In the early 1940s brown coal was mined and transported in large quantities by rail from the nearby Rowsley Station, with dedicated trains running between Maddingley and the Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM Siding) at Fairfield, Melbourne.
This traffic continued until the late 1970s when the boilers were converted to natural gas firing.
The mine was subsequently acquired by the Calleja Group, a family owned waste management and transport company, primarily as an EPA licensed landfill for construction and demolition and, commercial and industrial waste .
By 1994 the Calleja Group had acquired ownership of a methodology to create densified coal.
The company invested in the application of Maddingley brown coal as a soil conditioner and natural fertiliser replacement for super phosphate, and the development of bench test equipment to produce batch samples of densified coal.