QLDMining
Bundamba
A coal-mining village on the road and railway east of Ipswich.
1875Borehole coal mine opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Bundamba lies on the coal measures just east of Ipswich, beside Bundamba Creek and the main road. Mines opened there in the 1870s, sending coal by tramway, road and river punt to Brisbane, where it was in demand for steamers and smiths.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
A Primitive Methodist chapel had opened in 1865, when the name was spelt Bandambah; by 1877 L. Thomas’s mine ran a timber tramway three-quarters of a mile long and employed eight men and four boys. A railway loop from Redbank to Bundamba later served a string of collieries, and parts of Bundamba Shire were added to a greater Ipswich in 1917.
TURNING POINTS
1875Jones and Scourfield open the Borehole coal mine at Bundanba, beside Shepherd’s pottery and brickworks.
1877Thomas’s Bundamba mine is working a six-foot seam of steam coal.
1917Parts of Bundamba Shire are added to a greater Ipswich.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb of Ipswich on the main railway to Brisbane, about seven kilometres east of the city centre.