Joadja, New South Wales

Stockmen were the first white people to enter the Joadja area. The Carter family used Joadja regularly and in the early 1850s Edward Carter noticed the shiny black mineral on seams out-cropping high up on the cliffs. 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. His five portions totalled an area of 305 acres (125 hectares). Carter controlled both major fords and most of the dray-road north through Carter's Flat up to Siphon Gully. The shale mining resulted in employment directly connected with the mines. The population was at its highest from 1878 until 1885. A post office was opened in 1878 and remained open until it was burnt down in the bush fire of December 1904. In 1879 a temporary school of slab and bark was erected for some fifty children. In 1882 a fine stone building was built for the 90 children of Joadja, of which 60 were expected to attend on average. After a fire in 1882, one of the few accidents at Joadja, a number of safety precautions were taken. 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. In particular the manufacture of its own sulphuric acid for use in the refinery. Other manufacturing included packaging the kerosene in tins and a candle-moulding shop. In 1886 the School of Arts was constructed and was used for regular church services by ministers from Mittagong. As a result of competition from cheap American imports the refinery and the retorts closed in 1896. Between 1901–1902 there may have been a brief resumption of mining but in 1904, after 28 years, Joadja ceased to exist as a shale producer. In 2004–05, the site received federal government heritage funding to help roof and protect the unique historic retorts. ==Timeline==

• 1876 - Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Company formed • - homestead for manager erected • 1878 - Post Office established • 1878 to 1883 - D-shaped retorts installed • 1880 - boarding house erected • 1882 - Carrington row built • 1886 - School of Arts built • 1903 - mining ceased and Joadja works closed • 1905 - bushfire swept through Joadja • 1911 - property sold to private ownership == Surviving ruins ==

Joadja is the site of an abandoned shale oil mining and refining site. The complex comprises Carrington Row, School of Arts, School, Boarding House, Stringybark Row, Cemetery, Refinery, Retorts, Experimental Retort, Inclines and Railways, Post Office, Managers Homestead and Orchard.(Australian Heritage Commission) The site, while in ruins, is largely intact with all elements of the village and the industrial workings maintaining their original relationships. ==Joadja today==

The site of Joadja is owned by Southern Frontier Pty Ltd, who operate Joadja Creek Heritage Tours, along with the Joadja Distillery and Joadja Cafe. The Distillery is open every weekend for tours and tastings and the historic site is only open on specific open days several times a year and for private groups by appointment. Joadja Distillery is bound to be one of the most vertically integrated distilleries in the world producing their own barley on site organically, wate ris sourced from their own on site spring and there are plan afoot to use biomass steam boilers (few by the 1000 acres of natural bushland) and a micr-hydro electric generation (turbine) among other systems. ==Population==

According to the , there were 118 people living at Joadja. At the 2021 census, the population was 139. == In popular culture ==

Joadja was the location for much of the action in the 2008 cricket-themed horror-comedy film I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer. == Heritage listing ==

Joadja is of State and National heritage significance. It is one of the most important nineteenth-century industrial and archaeological mining relics in Australia, and certainly the most spectacular of the early shale mining sites in New South Wales. It is extremely rare in its level of preservation which maintains the relationships between industrial sites and habitation sites with very little twentieth-century intrusion. Joadja demonstrates close links with Scotland through technology, managers, miners and refinery workers. The outline of much of the site is still available from surface evidence. 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. Joadja demonstrates close links with Scotland through technology, managers, miners and refinery workers. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. Joadja is visually compelling and the outline of much of the site is still available from surface evidence. As an intact industrial and domestic landscape with minimal twentieth-century intrusion it is extremely rare. The place has strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. The Joadja area has rare social significance for its association with a single group of Scottish immigrant workers who were brought to Australia with their families specifically to work the Joadja mines. The size of the community and its homogeneity of composition is rare in New South Wales and is comparable to other significant mining communities in other areas of Australia. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of 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. The area has rare technical significance as an example of shale processing technology of the late nineteenth century. The remaining mines, retorts, processing facilities and transport networks provide a picture of an extractive and processing industry that was completely abandoned as a result of external financial pressures. The complete remains are therefore of national technical significance. Joadja is a site of outstanding scientific significance as an archaeological site which contains a complex range of remains which could yield information regarding technical industrial processes and domestic and social relationships and lifestyles within the same site. This is extremely rare in Australia. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. It is the only surviving oil-shale site in Australia. 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. ==References==