As we watched Elmer, Fred Burns’ father, unload the very first donga on May 3, 1977 at ‘Grasstrees’ property, little did we realise what a monumental adventure had just started. After selecting the camp site, the small geological team, assisted by Bruce McLaughlin a local property lad, mowed the whole bush camp area (about 1 ha), constructed a water tower, built a generator shed, a shower and toilet block and landscaped a BBQ area and walkways around a large central courtyard area using flagging stone recovered out of German Creek.
MBGS (or MBA – McElroy Bryan and Associates – as it was in 1975) had earlier compiled then submitted the successful competitive tender for the German Creek area to the Queensland Department of Mines on behalf of the Capricorn Coal Management (Capcoal) consortium. The consortium comprised Australia’s Austen and Butta, UK’s Intercontinental Fuels, UK National Coal Board and Germany’s Ruhrkohle. The consortium asked MBGS to create a logo for this new company, hire some 4WD vehicles, stick the logo on the doors and go and find this place called German Creek.
Open cut mining commenced in the German Creek Coal Measures nearly five years later in 1981, and the mine was officially opened by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1982. Underground coal mining in the German Creek Seam started at Central Colliery in 1988.
Open cut mining expanded to the Rangal Coal Measures at Capcoal’s German Creek East lease in 2004. The Rangals area was initially referred to as Roper Creek. This new opportunity was a result of us locating coal in the far northeast corner of the German Creek lease (now mined by Middlemount Coal). We carried out extensive exploration of the Rangals through the early 1980s from Middlemount southwards to Oak Park and then east, across the Jellinbah Fault to Foxleigh before exploring Lake Lindsay for Kennecott in the mid 1980s
Between 1977 and late 1981 a large amount of exploration drilling took place at German Creek mostly by the Blanche brothers, Norm and Wes, as well as other drillers who worked closely with our team of young geologists, together reaching new levels of understanding about how to get the best out of core, rotary, oxidation, and large diameter drilling. BPB’s (now Weatherford) Roland Turner, Dennis Mylrea and numerous other logging engineers that came to German Creek introduced our geologists to the wonderful mysteries of downhole geophysical logging.
Longyear completed the deep fully cored stratigraphic holes and amongst many other useful things, Mick McPhail taught us how to down a pot of beer standing on our heads in the Capella pub.
The exploration camp was the hub for all joint venture partner field meetings and site visits by potential customers as well as senior representatives of the Qld Government to review the project’s progress. The huge aviary at the camp was a highlight for all visitors.
As exploration progressed towards a Feasibility Study, the CEO of Capcoal, Howard Jones, took the small team of technical and marketing people on overseas trips to promote the project to potential coal buyers at steel works. Howard Jones, Barry Eldridge, Joe Butta, Barry Fabian and John Bryan travelled to Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, Spain, South Korea and Taiwan in the years from 1978 to 1980.
MBGS was instrumental in recommending Middlemount as the preferred town site for the mine in the shadow of Middle Mount, a Cretaceous volcanic intrusive sill. The lookout at the top of the hill now provides a sweeping vista across the plains of central Qld to Dysart-Peak Downs and the volcanic peaks to the west. Kerry Whitby designed the championship Middlemount golf course that saw the likes of Peter Senior, Wayne Grady and many other up and coming Queensland professional golfers compete in the inaugural Middlemount Open in 1984 and enjoyed it enormously, coming back to play for several more years. The tournament remains a popular fixture on the Sunshine Circuit to this day.
MBGS geologists were fortunate to experience the rare privilege of being actively involved in a coal exploration project from day one through the Feasibility stages and mine construction and successful commissioning of an open cut mine and then the first underground longwall mine in Queensland. We witnessed construction of Bundoora Dam on German Creek, that supplies water to the mining operation; the building and then living in the town of Middlemount ; watched with amazement as two huge draglines rose skywards; went underground in the trial underground mapping the German Creek Seam; located the basalt quarry (Parbury’s Knob) that sourced huge quantities of construction material for road base, mine infrastructure and rail ballast; supervised bulk sample extraction from the Middlemount seam test pit at German Creek East and countless other experiences from German Creek that stayed with us through our careers in coal exploration and mining. Perhaps even more rewarding were the friendships forged as a group of young geologists and engineers learned and developed new techniques with each other’s help in an initially remote environment with limited road access and very basic telecommunications. The close and trusted working relationships that developed amongst the team that successfully built the German Creek project, people such as Peter Coates, Gordon Galt, Jeff Gerard, Russ Phillips and Malcolm Cox to name just a few, were instrumental in continuing to support MBGS at different times in later years and as a result, played their part in helping us to reach our 50 year milestone.
