In the late 1870s, after American Creek and Hartley Vale became well-known, Carter set about acquiring critically important shale bearing parts of the valley.

[2] In 1873 both Carter and an entrepreneur called Cosgrove applied for conditional purchase of portion 65, which included some of the richest shale outcrops.

Carter succeeded in establishing title in 1874 and immediately engaged Robert Longmore, who had built the plant at American Creek in 1865, to mine the shale.

That same year George Larkin obtained mineral rights in portion 76 immediately to the south of 65 and including a valuable stretch of shale.

All three parties to the early shale mining, Carter, Larkin and Lamb with Brown, were dependent on each other's goodwill for transporting the ore out of the valley.

[2] Initially in 1874–1875, teams of fourteen bullocks hauled the ore-drays across the valley floor, over the steep-banked ford and up the zig-zag to the plateau which extended to Mittagong.

Immediately the company took a decisive step, building a major incline out of the north side of the valley, on Lamb's portion 103.

The railway crossed the creek on a bridge supported by five piers constructed of stone rubble with concrete render, scored to resemble masonry blocks.

Once across Joadja Creek, the railway went north-west across the flat where the refinery was built in 1878-1879 and up Russell's Gully to the major concentration of mines.

The crucial decision to build retorts and a refinery at Joadja and not to depend on railing all ore to Sydney for treatment was taken in 1877 by Lamb, his associate Parbury and his new partner Robert Saddington, in conjunction with Fell.

Joadja was a remarkably self-contained community, peopled largely by miners and their families brought to Australia from Scotland by the AKO Company to overcome the shortage of skilled local labour.

Farms on the ridges above Joadja Creek supplied vegetables, milk, butter and cheese, sent down to the valley on the incline used to haul the shale and coal out.

Between 1883 and 1886 a good deal of capital investment produced many modifications to existing buildings and plant, a doubling of the capacity of the distillation facilities and the addition of new features.

[2] The remains include: The site, while in ruins, is largely intact with all elements of the village and the industrial workings maintaining their original relationships.

Enough is still standing to allow industrial archaeologists to learn a great deal about early mining towns and about the technology of kerosene shale refining.

[2] Joadja kerosene oil shale mining and refining site was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 November 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

Joadja has rare historical significance as a major shale mining venture in New South Wales in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

As a collection of structures that represent an isolated mining and processing plant, the remains survive as a rare group of relics that are of national historical significance.

[6][2] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

Enough of Joadja is still standing to allow industrial archaeologists to learn a great deal about early mining towns and about the technology of kerosene shale refining.

It is preserved to an extent unique in the world and provides a legible (scenic) and archaeological testimony of all aspects of a major and associated domestic arrangements works using horizontal retorts to distill oil from extremely rich oil-shale deposit.

Media related to Joadja at Wikimedia Commons This Wikipedia article was originally based on Joadja kerosene oil shale mining and refining site, entry number 01305 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.