Cloncurry
This group is currently not a member of the MEGS network. QEM hopes they will start up again soon.
The Cloncurry Shire
Council took responsibility for the electricity supply in
1936. The population in the supply area was 1,700 and there
were 240 consumers in 1939/40.
The Engineer-Manager
of the Cloncurry Powerhouse in 1939 was Mr. W. J. Schwabe.
In 1939 the Cloncurry
Powerhouse Plant comprised:
One 150-h.p. Ackroyd
wood gas producer;
One 107-h.p. National
three-cylinder suction gas engine, direct coupled to a 70-kva
Brush alternator;
One 40-h.p. Crossley
single-cylinder suction gas engine, belt-driving a 31-kva
Brush alternator.
The distribution system:
Primary, 2,200 volts; secondary, 415/240 volts; 50 cycle,
three-phase a.c.
The tariff: domestic
supply was one shilling and sixpence to fourpence per unit
depending on units consumed. If using an electric range for
cooking, the units cost one shilling and sixpence each to
threepence each, depending on use. Lighting was one shillings
and sixpence to ninepence per unit and power, eightpence to
fourpence per unit.
(Source: Tait's
Electrical Directory , 1939-1940, p.180. QEM Archive)
By 1956, the increase
in demand for power led the State Electricity Commission of
Queensland (SECQ) to consider the installation of additional
plant as soon as possible. ( Source: SECQ Nineteenth Report
(1956) p.20. QEM Archive)
The Cloncurry Shire
Council purchased a second-hand 432-kW oil engine from Northern
New South Wales . However, it was believed that another 300-kW
engine would also be needed to fulfil the growing demand for
power.
( Source: SECQ Twentieth
Report (1957) p.20. QEM Archive)
In 1959, the Annual
Report of the SECQ stated that an agreement had been reached
with Mount Isa Mines Ltd. for the Company 'to make bulk transmitted
supply available from the Company's new outdoor type power
station at Mica Creek to supply Cloncurry and intervening
consumers'. The Cloncurry Shire Council was in agreement with
the construction of a 66,000 volt transmission line to accomplish
the task. Tenders were called for the design, supply of materials
and construction of the line. The Cloncurry Powerhouse would
continue to operate until the new supply was available.
(Source: SECQ Twenty-Second
Annual Report (1959) p.13 and the SECQ Twenty-Third
Annual Report (1960) p.15. QEM Archive)
From QEM Archives.
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