History & Heritage
AFTER 102 YEARS OF INDUSTRY, THE CORRIMAL COKE WORKS CEASED OPERATION IN APRIL 2014.
The site’s industrial significance and continued use over a century has cemented it within local cultural and social heritage, with particular importance for those individuals who built and operated the facility and their descendants.
c1912
Southern Coal Company opened Corrimal Coke Works in 1912 to much fanfare. Retaining the iconic original brick chimney as an important landmark was integral to the new project, as was retaining and re-interpreting parts of the original C1 Coke Oven Battery and adaptively re-using the former powerhouse building.
c1959
By the late 1950s construction commenced on a new battery comprising 32 ovens (C2) of similar type to the original but with significantly larger output. Timber coal bunkers were replaced with steel hoppers, each storing 250 tonnes of pulverized coal from Corrimal-Balgownie Collier which fed the coke ovens.
THE COKE WORKS WAS A KEY COMPONENT IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CORRIMAL AS A SUBURB.
c1961
The continuing growth of the plant demanded more power to supply it. A new 2,000KW 6,600V geared turbo-alternator set was installed in an enlarged powerhouse with more modern switchgear and two coal-fired fire-tube boilers to provide steam for the generating plant. By 1962 the second battery (C2) was operational.
Images from the collections of the Wollongong City Libraries and the Illawarra Historical Society