Coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales

The coastal coal-carrying trade of New South Wales involved the shipping of coal—mainly for local consumption but also for export or coal bunkering—by sea to Sydney from the northern and southern coal fields of New South Wales. It took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. It should not be confused with the export coal trade, which still exists today. There was also an interstate trade, carrying coal and coke to other Australian states that did not have local sources of black coal.

Coal was found to the north and south of Sydney in the last years of the 18th century by colonial settlers. Coal seams run under Sydney but at great depth and mining these seams, although it was done for a time at the Balmain Colliery, proved impractical. As Sydney grew in size as a city and as a major port, coal was needed for steamships, town gas production and other industrial uses.

Small ships—colloquially called sixty-milers—carried coal to Sydney from coal ports that were established on the northern and southern coalfields of New South Wales. The coastal trade was well established by the time Sydney was first linked to the coalfields by railways. Significant customers for coal were situated on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, the Parramatta River, and to a lesser extent Botany Bay. Steamships using Sydney loaded bunker coal there.

During the heyday of the coastal trade, Sydney was dependent upon a constant supply of coal arriving by sea, particularly for the production of town gas and for bunkering operations. As the uses of coal declined, so did the coastal trade in the last three decades of the 20th century. It ended finally, around the turn of the 21st century, and is now largely forgotten. Few remnants of the once extensive coastal coal-carrying trade exist today.