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A DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA

Piles of logs, stacks of red and yellow sleepers and a mass of white stone mark the terminus of shipping at the inland port of Bullahdelah.

Visitors invariably make to Bullahdelah by car, but in doing so miss the pleasure of discovering it at the end of a peaceful four-hour passage by water from Tea Gardens, through winding tidal channel, lake, and lastly the deep, dark-green river screened on either hand with brush.

An up-to-date iron bridge spans the Myall River, and a rusty tramline, half hidden by grass, leads from the water's edge direct to the quarries on the heights of Alum Mountain, whose lichen covered rocks dominate the town like an ancient fortress.

Signs of past labour are evident in the great heap of quarried stone, disused sheds, and derailed trucks in the bush at the mountain's base. And when you've climbed the steep track to the cliff, huge pits are found from which the mineral has been taken and over which nature again is assuming possession.

SUMMARY OF THE MOUNTAIN'S HISTORY

The properties of the mountain were noted in 1870.

In 1890 a calcining plant was erected and alum produced, but the demand was not sufficient to warrant continuance, and subsequently the untreated stone was shipped to the company's works at Runcorn, England, and some to Germany.

Operations ceased altogether in 1926, but in 1933 the Australian Alum Company sold out to the Australian Alunite Syndicate, which disposes of the ore to Sulphates Pty. Ltd., who have a factory on the Yarra, where it is used for the manufacture of alum and sulphate of alumina, the latter being utilized for the clarification of water.

Seventy tons of alunite are used a month and the intention is to make use of the other constituents of the ore. There are 4 grades of alunite, the most valuable being of a light pink shade, the assay of which proves the presence of 1.92% silica, 37.52% of alumina, 9.51% of potash and 36.76% of sulphuric anhydride.

Between 1890 and 1926, 63,606 tons of alunite were treated, the value of which is estimated at £202,573.

Alum Mountain is 3 miles long, but the bulk of the mountain is valueless, and it is only in certain small areas that commercial ore can be obtained.