Slice of Tasmanian woodworking history about to be demolished.

Dear listers

I write hoping you could help save an important part of Australia's
woodworking heritage. Tasmania at the bottom of the Australian mainland
is home to one of the world's special power stations, and a significant
wooden pipeline made of king billy pine.

Would you please consider writing to the West Coast Council as Hydro
Tasmania have applied to demolish the wood stave pipeline at the
historic Lake Margaret power station. The pipeline, constructed in the
1930s and brought into the village by horse and cart is believed to be
the largest king billy pine structure of its kind in the world.

Objections can be forwarded by this WEDNESDAY 26th July by 5pm AEST to
David Metcalf, the General Manager of West Coast Council:

http://www.westcoast.tas.gov.au/site...cfm?u=242#e236

His email address is:



PLEASE DO NOT SEND EMAILS AFTER THIS TIME AND DATE.

Lake Margaret is the second oldest power station in the southern
hemisphere and was built in WW1 to supply power to the Mount Lyell
Mining and Railway Company, a mine and railway based in Queenstown. The
village is a unique snapshot of Tasmania's industrial, social and
environmental heritage.

Objections can be a simple sentence of objection. You may want to cite
the basis of the objection, such as the perceived value of the INTACT
pipeline, and that the station, which closed on 30 June should remain
open as the second oldest power station in the southern hemisphere.

If you are writing from overseas, feel free to google Lake Margaret
power station and view some of the images of this amazing piece of
craftsmenship. Also, if you choose to email, please write your snail
mail address to emphasise the international significance of this
pipeline.

Please help save this important Australian woodworking icon. Thankyou.

"tasconvict" wrote in message
oups.com...
Slice of Tasmanian woodworking history about to be demolished.

Dear listers

I write hoping you could help save an important part of Australia's
woodworking heritage. Tasmania at the bottom of the Australian mainland
is home to one of the world's special power stations, and a significant
wooden pipeline made of king billy pine.

Would you please consider writing to the West Coast Council as Hydro
Tasmania have applied to demolish the wood stave pipeline at the
historic Lake Margaret power station. The pipeline, constructed in the
1930s and brought into the village by horse and cart is believed to be
the largest king billy pine structure of its kind in the world.

I commend your wanting to preserve history, but I cannot find credible
information about it. Many of the Google links are dead ends. I could find
no photographs of the pipeline itself. You offered no alternatives to
keeping it.

Before dragging us into a hot political situation, you need to give a bit
more information.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"tasconvict" wrote in message
oups.com...
Slice of Tasmanian woodworking history about to be demolished.

....
I write hoping you could help save an important part of Australia's
woodworking heritage. Tasmania at the bottom of the Australian mainland
is home to one of the world's special power stations, and a significant
wooden pipeline made of king billy pine.
....
I commend your wanting to preserve history, but I cannot find credible
information about it. Many of the Google links are dead ends. I could find
no photographs of the pipeline itself. You offered no alternatives to
keeping it.

Before dragging us into a hot political situation, you need to give a bit
more information.

Didn't seem _too_ hard, Ed...

http://www.hydro.com.au/documents/Ou...lume%202 .pdf

is Vol 2 of an assessment/plan which contains all (and more I'm sure
) that you'd ever want to know of the station and penstock/pipeline
including a section of pictures...it's big, so if you don't have
highspeed access it'll take quite a while, but it is pretty
interesting...

Didn't dig into the report itself or try to find out just what is/isn't
the real plan, but does there's been a significant amount of evaluation
of the overall site with the thought of historical preservation. Given
the size of the site and the condition, it would take a _bunch_ of
money to preserve any significant portion of it.

There's no way a 8 MWe ca 1910 hydro station w/ latest upgrades to the
turbine/generators apparently in the 70s is going to ever be
economically viable so the hope to convince somebody to continue to
operate the station is a pipe dream (so to speak ). The best I'd
guess they would be able to do would be to find some grant monies and
hopefully get the site donated to either a conservation organization or
convince a government body to take it over as a recreation/park area
and try to preserve a very short portion of the pipeline and some of
the equipment. In order for much of it to be made accessible by the
general public, however, it's pretty clear looking at the pictures that
it would take a bunch of money just to make it reasonably safe enough
that it would be something other than a continual string of accidents
needing rescue. I'd suspect that is one of the most difficult problem
folks making the decisions are facing.