1’s recorded underground workings. The accompanying coke-oven history concerns Rothwell Haigh more broadly and does not locate the ovens at the star.
Source: State Library: Rothwell Haig ovens photograph and Tivoli history
Haighmoor Extended and the 1974 flood
North Ipswich · production and floodwater
Haighmoor shows how large Ipswich’s underground coal mines became. In the early 1960s, Haighmoor Extended was Queensland’s biggest single underground producer. Its annual output peaked at 188,000 tonnes in the year ending June 1967, according to the Geological Survey of Queensland.
The growth depended on understanding the coal below ground. A 1952–53 drilling programme tested the Haighmoor area, but uneven seams and poor coal recovery meant further drilling was needed before major mechanisation. The 1974 floods then inundated Haighmoor Extended, and it never reopened. The wider Haighmoor story also includes coke-making and the neighbouring Abermain Power Station, linking a mine beneath the ground with the industrial buildings above it.
On this map: The star represents Haighmoor Extended’s recorded workings, not its entrance or the separate power-station buildings.
Source: Geological Survey of Queensland — coal exploration and mine histories, 2011/07
Waterstown: several seams beneath North Ipswich
North Ipswich · deep shafts and several seams
Waterstown was a substantial North Ipswich colliery with workings in several coal seams. The historical Royal Commission report describes at least four seams being worked over the property’s life. Its main shaft reached the Waterstown Seam at about 320 feet, or 98 metres, below ground. A further internal shaft sunk in 1897 reached the lower Tivoli Seam, another 250 feet below.
The report also records gas and ventilation problems, showing why depth alone tells only part of a mine’s story. Above ground, Waterstown had a tramway towards the Bremer River and a brickworks. A 1913 plan of the later Abermain area still records older Waterstown structures, linking names that can look separate in historical records.
On this map: The star represents Waterstown’s recorded underground workings, not the position of its main shaft. Historical shaft depths refer to particular workings, not the entire outline.
Source: Historical Royal Commission report: Waterstown Colliery (archived)
Common questions
Does a red area mean an underground mine is still open?
No. Red is the map’s colour for closed workings or an unknown timeline. It does not indicate an accessible entrance. Historical shafts may have been filled, sealed or built over.
Can I use this to check whether a property is undermined?
You can explore the recorded mining history around a property, but this map cannot establish the condition of the ground or whether a building is affected. An empty area is not proof of no mining. For a property decision, use official mine records and a suitably qualified professional’s assessment.
Why do some mine areas overlap?
The records can include several workings or plans over the same location. Click an underground area and use Prev and Next in the popup when multiple records sit under your click.
Why isn’t every historical mine marked with a star?
Stars cover selected, individually checked locations. The historical names Silkstone and Bundamba have not been matched to specific featured locations in this map. That does not mean those districts had no mines. The government outlines remain available under their recorded mine names.
Can I visit the featured mines?
The stars are historical reference points, not directions to public attractions. Many locations are private land or former industrial sites. Read the linked sources for public museums, memorials and heritage information rather than using a star as an access point.
Where the information comes from
The map combines Queensland Government spatial records with individually reviewed featured locations. Each star is linked to a specific named record or Council heritage location. A star inside an outline is a representative map point, not a surveyed entrance. Operating dates are shown only where the checked sources support them for that working. The histories use the source linked under each entry.
Map data saved and featured locations audited 24 October 2026. The saved map includes 217 underground outlines, 872 borehole records and 11 surface pits, with 16 reviewed featured locations. Later corrections and newly released records will appear when the saved copy is updated. Records may be incomplete and historical names can vary. This is a starting point for exploration, not a complete survey of every Ipswich mine.