1601 Bathurst Gasworks
Bathurst Gasworks was originally built to compete with a privately owned gasworks following complaints relating to the cost and quality of the gas being produced.
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The Gasworks provided gas to homes, businesses and streetlights. According to Bathurst Council , one gas lamp had the illumination of 16 candles! I’ve never thought about measuring how bright something is by candles, but it seems hard to argue with.
The gasification process involved extracting coal gas via a retort, producing coke and coal tar as byproducts were which were stored and sold for use in other industries.
Coal tar is highly carcinogenic, and there have been several remediation efforts to decontaminate the parts of the site where it was stored. This site remains contaminated today.
It’s interesting to see that the entire retort building ground is covered, sometimes with mounds of coal, I’d be interested to know if that’s just how it appeared during times when the site was still operational.
I’d love to fill in some of the historical and technical gaps here. Perhaps you know someone who used to work here or maybe you even worked here yourself? If so it would be great to hear from you.
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