1927 -
The connection of electricity
In Nambour before 1927,
artificial lighting in homes after dark was provided by candles, kerosene
lamps with wicks, and pressurised kerosene lights such as Tilleys using
mantles made of silk fabric. Wealthier people, and businesses such as boarding houses,
large shops and hotels often employed acetylene gas lamps. The gas was a
simple product of calcium carbide and water.
To produce the gas, a tank of water contained a floating reservoir which was kept afloat by the acetylene gas trapped in it. As the acetylene was drawn off by lamps, the reservoir gradually sank until calcium carbide suspended inside it came into contact with the water, which created more acetylene to make the container rise, lift the carbide clear of the water and so stop further production of the gas. The operation was automatic until the carbide was exhausted. The gas generator was usually located outside the building, and the gas piped through walls and ceiling spaces to where it was needed.
Electric lighting had been installed at the Moreton Central Sugar Mill as early as 1905. On 30th June of that year the Mill Manager Mr Desplace had arranged for Mr P. S. Trackson of Brisbane to install a dynamo at the Mill, belt-driven by a steam engine fed from the Mill’s main boilers. With the engine running at 240 revolutions per minute, the dynamo would turn at 580 rpm. At that speed it produced 200 amperes of current at 100 volts pressure, making twenty kilowatts of power. It powered 90 lamps in the Mill itself, plus a second circuit providing lights in the engine rooms, boiler rooms and workshops. A third circuit provided electric lighting in the yard, offices, men’s quarters and the residences of the engineer and the manager. {8-7-1904, p.4}
People who were keen to have electric lighting in their homes had the option of purchasing their own 32 volt system. This was usually powered by an oil or diesel engine driving a dynamo, which charged a bank of sixteen large lead-acid batteries, similar in size to car batteries. These batteries provided the 32 volt direct current electricity to the residence when the generating plant was not running. Because the voltage was low, the current had to be high to provide the same power or wattage. The high current meant that house wiring had to use heavier cabling, and the wires became hot under load.
Meetings regarding the provision of electricity to Nambour were called on numerous occasions, but when the economics were examined, the cost was always found to be prohibitive. Through The Electric Light and Power Act, 1896, the State Government could provide loans to prospective electricity providers by an Order in Council, but the demand had been so great that the funds had virtually dried up. Over the years, the Moreton Central Sugar Mill was able to help out a few nearby business people in Nambour by connecting their premises to their small distribution network, but the main disadvantage to this was that the Mill could only supply electricity when its boilers were in steam.
At a public meeting in 1918, a committee was set up to liaise with the Moreton Mill to see if it could supply power to the town on a regular basis. The Mill said that it could, if (1) the consumers were prepared to pay their proposed charges and (2) there would be enough consumers to make the venture profitable. The committee canvassed the town for support, but the general feeling was that the charges were too steep. This resulted in insufficient consumers to satisfy the Mill's requirements. The Chronicle reported on this result with a report headed dryly, 'Electric Light for Nambour - Proposal Switched Off.' {17-5-1918, p.5}
By the end of World War I many small towns were installing their own power houses, as the idea of a state-wide power grid was many years away. Some towns purchased their electricity from private contracting firms, who paid for all the infrastructure and charged the consumers accordingly. The nearby town of Gympie was already providing its citizens with electricity to their homes. {22-5-1925, p.8}
On 2nd April. 1920, The Chronicle carried an announcement that Mr Frederick William Bestmann, an electrical engineer of Mary Street Gympie, intended to make an application for an Order in Council, to supply electricity within the townships of Nambour and Woombye. Mr Bestmann's representative in Nambour was Mr A. W. Thynne, a local solicitor and partner in The Chronicle. This application did not meet with success, however, as the Under Secretary of the Public Works Department advised Mr Thynne that the Government was "not disposed to grant any more Orders in Council under the Electric Light and Power Act to companies or private individuals. It is regretted therefore that it is of no avail for your client to proceed further in the matter." {2-4-1920, p.2}
Mr Thynne had this response, with its wider ramifications, printed in the top centre of page 1 in The Chronicle of 25th June 1920. The following week's issue carried a short note from Mr Bestmann, thanking those people who had supported his application, and regretting that he was unsuccessful. This stymied any further attempts to provide electricity in Nambour for the next five years, although The Chronicle kept the issue before its readers. {25-6-1920, p.1} {2-7-1920, p.5} {16-7-1920, p.3} {6-4-1923, p.4} {26-9-1924, p.7}
By 1923 various townspeople began to seriously canvass the idea of electric power for Nambour, but the idea was deferred when the great fire of 5th January 1924 destroyed 17 shops in Currie Street. Rebuilding the town’s commercial heart occupied most influential people in the Nambour Chamber of Commerce and the Maroochy Shire Council for the next twelve months. {11-1-1924, pages 2, 7 and 9}
Local
people gather dolefully at the site of the previous night’s fire in Currie
Street, 6th January, 1924.
Photograph courtesy Sunshine Coast Libraries
The western side of
Currie Street about 1929, showing the new power poles installed on that side
(telephone poles and wires were on the opposite side of the street).
Photograph courtesy Sunshine Coast Libraries
In early May 1925, the Moreton Mill wrote to the Shire Council, stating its willingness to enter into a contract with the Council for the supply of electricity in bulk to the town. They required a minimum consumption of 40 000 units, and the contract would be for ten years. The Council felt that the cost being charged, eight pence ha'penny per unit was excessive, and that ten years was too long. {22-5-1925, p.8} {5-6-1925, pp.2 and 8} {26-6-1925, p.2}
Eventually the Chamber of Commerce called a meeting on 29th May 1925 to gauge public opinion on the matter. On the one hand, householders, particularly women, were very impressed with the convenience electricity would provide in their homes, particularly with regard to lighting, sewing and ironing. On the other hand, the cost per unit of power caused concern, the term 'unit' being a cause of some confusion. Eventually the meeting supported the Mill's proposal unanimously. {5-6-1925, p.2}
The fact that the Moreton Mill could only supply direct current electricity, whereas most towns elsewhere were choosing 240 volt alternating current electricity, was soon recognised to be a major problem with the Mill's proposition. The Shire Council therefore decided reject it completely, and work towards generating and distributing electricity itself.
It was known that the State government would only loan funds to the Shire Council to build a powerhouse, if a guarantee were made that there would be at least 300 consumers. Alternatively, there was a smaller scheme available which required only 200 consumers. As the Council was unsure if it could reach either target, a poll was conducted in August 1925 on all Nambour householders and business people, asking them if they intended to be connected up to the electricity supply. {21-8-1925, p.2}
675 ballot papers were issued but by mid-September only 285 had been returned. Of these, 136 voted ‘yes’ and 131 voted ‘no’. The Shire Clerk Mr A. H. Brookes who organised the poll, stated that he felt that there would be no difficulty reaching the 200 target for the smaller power scheme, and so the Council applied for and was granted the Government loan. {18-9-1925, p.9}
The switching-on ceremony for delivering electric light and power to Nambour for the first time took place on the evening of Monday, 12th September, 1927. With a touch of several switches the town and household lighting sprang into activity. 118 consumers illuminated their homes and business premises, many switching on all their lights to begin with, but then diminishing the number as they realised that their meters were registering silently. Observers noted that the electric light was softer and whiter, in contrast with the yellow glare of the usual kerosene pressure lamps. By the end of the week, 240 consumers were connected up. {16-9-1927, p.8}
The powerhouse, with its own railway siding for providing fuel, was located about half a mile from the town centre. When fully commissioned, there would be three two-stroke engines, described in the press as 'semi-diesel', running on crude oil. Two engines were rated at 75 horsepower, and a smaller one was rated at 25 horsepower. Each was direct-coupled to a dynamo, the larger ones producing 65 kilowatts each. The dynamo attached to the smaller engine could produce 20 kilowatts, making 150 kilowatts in total.
In the beginning, one large unit provided enough electricity for the town during the day and evening. As the equipment could not be left unattended, it was shut down at midnight. Power would be made available again each day at 8 am. Before the first week was out, the second large generating set was installed. Within a month, the smaller unit was put into use, this generator being sufficiently reliable to be left to run unattended during the night. This provided Nambour with light and power for the full 24 hours. {7-10-1927, p.9}
Looking down Currie Street from the Mitchell Street intersection about 1929,
showing the new power poles.
Photograph courtesy Sunshine Coast Libraries
At a Dinner convened by Shire Chairman J. T. Lowe to celebrate the switching-on, the President of the Nambour Chamber of Commerce, Mr William Whalley, said that the provision of electricity would brighten up the town in more ways than one. Nambour had taken another practical step forward in its history, and had passed another milestone along the road to success. He warned that, like many new projects, trouble could be experienced. He had been in Sydney when the electricity supply failed, and the city was plunged into darkness. Mr Whalley said that if this happened in Nambour, he expected that such a 'black-out' would be of quite short duration, as the local generating plant was one of the most modern in the Commonwealth. {16-9-1927, p.8}
Within five years, electricity consumption had climbed so that the equipment installed in 1927 could not cope any more. Lubrication problems with the two-stroke engines caused them to overheat if run continually, so they needed to be shut down after a few hours work. Force-feed lubrication was tried without any noticeable improvement in reliability. The engineer in charge of the powerhouse, Mr G. Fletcher, was less than helpful. When the Council summoned him to a meeting to account for the inefficiency of his service, he admitted to stopping the engines on some Saturday afternoons to save money. He said that the cost of keeping them running was more than the income earned at those times, and he did it even though his actions caused widespread aggravation to people with refrigerators and cold rooms. "Mr Fletcher quoted several occasions when the power had been supplied at a loss." When people rang him to complain, he would not answer his telephone. {18-3-1932, p.8}
The Council considered reducing the load on the engines by switching off the street lights, but Fletcher claimed that "the engines would run nearly as hot carrying a light load as with a peak load." When a Councillor asked if the Moreton Mill could help out, the reply was that "the trouble was that one was alternating current and the other direct current." After numerous complaints due to blackouts, including losses to business people, the Shire Council had to borrow another 2600 pounds from the State Government to replace the overloaded engines. The replacement engines were installed in mid-1932. {18-3-1932, p.8} {8-4-1932, p.5} {20-5-1932, p.4}
Digital Nambour Chronicle Picture Sunshine Coast