 To do this, coal was shipped by the Sydney & Louisburg Railway (and later the Devco Railway) from the mines to a large battery of coke ovens bordering the railway lines on the south side of the neighborhood along Frederick Street on a hill overlooking the steel mill.The coke ovens produced coke for the steel mill's oxygen blast furnaces 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for almost 90 years.The resulting runoff of contaminants from the coke production, as well as general contaminants from the steel mill itself, drained into Muggah Creek, a tidal estuary that geographically separated the steel mill and Whitney Pier from Sydney's central business district.