LITTLE wonder the late Hunter mining historian John Shoebridge was given the nickname 'Tiger'. Over decades, the hard-working Shoebridge certainly earned his stripes, not only in the coal industry as a manager, but in mines rescue work and wider afield as a recorder and writer, keeping Hunter history alive.
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For John Weller Shoebridge (1933-2019) was the holder of the secrets of much Hunter Valley industrial history, right back to when coal mining started in earnest on The Hill in 1831 to kick start Newcastle after its penal past.
During his long professional life, he worked in nine collieries, became superintendent of the Newcastle Mines Rescue Station at Lake Road, Argenton and recorded important detail about the triumphs and tragedies of the regional 'cities of the underground'.
Shoebridge died in mid-July after being diagnosed with a serious terminal illness. He was 86. A special memorial service was then held earlier this month at a former workplace with about 80 people honouring his memory.
In the words of Heritage Hunter spokesman Bob Cook, historian John Shoebridge was irreplaceable.
"John was unusual in that he not only knew about the workings of many Hunter coal mines intimately, but more often than not, he'd actually worked there during his career," Cook says.
Shoebridge then frequently lent his vast knowledge as a former mining engineer and coal historian, writing in specialist magazines and holding lectures for Heritage Hunter in recent years on actual mine sites referred to in his talks.
These talks covered a wide variety, all with the early Hunter coal industry at their heart. Usually seated with as cap emblazoned with the word 'Tiger' and clutching a tiger-topped walking stick, he enthralled his listeners as industrial archaeology had become his passion in retirement.
His topics ranged from the beginnings of the Australian Agricultural Company's 'A' Pit off Church Street, Newcastle, some 188 years ago on a block above the city, to the early days of Charlestown and the "Raspberry Gully" pit, to revealing coal company secrets at The Junction and the ocean side railway, with its 'coffee-pot' trains, which once ran from Merewether to the Glenrock Lagoon colliery.
One of the lesser-known aspects of his life to many was his contribution to mine rescue work. That was during his tenure as superintendent of the Newcastle Mines Rescue Station at Argenton between 1979 and 1994.
Rather fittingly, his private memorial service was held there several weeks ago. Here, mine rescue training co-ordinator and station 2IC Darren Parker told the assembled crowd that Shoebridge was ahead of his time.
"John oversaw major changes here in 1984," Parker revealed, speaking of the big network of concrete-lined passageways built on site to create a training gallery so would be rescuers could practice - in relative safety- battling fires, smoke and the likely peril of encountering carbon monoxide, a colourless, odourless, poisonous gas deep below ground during mine emergencies.
Parker said Shoebridge supervised about 450 metres of underground rescue training roads installed on site.
"They were really unique in his time, the only ones in Australia and probably anywhere else in the world then," Parker said.
"The NSW Mines Rescue Service owes John a lot."
Coal and railway historian Ed Tonks said Shoebridge was a very special individual with a legacy including groundbreaking research on early mining, especially around Merewether.
Tonks said the former coal mine manager inspired and motivated people. His chapter in the 1983 reference book Shaping the Hunter was an absolute "standout". He'd also been a driving force behind many memorial plaques and the creation of Kahibah's Pit Pony Park.
His youngest daughter, Suzanne, said that her father, in retirement at Dora Creek, had built a steam boat (named 'Happy Tiger') and had donated his workshop to the Cooranbong Men's Shed. She described him as ingenious and persistent, loyal and generous with a great sense of humour.
Suzanne said that, despite many stories, his mother had originally given her father the nickname 'Tiger' and it stuck. Even his funeral notice began by describing him as "a tiger full of bounce' and the memorial cake at his service was even decorated with a tiger's head.
Born at West Maitland in 1933, 'Tiger' Shoebridge went to school at Kurri Kurri and Maitland before beginning work selling ties at David Jones store in Sydney. He then spent time in the navy for national service before joining Caledonian Collieries as a trainee mining engineer at the second Waratah Colliery in June 1953 before working briefly at each of the company's pits, ranging from West Wallsend to Aberdare.
But it was this second Waratah pit that he seemed to remember most. Closed now, it was in bush off Kirkdale Drive, Kotara South, and became known as the mine (from 1876) from which Charlestown got its name.
Once called 'Charles' Pit' after a mine surveyor, it was known also as Raspberry Gully Pit, the Gully Pit and South Waratah Colliery. In 1902 it employed 502 men and boys and until 1955, the parent company ran a passenger train for its coal miners from Broadmeadow to the colliery, hence the origin of the term "the Gully Line" (at Lambton Road and Tudor Street).
Although the Waratah Colliery closed in 1961, it was here that Shoebridge questioned his career choice. He remembered the mine manager and an ostler breaking open a clog of pit pony manure and smelling it to determine the inner-health of a workhorse there.
"That's when I thought, do I really want to be a colliery manager?" Shoebridge once recalled.
Shoebridge also revealed three major, if now forgotten and sealed-up coal tunnels were once dug (from 1845) below Scenic Drive, Merewether Heights, into present Murdering Gully, earlier known as Smelters Beach in the 19th century.
He also revealed that initially there were four coal rail lines into The Junction on Glebe Road with one main line then threading its way though Cooks Hill and Civic Park to Newcastle waterfront. This line finally closed in August 1954.
Shoebridge said coming together of rail lines at the present Junction was once popularly called 'Howley's Junction' after a nearby rail siding named after well-known mine owner Thomas Howley. Howley operated the now long-closed Glenrock Colliery and his tin shed (later a horse stable behind Junction School). Behind it were the remains of Howley's legendary 'coffee pot' loco - with its vertical boiler from Toronto - to become a well-known sight for residents from 1925 until 1949.
'Tiger' Shoebridge was known for his eccentricities and his love of the classic 1950s BBC radio comedy The Goon Show starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. Not surprisingly, 'Tiger' also had a huge collection of tiger-themed material, .
As an old friend recently told his memorial service: "There was nothing ordinary or average about John Shoebridge. He was a man of brilliance and passion with an overarching interest in his family. We are diminished by his passing."
