Engineering Heritage Australia - Queensland
Longreach Powerhouse Museum, Unveiling of Engineering Heritage Marker and Interpretive
Panel by Her Excellency Ms Penelope Wensley AC Governor of Queensland
17th May, 2013
Longreach Regional Council Deputy Mayor, Rae Bowden, and Longreach Regional Council Directors,
Infrastructure Services, Mr John Roworth and Community Services, Ms Suzanne Hill-Hislop,
Boulia Shire Council CEO, Mr Vince Corbin OAM,
Engineering Australia Queensland Division President, Mr Simon Orton, and Operations Manager, Ms
Jennifer Hutchens,
Chairman, Engineering Heritage Australia-Queensland, Mr Andrew Barnes and Panel Members, Mr
John Fordham and Mr Brian McGrath PSM,
Acting Chairman, Engineering Australia Queensland Division, Central West Local Group, Mr Stuart
Bourne,
Ergon Energy Corporate Communications Manager, Mr Bob Pleash,
Representatives of the Central Western Regional Electricity Board,
Former Powerhouse employees,
Powerhouse Museum volunteers and supporters,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I thank Tony Weldon for his Welcome to Country and I, too, acknowledge the indigenous peoples who
lived in this region for millennia before European settlement.
It is a pleasure to be back in Longreach, to join you today in recognising an engineering landmark of
special significance in Queensland, in a town and a region that is also very significant to our State.
Even for the geographically challenged, Longreach is not difficult to pinpoint on a blank map of
Queensland: all you have to do is try to mark the spot that is as close as possible to the centre of the
State and you will probably never be out by more than an hour or two's drive.
But Longreach is a centre for other, more important reasons. It is, of course, the major town in the
almost forty-one thousand square kilometre area covered by the Longreach Regional Council, an
area that, by the way, is only a tad smaller than Switzerland. Longreach is also the home of
institutions - ‘centres' let us say - that record, commemorate and inform us and future generations
about the way the Queensland outback was settled and developed - first by indigenous peoples, then
by Europeans, and about the technologies, the grit, tenacity, entrepreneurship and the personalities
that made this possible.
Two of these centres in Longreach are well known throughout Australia (and beyond) and I am
speaking, of course, about the Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre, and the
Qantas Founders' Museum. And I am sure there will be no objection in Longreach if I add, as a third,
the Australian Workers' Heritage Centre just ‘down the road' in Barcaldine. (at 110km, barely a hop,
step and a jump in terms of outback distances).
We are here today to pay special tribute to a fourth centre, one that is less well known but that
focuses on the social history of Longreach and, of particular importance to today's ceremony, that
highlights the history of vital infrastructure in the development of this region and indeed across the
outback - electricity generation.
This building, the sole remaining powerhouse of its type in Queensland, and largely in the condition in
which it operated when decommissioned in 1985, provides an excellent idea of just what a substantial
enterprise it was (and is) to provide mains electricity to communities. And the ranks of generation
plant and equipment housed in the Museum would not only lift the heart of any engineer but impress
any layman as well. While the same layman, reading about the local history of power generation,
might be left none the wiser by references to kilowatt capacity, he or she would easily understand the
massive scale of hundred tonne gas engines with eleven tonne flywheels three metres across.
I gladly leave to John Fordham from Engineering Heritage Australia the task of covering the technical
history of the Powerhouse. But, as I am from an extended family well equipped with engineers, I
could not resist reeling off some quirky facts and figures with which you might care to impress
colleagues at your next work function.
The Engineers Australia website informs us that the three metre flywheels of the huge CrossleyPremier engines installed here in the 1960s turned at two hundred and fourteen revolutions per
minute. Government House staff worked out that a spot on the circumference of the flywheels would
have been travelling at over one hundred and twenty kilometres per hour. And, furthermore, that any
fly able to hang on to the wheel for two weeks - and flies here can be pretty tenacious - would have
travelled a distance equivalent to once around the Earth.
More seriously though, this Museum highlights yet another example of how the often unheralded
decisions, actions and achievements of local Councils, and of engineers, has made immediate, deep
and lasting improvements in the life of their communities. And there is no better reminder of how
much of a change this represented than the few times in which the power supply fails. Just think
about it: all of a sudden, there are no street lights, no working petrol bowsers, no lights in buildings, no
air-conditioning, no GPS, no working kitchen appliances, refrigerators that are rapidly warming up,
and conventional hot water systems that are rapidly cooling down.
And in rural areas connected to mains power there is suddenly no power for residences, for working
farm buildings, for pumps, for shearing, and for the variety of other power-hungry tasks necessary for
the functioning of modern day agricultural enterprises. The only alternative is ‘firing up' fuel-hungry
portable generators.
If we try to imagine life without mains power, we begin to understand how transformative a reliable
supply of electricity was to people in the outback. Clearly, in 1921 when mains power was first
generated in Longreach, the community did not have access to all of the technology I have just
listed. But mains power made it feasible for communities to begin to acquire electric lighting and newfangled appliances in their homes, and this in turn, began to change important aspects of the way
they lived their lives - overwhelmingly for the better. And not only were individual households
transformed, but so, too, the town. I have been reading, over the past week, "The Longreach Story-A
History of Longreach and Shire". (It is packed with interesting information, but unfortunately, doesn't
have an index, so I really had to read it thoroughly!). Scouring through, looking for references to the
Powerhouse, I came across this passage, in a chapter describing notable achievements in the 1920's,
including electrification. In a section filled with fairly dry detail about tenders and turbines - the battles
to secure Treasury loans, the limitations of direct current supply, and the problems of inefficient
charcoal for the coal-fired engines, the writer takes an unexpectedly imaginative turn, with these
words: The electrification of all the existing streets in Longreach was finally completed in 1924 ... The
general appearance of the town was dramatically altered. The streets and the shops were well lit,
presenting a welcoming appearance to both residents and travellers. One can imagine that the
twinkling lights on a seemingly endless expanse of downs country would have appeared like a beacon
guiding the weary traveller home.
I CAN imagine it - as I am sure can all of you. And it is a graphic reminder, not only of the
tremendous change that the powerhouse brought, but of what a tremendous achievement it's
construction and operation represented in the 1920's, in this remote region, and so we are here today
to acknowledge that achievement through the award of an Engineering Heritage Marker.
As is always the case, the preservation of this heritage, which otherwise could have been lost, was
the result of the great foresight of a number of committed individuals. In this case, it was the then
Longreach Shire Council under Chairman Sir James Walker, who decided in 1989 to acquire the
decommissioned building and convert it into a local history museum.
As Governor of Queensland, I thank all of those involved in initiating, developing and maintaining this
Museum. In doing so, they created a memorial to power generation not only for Longreach, but for
the vast outback area of Queensland, which is entirely fitting given that this facility played a
pioneering role in power generation in the wider Central West region - serving, as I understand it, as a
model for other centres.
I thank also the members of the Queensland chapter of Engineering Heritage Australia for their
steadfast commitment to ensuring that significant engineering projects and works are acknowledged
and valued as part of our Queensland heritage and history. Over the past five years, I have attended
a number of these ceremonies - for dams, bridges, water towers, culverts - and I know that there is a
tremendous amount of work involved in the nomination process: identifying possible sites, gathering
all the facts and figures, preparing a detailed submission addressing all the criteria, which is then
closely scrutinised by the relevant assessment panel. And each time another Queensland site is
acknowledged, I am led to marvel anew at the ingenuity and determination shown by the generations
of specialist engineers, who worked to install vital infrastructure across our vast State, and to
appreciate even more the great contribution they have made - and that their successors, today's
engineers, continue to make to enhancing the quality of life in Queensland, for the benefit of all
Queenslanders and visitors to our State.
And on that appreciative note, it is with great pleasure that I now invite Deputy Mayor Rae Bowden
and the President of Engineering Australia Queensland Division, Mr Simon Orton, to join me in
unveiling the Australian Engineering Heritage Marker and Interpretative Panel for the Longreach
Powerhouse Museum.
Thank you.
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