Duck Reach Power Station

at Duck Reach Trail, Launceston , 7250 Australia

1. Sports & Recreation

Description

Duck Reach Power Station was the first publicly owned hydro-electric plant in the Southern Hemisphere, and provided the Tasmanian city of Launceston with hydro-electric power from its construction in 1895 to its closure in 1955.ConstructionThe 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 channeled in to successively smaller pipes and finally to eight Siemens turbines.Drilling the tunnelThe tunnel was drilled to a length of 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 however the average speed of the drilling was about a week. Two men were killed in accidents. When both ends met it was found that the accuracy was within 1 inch.Operational historyThe 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.

Company Rating

58 FB users likes Duck Reach Power Station, set it to 10 position in Likes Rating for Launceston, Tasmania in Outdoor, Recreation & Fitness category

Summary

Duck Reach Power Station is Launceston based place and this enity listed in Sports & Recreation category. Located at Duck Reach Trail TAS 7250.