The Ghost Lumper

This graphite drawing was a finalist in the North Sydney Art Prize 2022.


Created in response to Sydney’s historic Coal Loader site at Waverton, he
represents the coal lumpers who were the backbone of Sydney’s waterfront coal
industry. As hard as rock, they would carry 100kg loads of coal on their backs,
sometimes across narrow planks onto the ships.


But the innovation and automation at the Coal Loader site rendered most of
these men obsolete. If you are able to visit the site you’ll see the rough-hewn
boulders in the chambers of Tunnel One that anchor the Coal Loader to the land.


My drawing features those boulders, and honours the human workhorses who
worked the sandstone and lumped the coal, as a ‘ghost lumper’ heaves his load
towards the darkness and oblivion...