There is some information on Edmund Lloyd Owen's activities in Ray
Whitmore's book Coal in Queensland: the Late Nineteenth Century 1875
to 1900 (University of Queensland Press 1985). He arrived in the
colony in May 1892 from North Borneo, where he had been contracted to
open a coal mine and build a railway. Whitmore describes him as "an
experienced British mining engineer" and elsewhere as "the
articulate, vigorous, self confident mining engineer", and
"intelligent, shrewd and eloquent, with an endless capacity for work
and an unlimited confidence in his own ability." Owen raised outside
capital to open the successful Swanbank and Dinmore coal mines at
Ipswich shortly after his arrival. He was a prominent and colourful
character, involved in a lawsuit with his own Swanbank company,
(which he won), in demand as an advisor to other mining companies,
including one prospecting for iron ore in the Ipswich district,
running unsuccessfully for the Queensland parliament as an
independent in 1896, and giving evidence before the Royal Commission
on Mining in 1897. His career in Queensland was brief and meteoric,
and he returned to Britain about 1900.
If you could get access to Queensland Parliamentary Papers, the
Queensland Mines Department published excellent annual reports, which
would provide much more information on the mines.
Both the Swanbank and Dinmore mines had long successful careers, but
have now closed. The Ipswich or West Moreton coalfield was the
largest coal producer in Queensland from the mid-nineteenth century
to the mid-twentieth. In the 1960s a large power station was built
at Swanbank. In the decades since, the opencut mines of the Bowen
Basin in central Queensland have risen to dominate the export coal
industry, and the Ipswich field has dwindled away to one or two
mines, principally supplying the power station.
Peter Bell
On 06/12/2009, at 5:45 AM, David Hardwick wrote:
> Dear List
> Further to the last email on mining in Australia....
>
> I have been researching the 19thC mining engineer Edmund Lloyd Owen
>
> He was manager/Owner of the Iron mines at Frampton Cotterell &
> Rangeworthy
> as well as Rangeworthy New Pit (Oldwood Colliery)
>
> Subsequently I believe he was involved with the eskdale iron mines
> in the
> lake district before ending up in Australia where (according to
> the web!)
> he "established successful collieries at Swanbank and Dinmore" this
> being in
> the Ipswich area near Brisbane (I think)
>
> A web search shows that he was called before Queensland Government
> Committees in connection with "Laws relating to mining gold and other
> minerals"
>
> Does anyone know anymore about the Eskdale mines or the Australians
> ones he
> was involved with
>
> Regards
>
> David
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