By
Charles Markham
Lake Margaret Power Station was the first hydro electric
facility in Tasmania and produced 5000hp in 1914. Rainfall in
the area was ultra-reliable with 177 inches recorded in 1948.
The water was fed to the turbines via a timber flume, still in
use today. is constructed of King Billy pine. |
These
houses were built for the workers that ran the power station.
The power station is 5 miles from the Mt Lyell smelters which
the power station energizes. In 1985 the hydro Tasmania bought
the scheme from the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company.
"In 1912 hundreds of
Maltese migrants, directed by Huntley Clarke, extended a
firewood tram across Howard's Plains and began to clear a site
for the power house on the banks of the Yolande."
Source: The Peaks Of
Lyell by Geoffrey Blainey
It was because of this scheme
that the tasmanian government realized it would be possible to
do elsewhere. "If the Mt. Lyell Company can implement this
scheme," argued the
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Photos taken by Kelvin
Markham
minister of mines,
"then surely the Government with its greater resources, can
harness the highland lakes."
Waddamana power
station began producing power two years later, and you can read
about that, here
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