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THR11943. Great Lake Scheme

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Status
Permanently Registered
Location
Description
The Great Lake Scheme listing contains a range of buildings and operational infrastructure, including dams, canals, pipelines, penstocks, power stations, work camp sites and associated moveable heritage collections, relating to the development of the Great Lake power scheme between 1910 and 1949.  
A Conservation Management Plan for the Waddamana A & B Power Stations (Godden Mackay Logan), completed in 2006, divides some of the elements of the scheme into a number of precincts, as follows:   Precinct 1: Upper Penstocks – encompassing the remains of two penstock lines to Waddamana A and B power stations. The remaining penstocks to Waddamana A consist of a series of steel pipes of varying diameter running down the hill slope. The penstocks of Waddamana B consist of four steel pipes which are intact (Godden Mackay Logan, p.58).   Associated infrastructure includes: the remains of a 2 foot (0.6m) gauge haulage between Waddamana A and a Valve House at the top of the penstock, and a 3 foot (0.9m) gauge tramway between the Valve House and Penstock Lagoon weir, and a surge tank located along the line of the penstocks  914 metres south of the Penstock weir.   Precinct 2: Waddamana Station A – consisting of penstock and inlet valves, turbine hall, switch gallery, control room, bus bar area, relay room, controls, battery room, disabled toilet, tail race under turbines, hot and cold air ducts, oil tanks and pumps, workshop, engineers in charge office, general office, shift engineers office, entrance hall, engineer’s lookout and drawing office, toilets, stairs, store room, sling room, switch yard, annex, and  tail race to Ouse River (Godden Mackay Logan, pp.59–60).   The main turbine hall, constructed in 1916 and extended in the early 1920’s  is a steel-framed building clad and roofed with corrugated galvanised iron. The floor of the hall is concrete, ruled and painted to imitate a tiled surface, and the walls are partly clad in masonite.  The control room in the hall is enclosed by a polished timber wall with glass panels which allowed the operators a view of the hall. The turbine hall contains nine sets of Pelton wheels (turbines) and AC generators, the DC exciters for the generators, the switches and spaces for the main and auxiliary bus bars, and the control room. Under the hall are three spaces running along the long axis of the building, including the tailrace from the Pelton wheels, and the hot and cold air ducts.    An annex was constructed in around 1922 in the area previously occupied by the interior switch yard of the power station.  The annex is a steel-framed building clad in corrugated galvanised iron. The entrance to the annex and the main building is up an elaborate flight of stairs. The entrance facade of the annex is decorated in a concrete pseudo- classic form (with galvanised iron infill). The upper story of the annex, to which the main entrance steps lead, contains a series of timber-panelled offices and a set of stairs leading to the turbine hall floor. Over the stairs is the engineer’s lookout which is a timber and glass panelled enclosure. The lookout is supported by decorative timber columns.   The lower storey of the annex was the workshop area, containing a small tramway running out to the switch yard which allowed transformers to be moved into the workshop for maintenance and repair, and a turntable in the floor, which allowed the transformers to be moved on a tramway into the turbine hall. The store room and sling store are adjacent to the workshop.   Outside the building, along the southeast side, is the switch yard. This contains the remains of the switching equipments and transformers, and a small display of moveable cultural heritage items related to the museum.   The refit of Waddamana A as a museum has involved the display of exhibits around the interior walls of the turbine hall and in the switch gallery and former offices, and the installation of a disabled toilet and display gallery. Overall the whole Power Station is in good condition, with little evidence of alteration since its finalisation in 1922. Waddamana A is virtually complete and close to its original fit out, apart from a large amount of introduced display material.   Precinct 3: Waddamana Station B – consisting of penstocks, turbine hall, pumps, overhead crane, hot air and cold air ducts, interior tailrace, oil filter room, electrician’s workshop, covered way, workshop, tool store, store, switch yard and  tailrace.   The turbine hall is a steel-framed and clad building, roofed with corrugated asbestos cement sheeting (Hardies ‘Fibrolite’). The hall contains four sets of Pelton wheels, generators and exciters. The turbines are organised differently from those in Waddamana A , with the water and air entering through the short axis of the building rather than the long axis, leaving the building with underfloor ducts for water and air. Electrical switching gear and buses are located adjacent to each turbine.   A steel-framed asbestos-clad annex is located at the south-eastern end of the hall, containing the workshop, store room and the tool store. A lean-to annex with a skillion roof  is located to the southeast end of the building, containing the electrician’s workshop and oil filtering room. Between these rooms is the covered way over the penstocks to Waddamana A. The switchyard for Waddamana B has been removed, leaving only concrete foundations.   The turbines in Waddamana B have been partially dismantled, with turbine 4 the most complete of the set. There are various items around the walls of the turbine hall, generally spare parts. The tool room is substantially intact and consists of shadow boards and tools, a classic example of its type.  This precinct contains a large number of items in good condition, although not as good a condition as Waddamana A.  Waddamana B is less complete but the key elements of the processes and machinery are still in situ, making it possible to demonstrate how the plant worked.   Precinct 4: Outside Workshop – contains the archaeological remains of the buildings shown on the 1949 plan (A8008 Waddamana ‘A’ and ‘B’ Power Stations, General Arrangement of Stations).   Precinct 5: Transmission Lines – mainly contains vegetation, electrolytic lightning arrestor and footings for the transmission towers.   Precinct 6: Quarry – Quarry spoil site is still discernable, although overgrown with regenerating bushland .   A full description of Precincts 1 – 6 is contained in Godden Mackay Logan (2006) Waddamana Power Stations Conservation Management Plan Unpublished report prepared for Hydro Tasmania. Further research has resulted in the identification of a number of additional precincts, since the Godden Mackay Logan report was completed.   Precinct 7: Water Supply – consists of the two previous dams on Great Lake at Miena (submerged behind the current dam wall), which diverted water into the Shannon River, a weir which diverted water into parallel canals supplying an artificial lagoon – the Penstock Lagoon, formed by levee banks around a natural depression, and the Liawenee Canal.

Elements of the water supply system are still in use. The Miena No 1 and 2 dams are contained within active Hydro storage. Liawenee canal is a functioning water coveyance asset and is subject to ongoing maintenence and upgrade.

Precinct 8: Waddamana Village – The village is substantially intact and includes around 19 separate buildings, former house sites, roads, pathways, cricket ground, tennis courts and sheds, former post office, former butcher shop, water filtration plant, decorative light poles, gardens, fences and associated exotic plantings, and high potential for further sub-surface deposits. See Appendix C for the sections covered by this listing.   Precinct 9: McAulay’s hut and Red Gate tramway – The hut site consists of a small area, about 100 metres square, around the remains of the stone foundations of the hut, a cairn with plaque, and limited potential for sub-surface cultural deposits to exist in the footprint of the hut and as adjacent midden deposits.  At some distance, but on the same private property two sections of the Red Gate tramway have been  identified for listing, , a section of tramway 30m x10m, and a section of tramway 1km x1m, containing stone embankments, wooden trestle uprights and trestle bases and potential for sub-surface cultural deposits.   Precinct 10: McAulay’s holiday home, Kanna Leena – The site consists of four large pine trees, surface foundations, kitchen range and chimney remains, rubbish tip, long-drop toilet hole, fences and scattered building materials, as well as potential for further sub-surface cultural deposits.   Precinct 11: Hilltop work camp – The site consists of surface foundations of  building and infrastructure sites with scattered cultural material and potential sub-surface cultural deposit as well as the upper section of the Waddamana penstock pipeline and canals.   Precinct 12 Shannon Power Station and Village – The site consists of surface and sub-surface features and cultural deposits relating to the Shannon Power Station and associated village, as well as the Shannon surge chamber, penstock pipeline and canals (in 2014).

Boundary reference
CPR10237

Map

THR Legend

Heritage boundaries are indicative only. For those who would like an official record of whether a place is or is not on the Heritage Register, the Tasmanian Heritage Council can issue a Certificate for Affected Place. For more information, please refer to the Heritage Tasmania website.