The original coal lease applied for included twenty acres (8ha) at the junction of Shepherds and Bannockburn Creek, approximately 1.0 km upstream from the Kawarau River, lower Shepherds Creek, true right bank. This is now part of a picnic area in Bannockburn Inlet of Lake Dunstan. The portal is still open, but the decline is filled with water.

In April of 1878 Mess'es Moore and Pryde opened up the mine and named it the Kawarau Colliery.

The Cromwell Coal Pit was purchased by Mess'rs Moore and Pryde to keep the competition from their Bannockburn mines. Very little work was done at the Cromwell mine.

In February of 1889, John Pryde purchased the Royal Standard battery at Quartzville and removed the boiler, along with the 12hp steam engine to use in his Kawarau Colliery. This mines inspector reported that the 'Kawarau Colliery' of John Pryde was in good condition and that the powder was kept in a magazine. (Note - as John Pryde called all of his mines by the name Kawarau, these references may refer to his other mines in Adams Gully - which were #255 and #386)

In April of 1893, it was reported in the Cromwell Argus that Joseph Llewellyn Moore and John Pryde were producing coal from their Kawarau Colliery. It is not clear when the mine was closed or abandoned, but this is the last reference that the author has found to this mine.