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Gas

Mortlake

Bennelong's clan, the Wangal, were traditional owners of the area that became Mortlake, but dispossessed when the land was granted to settlers in 1795. By the 1880s, the suburb was dominated by the AGL gasworks, and the railway, coal loading and other infrastructure necessary to support it. When the works closed in 1990 and were redeveloped as Breakfast Point, Mortlake was reduced in size. As other industries move away the area is likely to be redeveloped.

Australian Gas Light Company

Energy supply company formed in Sydney in 1837 which supplied gas to Sydney street lights from 1841. It oversaw the conversion to natural gas in 1976, and diversified into electricity before merging with Alinta in 2006. AGL Energy is still a power retailer.

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Manly Gaslight and Coke Company

Joint stock company formed to supply gas to the Manly area.

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Natural Gas & Oil Corporation

Mining company formed to reopen the Balmain coal mine in an attempt to extract natural gas. It was plagued by explosions and ceased production in 1950.

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North Shore Gas Company

Company formed by Charles Watt and James Walter Fell in the 1870s to supply gas to St Leonards and the North Shore. With works established at Neutral Bay, gas for lighting the streets of St Leonards East and Victoria began in March 1877. In 1980 the company was taken over by AGL.

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Parramatta Gas Company

Gas company incorporated in 1872.

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Millers Point gasworks

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The city's first gasworks, established by the Australian Gas Light Company in 1841, on the Darling Harbour edge of Millers Point, where Barangaroo is now. Production was gradually transferred to the company's Haymarket site and the Mortlake. The works were sold to the state government in 1912 and the buildings demolished by 1922. Some traces of the site still remain.

Mortlake Gasworks

Gas production works established by the Australian Gas Light Company in 1886 using coal brought from Newcastle.

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Manly Gas Company gasometer

Gas storage unit built in Chicago and erected in 1931, which, because of its shape, was affectionately known as 'the golf ball' for many years, and used to advertise Dunlop sporting equipment.

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Australian Gas Light Company works at Darling Harbour 1855

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Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[City of Sydney – Detail Plans, 1855: Sheet 2, CRS502/2 (detail)]

Australian Gas Light Company, Jenkins Street, Sydney 1870-1875

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By

American & Australasian Photographic Company

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[ON 4 Box 58 No 284]

(Mitchell Library)

Gaslight near Cook's Statue, Hyde Park c1880s

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From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a089209 / SPF/209]

Mortlake Gasworks c1900-27

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From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a106018 / PXA 635, 596]

Mortlake Gasworks on the Parramatta River 1956

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Contributed By

National Archives of Australia

[A1200, L19899]

Death at the Gasworks, from These Walls Have Ears: My Place 2013

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This is a tale of three deaths at The Rocks and a silent killer. The backdrop is the city's first gasworks. A neighbour to houses and schools, the gasworks gave its power (and industrial pollution) back to its community, and keeps on giving today, long after its smokestacks stood tall. Produced by Jessica Minshall.

Contributed By

FBi Radio's All the Best

[#1313 Posted April 27th 2013 (detail)]

(This piece was created for FBi Radio's All the Best, and made possible thanks to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority through the Rocks Windmill Project 2013.)