導賞點 1
馬鞍山以前是礦場?
Ma On Shan was a mine in the old days?
歡迎來到「可持續山徑自助導賞(馬鞍山線)」!
Welcome to self-guided tour of sustainable mountain trails ( Ma On Shan line)
今日的馬鞍山郊野公園一片翠綠,但在80多年前卻是個寸草不生的大型鐵礦場!
Today, Ma On Shan Country Park is verdant, but more than 80 years ago, it was a vast, barren iron mine.
昔日馬鞍山耕地稀少,水源不足,土地貧瘠,農業不興,地下卻蘊藏著因花崗岩入侵砂岩和粉砂岩而形成的優質磁鐵礦(magnetite)和赤鐵礦(hematite)。馬鞍山礦場曾經是全港最大的商業開採礦場,主要出產磁鐵礦,其蘊藏量估計達七百萬噸,於50、60年代是東南亞唯一具商業價值之鐵礦場,吸引了不少工人從各地遷入馬鞍山。礦場於全盛時期曾有三千名礦工工作,礦工帶同家人於礦場旁邊搭建房屋,形成礦村,高峰時期山上至山下有接近萬人聚居。
In the past, Ma On Shan had few cultivated land, insufficient water, barren land and stagnant agriculture. However, there were high quality magnetite and hematite formed by granite intrusion into sandstone and siltstone. Ma On Shan Quarry, once the largest commercial quarry in Hong Kong, mainly produced magnetite with an estimated reserves of 7 million tons. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the only commercial iron mine in Southeast Asia and attracted many workers from all over the country to move to Ma On Shan. There were 3000 miners working in Ma On Shan Quarry in its heyday. The miners and their families built houses beside the mine, forming a mining village. During the peak period, there were nearly 10,000 people lived together in the mountain to the bottom of the mountain.
因為當年馬鞍山屬遍遠之地,居民與外界接觸的機會不多,漸漸形成一個獨特的社區,當時得教會為居民服務,提供學校教育、醫療服務、生活援助等,村內以「信義會恩光堂」和「聖約瑟堂」兩個宗教建築物作為主地標。隨著礦場於1976年結業,村民遷離,馬鞍山村社區人口亦慢慢老化。
Because Ma On Shan was a remote place, residents had little contact with the outside world, and gradually formed a unique community. At that time, the church served the residents, providing school education, medical services, life assistance and so on. Two religious buildings in the village, the Lutheran Yan Kwong Church and the St. Joseph’s Church, were the main landmarks. With the closure of the mine in 1976 and the migration of villagers, the population of Ma On Shan Country Community also slowly aged.
而「信義會恩光堂」於2015年活化成為「鞍山探索館」,透過展示礦場昔日工具和珍貴相片,以及導賞活動,讓公眾認識馬鞍山礦場的歷史及馬鞍山的自然生態。
In 2015, the Lutheran Yan Kwong Church became the Elchk Grace Youth Camp which aims to enable the public to know the history of Ma On Shan Quarry and the natural ecology of Ma On Shan by displaying the past tools and precious photographs of the mine, as well as Guided Tours.
照片提供:鞍山探索館
Pictures supplied by Elchk Grace Youth Camp