Chimney Museum

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Chimney Museum, also known as Muzium Chimney, is in Kubong, Labuan, Malaysia. It opened in 2002 and shares the history of Kubong’s coal mining era when the British North Borneo Chartered Company ran the area. The surrounding area was a major coal mining site from 1847 to 1911. In 1997, archaeologists found 12 layers of bricks beneath the chimney, and later that year workers stabilized and restored the chimney.

The museum centers on a tall brick chimney, built in the early 1900s. It is 32 meters high and made from about 23,000 red bricks imported from the United Kingdom, showing a British architectural style. Inside the chimney there is a hole and two arch-shaped doors facing west and south. Its exact original purpose isn’t known, but it may have been an observation deck used with a semaphore system to send messages to Victoria Harbour and Labuan town. The chimney remains a landmark from the coal mining era.

The museum has seven galleries and one discovery room. Exhibits cover the history of coal mining around the world, coal mining sites in Malaysia, mining processes and tools, coal specimens, and other related topics. The museum is open every day from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and admission is free. It has won the International Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice and Sustainable Development in 2013 for its historical architecture.