Administration Hub at Maddingley Brown Coal. Circa 1951.
History.
In 1884 brown coal was discovered in the Bacchus Marsh region during construction of the Melbourne to Adelaide rail line.
Mining on the Maddingley Brown Coal (MBC) site commenced in the mid to late 1940s, a time of significant fuel shortages across the state of Victoria. The mine was owned by Australian Paper Manufacturers and output was mainly dedicated to their Fairfield Mill, with direct rail transport from Bacchus Marsh. Production peaked in the 1950s, when output averaged 10,000 tonnes per week. In 1967, the original mine void was converted to landfill.
Extraction continues today, with coal mined at the site being used as a soil conditioner in the MBC Soils arm of the Group, and in the agricultural sector for production of fertilisers.
The coal is non-thermal coal, and as such is no longer used in power generation.
Inclined Tunnel Entrance. Circa 1896.
Maddingley Brown Coal, Handling Plant. Circa 1951. Brown coal mined at MBC was crushed and sorted on site.
Handling Plant process graphic, from the MBC Archives. Graphic shows a series of conveyer belts where coal is crushed and sorted.
The Calleja Era.
In 1990 the Calleja Group acquired the Bacchus Marsh-based Maddingley Brown Coal Mine, now Maddingley Brown Coal Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary. The original aim was to use the mine’s 13.5 million cubic metre hole as an EPA-licensed landfill site.
The original Stage 1 of the MBC landfill has reached its approved final waste elevation. Stage 2 EPA-approved cells commenced operation in 2019, extending the life of the landfill to 2043.
MBC receives more than 500,000 tonnes of inert construction and demolition and commercial and industrial wastea year. Of this, approximately 220,000 tonnes is sourced from the Calleja Group’s transfer stations in Altona and Coburg, as well as the company’s fleet of trucks which cart waste direct to MBC from construction sites around the state.
MBC forms part of the broader 1200-hectare Maddingley Precinct, which is owned by The Calleja Group.
Current activities at the landholding include mining, landfill, soil conditioning (composting and soil recycling), materials recovery, potential acid sulphate soils (PASS) disposal – as part of a plan to rehabilitate the disused Star Dam site into a habitat for the critically endangered growling grass frog – as well as cropping and grazing.
One of the early Maddingley Brown Coal fleet’s coal transport trucks.
Calleja properties in the Maddingley Precinct. (click on image for a larger view)
Growling Grass Frog, a threatened species historically found across Victoria.
