Batu Arang


Batu Arang is a town in Gombak District, Selangor, Malaysia. It is about 50 km from Kuala Lumpur. Coal was first discovered in 1908. British authorities found that the area had large deposits of coal reserves that could be commercially viable and fuel a railway system. Hence, British authorities established mining operations here and the town was established. A railway system linking Batu Arang and Kuang was built in 1915 to transport coal to the rest of the country. As coal output and demand increased, rail service to and from Kuala Lumpur increased. The demand for coal from Batu Arang skyrocketed due to the First World War, which led to a reduction of coal imports. The local coal was frequently sold to the railway companies, power stations, tin mines dredges, and end customers.
During World War II, British authorities halted mining machinery and destroyed electric power station and main sub-station in 1942 while Japanese is approaching to Batu Arang. When Japanese occupied Batu Arang, Japanese repaired damaged equipments and hire more people to mine coals. However, their mining methods has left devasting effect on coal mine where they only focused on surface mining instead of mining in both surface and underground area. When Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, Malayan Collieries resume the coal mining activity, but faced with various issues such as improper mining methods by Japanese, delayed delivery for the new equipment, labor strikes, fire, floods, increasing operation cost, rising prices of coal and competition with petroleum which are cheaper price and better alternative to coal. These issues have led to permanent closure of coal mine on January 30, 1960.
The closure of coal mine has led to many miners and workers moving out of town and causes many buildings left to ruins, coal mine filled with water, lands facing soil erosion and the railway lines from Kuang has dismantled, effectively ended railway service in Batu Arang. Despite this, there are few residents who continued to live in this town and shops, facilities and amenities continued to operate today. On October 16, 2011, the town celebrates 100 years of town establishment, while at the same time the town was granted heritage town status to boost economic prospects of town residents and make it one of the important tourist attractions in Selangor.

History

British Malaya era

The coal was first discovered in Malaya in 1908 by Haji Abdul Hadi, a Malay man who was looking for tin near Rawang in Ulu Selangor and few samples were sent to Inspector of Mines at Kuala Kubu who will then forward these samples to Federated Malay States Geological Survey Department. The department then represent a geologist to investigate the location of discovery and discovered that there are large deposits of coal reserves in this location. As there is a large customer base and strong demand in the railway system operated by Federated Malay States Railway during that time, especially the tin mining activity group, hence there is a need for firewood and coals to operate the system in order for the railway system to open up the country to private enterprise. As such, there are several interested parties bidding for the tender to mine the coal. John Archibald Russell initially tried to bid for mining activity under his firm J. A. Russell and Co. but was unsuccessful and the bid was awarded to Rawang Federated Malay States Coal Syndicate Ltd instead. While initially the bid was won by that company and the company start mining the coal using diamond drill and hand boring tools, however, two years later, the company start to lose interest in Batu Arang after discovered that the mine has no commercial value, hence sold the mining activity to John Archibald Russell, the initial bidder that lost the bid, in 1913. However, on the same year, the price of the rubber has decreased globally and many people who initially has interest in buying shares of rubber starting to lose interests as well. As a result, Russell had to sell away some of his past investments and become a major shareholder of Malayan Collieries Limited with help from his associates on June 20, 1914. Malayan Collieries then appoints his company, J. A. Russell and Co. to become General Managers and Secretaries, and his company issued $ 1,500,000 worth of capital, in which $ 500,000 is the working capital, where it was formed on a basis of coal deposits which estimated to be 10 to 20 million tons of coal and the coal demand is estimated to be around 200,000 tons per annum.
The company leased 9,000 acres of coal deposits where 2,000 acres of area are used for surface plant and miners housing area and the mining machine were ordered from United Kingdom and the United States of America. The village is then established to serve the coal mining industry, which is then given name Batu Arang, where it comes from Malay language word which means stone charcoal. The company hired T. C. McCall, mining engineer to manage the mining operations. Federated Malay States Railway then agreed to build additional railway line that spans from Kuang to Batu Arang that costs $ 1 million and was opened to traffic in 1915. In addition, the railway company will also sell a locomotive designed for shunting to the mining company. In return, the mining company agreed to pay the construction sidings costs from Batu Arang station to pit-head. Initially, only one train service was served daily between Batu Arang and Kuala Lumpur, however, the service frequency has been increased as output and demand were increased. The mining company also built the road that links from trunk road to the mining area and bullock cart were used to carry mining equipments and stores to the mining area. The bullock cart was previously used to carry coals to local customers.
The initial output was low as the mine produced an average of 60 tons of coal per day due to it was carried out on a small scale, low demand and imported coal were readily available. Most of the coal that time was made for the colliery’s consumption and in 1916, coal was supplied to two of the largest European tin mines in Malaya by Malayan Collieries. The price of coal was relatively low as the coal sold at $ 5 per ton at Batu Arang station. During First World War, the demand for Batu Arang coal skyrocketed as coal imports decreased and then stopped, thereafter the mining company build new sidings to deal with renewed demands. As of 1939, the mining company convey coal and other products to FSMR system by operating gauge railway on its property that spans. The main customers for Batu Arang coals were railways, power stations and tin mines, where in 1937, 700 tons of coal were sold to tin dredges, which were followed by Perak River Hydro-Electric Company, FMSR, Bangsar Power Station and end customers. Thereafter Batu Arang has played an important role in Malayan economy by introducing electricity to Malayan state and improved tin mining through dredges which outpaced Asian method in mining tin. The coal production peaked in 1940 when it produced 781,509 tons of coal.

World War II and decline

During World War II, the colonial official advised the mining company to evacuate Batu Arang on January 5, 1942 where the machinery inside the plant were halted and stores and portable equipments were handed over to military and FMSR to be transported to Singapore via rail. The military then uses explosives to destroy electric power station and main sub-station. The parent company, J. A. Russell and Co. continued to operate in Kuala Lumpur until January 9, 1942 when they bring all their records and fled to Singapore to establish emergency office there where business will continue to transact. Once Japanese reached Singapore, the company attempted to send all records and equipments to Australia to open an office in that country, but the ship was sinking while on the way to Australia before they able to do so. Meanwhile in Japanese occupied Malaya, Japanese hired many men to repair the damaged equipment that has been destroyed by British before fleeing and continue mining activity. The resumed mining activity allows Japanese army to operate tin mines and run the railway system to continue produce and exporting raw minerals from Malaya. However, unlike the previous company which focused on balance between mining on surface and underground, Japanese only mine the coal on surface area which will bring devasting effect to Malayan Collieries company should they regain control of the mine due to high operational costs. Prior to Japanese surrender, Japanese had mined 1,369,834 tons of coal.
After World War II, British Military Administration took over properties belonging to Malayan Collieries with Indian troops on September 11, 1945 to manage the mine during the post-war period. The Malayan Union government then backed Malayan Collieries from April 1, 1946 until June 30, 1946 when all the properties were returned to Malayan Collieries. However, the company faced various issues since post-war that would hamper its coal mining activity. The company is facing labor strikes in November 1946 and January 1947 which causes Malayan Government to take over its company under emergency legislation. The shipment for their newly ordered machinery to replace the old equipment was delayed and the restoration of coal mining area was slowed down by bad mining methods done by the Japanese, which were further exacerbated by fire and floods in coal mine area. This causes the company not able to meet the demand for the coal. The increasing operation cost coupled with the rising prices of coal from $ 12.50 per ton in 1946 to $ 35.00 per ton in 1959 has caused many customers to abandon coal and replaced with petroleum. By the time the government of Federation of Malaya hired a consulting firm, Messrs Powell Duffryn Technical Services Limited, in 1954 to investigate the future of Malayan coal, the firm concluded that it was not feasible to proceed the coal mining activity due to high costs and unable to compete with petroleum which meant reduced demands for coal. Hence the mine was permanently closed on January 30, 1960. By this time, the mine has produced over 14,000,000 tons of coal since the foundation.

Malayan Emergency

The site has been the conflict zone during Malayan Emergency period where the Communist Party of Malaya has attempted to occupy Batu Arang. The communist occupation of Batu Arang has caused British authorities to declared “Black Area” until 1960 due to it has become base for the anti-British communist forces and the town condition where it consists of hills and valleys has become ideal hiding places for communists where they can launch sudden attacks from this area. On July 12, 1948, the communist group seized the coal mine, occupied for an hour, damaged mining equipment and assassinated 5 Chinese people before left the mine. The attack of the coal mine has raised attention that during the initial period of Malayan Emergency, there are shortages of troops in the country that can bring protection to its residents and to combat the terrorists. Eight days later, twenty persons has been arrested in relation with the coal mine attack. Then on July 30, 1948, police and troops killed 22 members and arrested 47 members inside the forest hideouts. The communist members then derailed a train in Batu Arang on January 25, 1949. The air force launch attack against communist guerillas on July 20, 1949. Chong Hoy Fong, the person who are wanted by authorities due to terrorism attack were killed by Scottish guards on January 16, 1950 and offered $ 2,000 as reward for capture the wanted person. The police later raided Indian clubhouse and confiscated communistic items such as flags, caps, photographs of communist leaders, posters and documents on April 27, 1950. This incident has caused 25 shops to be closed under emergency Regulations on January 25, 1952.

Contemporary era

Since the closure of the coal mine, the closure has forced many miners and workers to moving out of town and has left many buildings left to ruins and some building are being demolished due to unsafe for occupation over cavities and minced passages that riddled the ground. The surface mining area meanwhile were filled with water and subject to the erosion threat due to dripping water tables that were caused from the past mining activity. Although many traces of the mining in the past were reportedly disappeared, however some items which marks the evidence of mining activity in the past such as chimneys were still visible to people, although some chimneys has tree grown in it. The railway track has been removed in 1971 from Kuang to Batu Arang, effectively ended the railway service in Batu Arang. Despite this, many shops, restaurants, wet market and facilities continue to operate today and are now lived by multicultural of Chinese, Malay and Indian.
A coal fire occurs on September 18, 2011 when one of the family discovered the temperature on the land behind their house is getting hotter in two weeks before the thick black smoke starts to emit. The fireman then extinguished the underground fire since 4 PM and has displaced the reporting family as that area are deemed to be no longer safe for occupation.
As Batu Arang is reaching 100 years of establishment in 2011, many Batu Arang residents are appealing to authorities to give the town heritage status, citing the development of nearby towns such as Bandar Tasik Puteri and Bandar Kota Puteri were rapid that it left Batu Arang town behind in terms of recent developments. It also urged for the towns and it’s building to be preserved to be attractive to tourist hence suggesting that these old buildings such as police station, brick factory, mine shafts and town hall to be renovated and maintained for future generation. In addition, they suggest that those abandoned mines to be converted into other purposes such as water sports and fishing spot. This has led to Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, to give heritage town status in order to increase economic prospects of its residents and to make it one of the important tourist attraction in Selangor, announced during the carnival to celebrate 100 years of Batu Arang foundation on October 16, 2011.
The Christian cemetery inside Batu Arang where foreigners had buried their dead body in this area since 2011 has become controversial due to foreigners, usually Asian of origin including Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian, illegally bury their dead body without burial permit and documents and was silently buried at night when no people is around, which has caught attention of cemetery coordinator and reported to police regarding this matter several times, claiming that this tombstone is designed for burial of local peoples only. These claims were later supported by Gombak district officer Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan, where he was told that the illegal burial service costs RM 5,000 per session and will launch the investigation into this matter. The Christian cemetery were officially gazette by Gombak authorities on September 25, 2014 and any foreigners who wanted to bury their dead body must first obtain permission from Batu Arang police department before doing so.

Geography

Climate

Batu Arang's climate is classified as tropical. The rainfall is quite significant in this area throughout the year. This climate is Af according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The temperature here averages 27.1 °C. In a year, the average rainfall is 2549 mm. Precipitation is the lowest in July, with an average of 126 mm. With an average of 301 mm, the most precipitation falls in November. At an average temperature of 27.7 °C, May is the hottest month of the year. January have the lowest average temperature of the year. It is 26.5 °C. Between the driest and wettest months, the difference in precipitation is 175 mm.

Environmental issues

which contains toxic waste were discovered on January 15, 2004 and has filed lawsuit against parties who did illegal dumping. Among the toxic materials found in the dumping includes paint, glues and chemicals used in the construction industry. Fours year later, another waste dumping issue was discovered when two contractors dumping waste collected from sewerage processing plan in Puchong into their palm oil estate in Batu Arang to left to dry and become fertilizer before it is collected. However, the waste has generated strong odor smells which affects the life of residents of Batu Arang.

Transportation

Batu Arang is accessible via several roads that links between Batu Arang and Taman Tasik Puteri, Kampung Baru Kundang, Kundang and Rawang. Although railway service were no longer provided since 1971, however this was changed in 2019 when public transportation were provided with the free bus service known as Bus Smart Selangor where the 31.3 km line serves from SK Batu Arang school to Sungai Buloh KTM - MRT railway station. Bicycle uses in this town is widespread for both residents as utility cycling and non-residents who comes as recreational cyclist, and the old bicycle shop inside the town continue to operate.

Health

Batu Arang houses Welcome Community Home, a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and HIV / AIDS patients, which previously operated in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 and moved to Batu Arang in 1998 where they will be occupying the former poultry farm. The rehabilitation center had housed 600 persons since 1997 as of 2006.

Sports

During its town foundation, there are two separate sporting facilities which were built for different demographics. A sports center known as Asiatic Sports Club were designed for the Asian people that comes with badminton court, soccer and cricket field. While the sports center has been closed and the building currently houses MCA association center since the 1960s, the soccer field remains intact and continues to operate today, in addition to the basketball court which located nearby. Meanwhile, there is a separate clubhouse that catered for European people which is known as European Club, where the clubhouse provides facilities for billiards, table tennis, lawn tennis, dancing and swimming. The clubhouse was closed in the 1970s and the building has been converted into a residential house.
In recent years, however, Batu Arang has become the area where several cycling activities occurs inside the town where the town has become popular among road bike and mountain biking cyclists. Several international professional racing and UCI-sanctioned cycling events including Tour de Langkawi and Jelajah Malaysia were held in this location where cyclists passing in this town. Residents also organize cycling event which will hope not just to attract local cyclists, but also to bring more attention to the heritage value of this town. Trail running events such as Deuter International Trail Run were also held in Batu Arang which attracts 3,000 runners. Other sports that practiced by residents of Batu Arang includes equestrian and Silat.