Historical Buildings #2 - Duck Reach Power Station West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
By Grumbligrot on 25-Oct-16. Waypoint GA8663

This is another in the series of Historical buildings we are putting together, as we travel in our Geocaching adventures. We hope you enjoy them and learn more about the diverse history of this country.

Duck Reach Power Station

Duck Reach Power Station was the first publicly owned hydro-electric plant in the Southern Hemisphere,and provided the city of Launceston with hydro-electric power from its construction

Construction

The site was picked by Launceston city surveyor and engineer Charles St John David in 1892.The penstock ran diagonally down the hill into the centre of the rear of the power station where it channelled in to successively smaller pipes and finally to eight Siemens turbines.

Drilling the tunnel

The tunnel was drilled to a length of 850 metres (2,790 ft) at a 1 to 110 grade. The tunnel was cut through the hill side instead of being piped around and it took 16 months to complete using pneumatic drills. Dolerite is so hard it took one week of eighteen 8-hour shifts cutting from both ends of the tunnel to cut just 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) however the average speed of the drilling was about 5 metres (16 ft) a week. Two men were killed in accidents. When both ends met it was found that the accuracy was within 1 inch.

Operational history

The following is paraphrased from the display plaques now within the power station:

Originally the installation had a capacity of 75 kW DC, provided by five 15 kW dynamos, and 360 kW AC, provided by three 120 kW alternators. The turbines were manufactured by Gilbert Gilkes and Co., whilst the dynamos and alternators were built by Siemens and Co.. All alternating-current (AC) supply was single-phase. By 1906 demand had risen and it became necessary to upgrade the plant. This was done by removing much of the original equipment and replacing it with four 445 hp Francis turbines manufactured by Kolben and Co. of Prague, each coupled to a single 300 kW three-phase alternator again built by Siemens and Co.. This raised the AC capacity of the station to 1.2 MW. The original DC equipment remained in use.

Again by 1926, this had become inadequate, and to ease the problem a new 0.88-megawatt (1,180 hp) turbine coupled to an 800 kW alternator was added alongside the existing machinery. To drive this new turbine a timber flume and a masonry aqueduct was constructed, running from Deadmans Hollow around the bend in the South Esk River to the slope immediately behind the Power Station, where it was led into a new steel penstock running alongside the original one. The addition of this new turbine and alternator raised the capacity of the station to 2 megawatts (2,700 hp). In the photograph above, the left-hand penstock is the newer one.

One of the original Siemens and Co. 15 kW DC dynamos, dating from 1895, is preserved and on display within the station.

The power station was closed in 1955, following the construction of the Trevallyn Dam and power station. 

1.       The Duck Reach Power Station was initiated by the Launceston City Council and built in what year.

a.       1893

b.      1894

c.       1895

d.      1896

2.       In April 1929 what damaged the power station

a.         Flood

b.        Fire

c.         Rock Fall

d.        Explosion

3.       The Tunnel – Where was the water diverted from.

a.       The Carbuncle

b.      Black Cat Creek

c.       Deadmans Hollow

d.      Dead Horse Bend

4.       On the info board with "Lighting up Launceston" - What is the last word on the 4th line

a.       Launceston

b.      Southern Hempishere

c.       Australasia

d.      Tasmania

Congrats to Rocket2015 for FTF

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