Page 54 - 00 Volume 5 The Mine

The 120-B excavator loses its grip on reality.
As the mine excavations moved east so did the The children of the village found it looked like
coal storage bins and a shortening and realignment of Christmas lights as they looked out over to the mine
the railway was effected. pit and stop-banks. The earthmoving machinery
The old railway bed was lowered by earthmovers carried enough lights to see what they were doing as
and converted into a water canal to drain the well as fixed lights to help illuminate the working
swamp and hill run-off from the south end of the areas.
lake. The village children watched this action from the The machinery and the men worked hard to
safety of their front fences, just 15 meters away as the keep the stop-bank height above that of the rising lake
railway cutting in front of the houses was converted. and the families put up with with the night-long noise
At one stage in 1953 when there has been of loud grinding engines and the sharp heavy-metal
heavy rainfall in the area the Waikato River had repair sounds from the nearby workshops as every
backed up into Kimihia Lake and the integrity of the man did his bit to preserve their livelihood.
stopbanks and the working pit were threatened. Men At one stage of the mining up to 12 old tunnels
and machines worked day and night during these were exposed in the coal face. It was during the great
times to prevent any breaches of the bank and the strike of the early `50's that the mine closed down,

possible flooding of the pit. except for the safety officer who had to oversee the
dead site to ensure that all would be safe and in
readiness for the resumption of work when the strike
ended. This job was carried out by Harry
Macdonald, operator of the 120-B excavator.
The very heavy 120-B' s have had two accidents
at the mine. The first was when the land under it gave
way and the second was when one of the machines
broke through the roof of one of the old galleries.
One of these accidents was reported in 1955 in

the Huntly Press:
Three bulldozers, two huge carryalls and
an excavator which looked like a
meccano product alongside the stricken
machine are engaged in the main pit at
Kimihia State opencast coal mine, in
removing possibly 12,000 yards of spoil
Establishing the major coffer dam for the new pit.