Baerami Creek
New South Wales
Baerami Creek is located in New South Wales
Baerami Creek
Baerami Creek
Location in New South Wales
Coordinates32°31′17″S 150°27′11″E / 32.52139°S 150.45306°E / -32.52139; 150.45306
Population27[1]
Postcode(s)2333
Time zoneAEST (UTC+10)
 • Summer (DST)AEDT (UTC+11)
Location
LGA(s)Muswellbrook Shire
RegionUpper Hunter
CountyHunter
ParishBaerami
State electorate(s)Upper Hunter
Federal division(s)Hunter
Localities around Baerami Creek:
Widden Baerami Sandy Hollow
Widden Valley Baerami Creek Martindale
Wollemi National Park

Baerami Creek is a locality in the Muswellbrook Shire in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. Part of the locality lies in a part of the valley of the watercourse of the same name, Baerami Creek.

The area now known as Baerami Creek lies on the traditional lands of Wonnarua people.[2]

Baerami Creek has a deposit of oil shale, which was reputedly the largest in New South Wales and around twice the size of that at Glen Davis. It was accessible from the Baerami Creek valley and lay relatively close to the Merriwa railway line at Sandy Hollow. The location of the deposit was often referred to as 'Baerami', but it actually lies to the south of that adjacent locality. The deposit extends to the west, where it also outcrops in the valley of Widden Brook,[3] at the locality now known as Widden Valley.

The presence of oil shale in the area was known from around 1901.[3] The first attempts to exploit the oil shale date from around 1915,[4] but did not progress. Various small tunnels were dug into the shale deposit, but it was only in 1925 that a retort was set up by Mr. Jaeger of the Muswellbrook-Baerami Shale Syndicate, and the first oil was made from Baerami Creek oil shale. That operation ended around 1927.[5][6]

In the period from 1929 to 1934, two companies, Widden-Baerami Shale Oil and Coal Ltd and Bearami South Shale and Oil Co. Ltd, had leases in the area and carried out testing of shale, with some developmental mining.[7][8][9][10] There was proposed township and subdivision to house those associated with the shale developments, which never eventuated.[11] Both company's leases were controlled by Bearami South Shale and Oil Co. Ltd, from 1934,[12] and those leases were sold to Standard Oil Company of Australia, in 1937.[13]

Starting around 1937, the Standard Oil Company of Australia—despite its name not connected to Standard Oil—had plans, by 1939–1940, to exploit the oil shale deposits—planning to produce 28 million gallons of petrol per year for 15 years—but that was contingent upon removal of a government excise on locally produced oil. Those plans did not proceed beyond successful experimental production using a 'Renco' retort, at Hamilton in Newcastle, over three months in 1939. The retort was relocated by the government to Glen Davis, in 1942, where it sat unused.[14][15][16]

In 1940, a Miller retort erected by Colonial Petroleum Oil Limited was operated at Baerami Creek. This operation continued, until around 1942.[5][17] By 1943, another organisation, Shale Oil Products Co-Op Limited—backed by a number of companies with vehicle fleets—was exploiting the shale deposit and producing crude oil and 2,000 imperial gallons of petrol per week, moving the shale by road to its retorts at nearby Sandy Hollow. This operation only used the richest of the oil shale from the Baerami seams, discarding the rest. The fuel produced was used by the backers, to overcome a wartime shortage of motor fuel, for their own road vehicles.[18][19] This company was in liquidation by June 1945, when its equipment was put up for sale.[20] Production ceased in August 1945.[5]

In 1945, a report concluded that a government-backed shale oil industry, at Baerami, should not proceed, although it left open the possibility of an operation by a private operator if the excise on locally produced oil could be removed. Although Standard Oil of Australia was still expressing interest in developing an industry there, as late as 1950,[21][22][23][24] nothing significant happened; any plans for an oil industry at Baemari became collateral damage of the failure of the shale oil industry at Glen Davis.[16] In 1952, the company gave up its efforts, after spending £90,000 over fifteen years on development works, "in the teeth of Government apathy. vacillation and passive hostility", and was voluntarily wound up.[25] No oil shale has been mined in the area since 1945.[5]

There are some remnants at the shale mine site adjacent to Baerami Creek, approximately 25 km south of the road junction near the crossing of Baerami Creek at Baerami.[26][27] There are 22 shale mining tunnels in the area, which is now a part of Wollemi National Park.[5]

There was once a school, post office, and community hall at Baerami Creek.[28][29][30]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Baerami Creek (NSW) (state suburb)". 2021 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  2. ↑ Studies, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (10 November 2022). "Map of Indigenous Australia". aiatsis.gov.au. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 "DISTRICT'S SHALE RESOURCES". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 26 October 1926. p. 1. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  4. ↑ "BAERAMI OIL SHALES". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 2 October 1915. p. 8. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ellis, Ian (August 2019). "THE BAERAMI VALLEY SHALEFIELDS" (PDF). NEWSLETTER of MUSWELLBROOK SHIRE LOCAL & FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY INC (4): 3, 4, 5.
  6. ↑ "BAERAMI SHALE OIL". Labor Daily. 20 November 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  7. ↑ "OIL FROM BAERAMI SHALE". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 2 August 1929. p. 1. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "BAERAMI". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 14 August 1931. p. 1. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  9. ↑ "BAERAMI SOUTH SHALE AND OIL CO. LTD". Barrier Miner. 28 May 1930. p. 2. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  10. ↑ "Important Developments". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 9 May 1930. p. 1. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  11. ↑ "Baerami Township". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 3 July 1931. p. 2. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  12. ↑ "Baerami Shale Leases". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 8 June 1934. p. 1. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Standard Oil Co. Of Australia, Ltd". Advertiser. 2 November 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  14. ↑ "PRODUCE 28,000,000 GALLONS A YEAR". Scone Advocate. 9 April 1940. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  15. ↑ "BAERAMI OIL-SHALE TESTED IN NEWCASTLE". Newcastle Sun. 20 December 1939. p. 8. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  16. 1 2 "SHALE INDUSTRY 'NEVER HAD CHANCE'". Daily Telegraph. 4 January 1951. p. 9. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  17. ↑ "OIL FROM SHALE AT BAERAMI". Scone Advocate. 8 November 1940. p. 2. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  18. ↑ "£100,000,000 BACKS UP NEW SHALE OIL VENTURE". Smith's Weekly. 5 September 1942. p. 15. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  19. ↑ "MORE PETROL". Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative. 2 August 1943. p. 7. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  20. ↑ "Advertising". Singleton Argus. 20 June 1945. p. 3. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  21. ↑ Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works (1945). "Report together with minutes of evidence relating to the Baerami Shale Oil Proposal" (PDF).
  22. ↑ "BAERAMI PLAN OPPOSED". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 March 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  23. ↑ "Bearami May Be Site of Shale Oil Plant". Singleton Argus. 3 June 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  24. ↑ "COMPANY SAYS IT CAN PRODUCE 62 MILLION GALLONS OF PETROL YEARLY". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 31 January 1950. p. 1. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  25. ↑ "Shale Oil Company To Close". Kalgoorlie Miner. 12 July 1952. p. 1. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  26. ↑ "Muswellbrook Heritage Study - Inventory 1996 - Creek Shale Mine and Retorts" (PDF).
  27. ↑ "Explore with self drive tours - Sandy Hollow to Wollemi" (PDF). Upper Hunter Country Tourism.
  28. ↑ "BAERAMI CREEK SCHOOL". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 3 March 1933. p. 10. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  29. ↑ "32 YEARS AS POSTMISTRESS". Muswellbrook Chronicle. 12 November 1946. p. 1. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  30. ↑ "Baerami Creek Hall". Maitland Daily Mercury. 14 September 1928. p. 4. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
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