Before the oil, it was coal

Before the oil, it was coal
Rozan Yunos
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN



Saturday, April 14, 2007


SINCE the discovery of oil in 1929, Brunei Darussalam had been known as an oil-exporting country to the point that it is almost impossible to remember a time when Brunei had to rely on other exports.

Believe it or not, there have been many exports in the past. Our famous camphor was one, others were timber, cutch, rubber and surprisingly, coal.

Coal was reportedly first found in the Kianggeh river as early as 1837, attracting the attention of Americans.

In 1841, the American ship "Constitution" arrived in Brunei Town to negotiate a treaty of commerce and friendship but the offer was refused.

The coal mine at Kianggeh was later operated by Pengiran Yusof and from 1846 to 1883, the Brunei coal deposits remained unexploited except for local consumption.

Coal played an important role in the world economy before oil. Steamships, trains and the engines for the industrial revolution in Europe relied on coal for their fuel.

In fact the discovery of coal in Labuan in 1844 led to the British decision to annex the island from Brunei with their gunboat diplomacy forcing the Sultan to sign the agreement.

However, it was in Serai Pimping, Muara that coal was mined extensively. The Muara coalmine was first mined commercially in 1883, when William Cowie was given the concession rights to mine the coal in exchange for $1,200 per year.

However, Cowie later sold his rights to Rajah Charles Brooke and the Rajah renamed the mine Brooketon (Brooke Town).

Between the years of 1889 and 1924, it was operated by the Sarawak government.

At first the mine was opencast the early miners used changkul (hoes), shovels and hammers the method is simple but very slow and unproductive. With increasing demand, the operation expanded underground.

Brooketon Colliery was strategic as it was very near to Muara where there is a safe deep-water anchorage to which the mine was connected via rail.

With the more sophisticated mining methods, railways, wharfs and other advanced equipment were needed.

A rail line that connected Brooketon in Serai Pimping was built. Muara itself also grew. Before the mine, Muara was a small hamlet occupied by fishermen but by 1911, more than 1,447 people lived in Muara and some 30 shops had opened.

Politically too, even though he only had economic rights, Brooke became the "ruler" of the area.

The mine employed hundreds of miners and that required him to introduce a police force, post office and roads transforming Muara into an "extraterritorial" settlement an extension of Sarawak. It was not until 1921 that Muara was "returned" to Brunei.

The Brooketon Colliery closed down in 1924 because of heavy financial losses caused by continuously decreasing coal prices in the world economic recession as well as the discovery and search for oil to replace coal.

The Muara coal mine opened for a short while during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War but production was limited for local consumption only.

Recently the Museums Department announced that it wanted to turn the historical 62-hectare coal mine as an open site museum to promote the country's eco-tourism.

The Brooketon coalmine is currently already a protected site under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act.

Maybe one day, Brunei can mine the coal again. In the meantime, it is being kept as one of Brunei's treasures and legacy for the future. After the discovery of oil, Bruneians seem to forget how lucky we are and how rich our country is.

While we have the oil and the natural gas but, in terms of natural resources, we also have the silica sand, the peat which can be converted into energy, the coal, the methane gas and the trees. In the old days, these natural resources had made Bruneians great traders trading our goods far and wide.

Unfortunately we seemed to have lost that skill with most of us now preferring to be civil servants, sitting down in air-conditioned rooms and pushing papers.

The Brunei Times