Sawahlunto is one of the many towns located in the area of
the Barisan Mountains of
West Sumatra, but with a history different from the other towns. Towns such as
Bukittinggi,
Batusangkar,
Payakumbuh,
Padang Panjang, and
Solok were shaped by the
Minang community, while Sawahlunto was created by the mining business during the colonisation of the
Dutch in 1888. Coal was discovered in the mid-19th century by Ir. de Greve. It was then suggested to the Dutch that coal should be mined in the area because coal was needed for industry and transportation. After the discovery of coal, the area was frequently visited by geologists. Coal mining was pioneered in the area after the eventual "surrender" of the area to the Dutch in 1876. Coal mining had significantly changed the rural landscape of Sawahlunto into an industrial site. During its development in the 19th century, mining companies designed the Sawahlunto mining site into five spatial activities: coal mining industry, commercial and trade areas, residential areas, administrative areas, and health utilities. To support its activities, the Netherlands built several transportation networks such as creating a railway network to transport coal from Sawahlunto to the west coast of Sumatra. The
Dutch East Indies also built Emmahaven Port (known as Teluk Bayur) which became a shipping port for coal exports, using steamers SS Sawahlunto and SS Ombilin-Nederland. Meanwhile, in 1887–1892, they began building a train from Pulau Air Padang to Muaro Kalaban and from this station to the Sawahlunto area. • In 1888 the Nederland Indies initialised many coal mining facilities • In 1894 train tracks were opened • In 1898 the first coal mining tunnel was built at Air Dingin, Lembah Segar, but was later closed in 1932 and re-opened again in June 2007. Sawahlunto started becoming a residential area for coal miners when the
Dutch Indies government invested 5.5 million [gulden] (the Dutch currency at that time) to build various facilities to manage the coal mining industry Ombilin. This residential area continued to expand to become a small town that consisted mainly of officers and coal miners. The
Dutch also built a train system costing 17 million gulden as a mode for coal to be transported out from Sawahlunto through
Padang. Trains have been in operation since 1888 but only recently reached
Muara Kalaban and later on reaching Sawahlunto in 1894. Having trains as a mode of transport brought in huge profits from the investment from only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tons of coal per year. Losses turned into big profits as much as 4.6 million gulden in a year in 1920. Until 1898, the coal mining business still used forced labour, known as narapaidana, who were forced to work with minimum wage. In 1908 wages for forced labour were 18 cents/day and they were subjected to whips under legal sanctions should they rebel. Wages for contract workers were 32 cents/day and they were entitled to housing facilities and healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, wages for other labourers were 62 cents/day without benefits (Zubir,1995). With that, you can picture Sawahlunto to be a prisoner camp for the forced workers in the early 20th century. In 1918 Sawahlunto was known as
Gemeentelijk Ressort or
Gemeente with a land area of 778 ha. The name was given to mark its success in coal mining activities at that time. The total population in 1930 was 43,576 consisting of 564 Europeans. Even though Sawahlunto had yet to become Stadsgemeente, the management of the town was done by
Stadsgemeenteraad (
DPRD) and
Burgemeester (
Walikota). Globally, from 1940 till the end 70s the production of coal by Ombilin declined, and shrank to only tens of thousands of tons per year. Sawahlunto also faced a decline in coal production indicative of the decline in population to only 13,561 inhabitants in 1980. With the increased number of facilities, a change in management, and the application of new technology, the mining industry increased again since the beginning of the 80s. Moreover, production continued to increase even exceeding 1 million tonnes per year in the late 90s. The population in Sawahlunto increased to 15,279 according to the Census in 1990. Even though the population growth rate is only 1.2%, it is still below the annual average population growth rate of
Sumatera Barat which reached 1.62% and did not appear correlated with increased production of coal.On 10 March 1949, a meeting was held between Afdeeling Solok, which is supervised by Sawahlunto/Sijunjung, and Kabupaten Solok, under the governance of Stad Gemeente Sawahlunto, which is under the authority of Bupati Sawahlunto/Sijunjung to discuss on the natural resources gained. In the period 1949–1965, there were changes in the governance of Sawahlunto/
Sijunjung. The status of Act No. 18 in 1965 changed to Regional Level II with the title as
Kotamadya Sawahlunto commanded by the town, Mayor AKHMAD Noerdin, as of 11 June 1965, with the Decree of the Minister of Home Affairs dated 8 March 1965. The act in Item Number Up 1965. 15/2/13-227 stated the responsibility of the Mayor as the Head of the Regional Sawahlunto. Mining was initiated in the area after Independence. Activities were undertaken by PT Tambang Batubara
Ombilin (TBO). PT TBO was later liquidated and became a subsidiary of PTBA (Bukit Asam) which is located in Southern Sumatra. Since reforms in the region, the area has experienced a growth in the mining community because people felt compelled to participate in coal mining. Coal mining was not restricted within the boundaries of the community but also extended to the land owned by PTBA TPO. The mayor at that time was Ir. Amran Nur, with Erizal Ridwan S.T. as his representative. == Administrative districts ==