Commonwealth Oil Corporation

A large amount of their English capital—over the lifetime of Newnes, around £1,250,000—was invested to create a vast industrial complex, in what previously had been a near wilderness.

With great difficulty, they built a 32 mile (51 km) long railway into the valley—alone costing £150,000[12]—under the supervision of their consultant, Henry Deane.

[13] In the intervening years, the company was able to sell readily its high-quality coke to other customers, notably the Eskbank works, of William Sandford and later Charles Hoskins, for use in its blast furnace.

[12][14] Once the retorts entered production, the company soon encountered technical difficulties with its process and, as well, was subject to numerous and protracted industrial disputes with its workforce, particularly its miners.

[16] The company's capital was reconstructed in April 1913, To avoid a forced sale of assets, another £350,000 would be needed, and second mortgage debenture holders and unsecured debtors had to accept a significant loss.

Between March 1915 and October 1917, the Newnes plant produced 3,017,163 gallons of oil, also making, in commercial quantities, locally-refined petrol for motor cars, from around 1917.

[23][24] Ultimately, the high cost of mining and the availability of cheap conventional crude oil, from Borneo, were the causes of the final closure of the last operations at Newnes in 1923.

[32] Some ruins of its once vast shale oil works still exist, at what is now the ghost town of Newnes, but are somewhat obscured by bushland regrowth.