Brooketon Colliery

The mine Brooketon was a coal mine in Brunei. The operation is set and the site is located in a state of natural reclamation, ie overgrown in part by secondary forest.

Location

The mine is located on the boundary Brooketon Serase, north of the confluence of the Jalan Tutong Muara in the Muara Highway, about two and a half kilometers from the center Muaras.

History

Coal was first discovered in 1837 in Serai Pimping, near Muara. Named after its location Muara coal mine has been mined commercially in 1883 when William Clarke Cowie acquired the concession for a payment of 1,200 Straits dollars per year. Later Cowie sold his rights to Raja Charles Brooke, who unceremoniously renamed the square in Brooketon ( Brooke Town). Between 1889 and 1924 the deposit by the Government of Sarawak was under Raja Charles Brooke. The annual coal exports fluctuated 10000-25000 tons. In the 33 years of the coal mine more than 650,000 tons of coal were exported. While the coal was initially in open cast mines, you went because of better yield later for civil engineering.

The mine Brooketon benefited from its strategic location near the safe deep-water port of Muara. The coal was brought with a railway there from two and a half miles distant mining area. This railway line exists but not anymore.

Although Brooke was originally equipped only with economic rights, he was soon the political rulers of the area. In the coal mines worked hundreds of miners and made the deployment of police forces, the construction of a post office and the establishment of an infrastructure necessary to Muara made ​​into a kind of extraterritorial appendage of Sarawak. Only in 1921 was returned to Brunei Muara.

The Great Depression marked the end of coal mining: The mine Brooketon 1924 after heavy financial losses due to falling coal prices shut down on the world market. Only once more, during the Japanese occupation, it was re-opened for a short time, but the coal was mined only for immediate use on site.

The mine today

From the mine Brooketon today only overgrown railway tracks, locomotives, manholes and a discontinued Morris Minor are obtained.

The National Board of Brunei plans to convert the 62 acres of historic mine site into a museum grounds in order to support the ecotourism from Brunei. Currently, the former deposit is already provided under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act of Brunei Darussalam under protection.