Awesome Adelaide – Page 12 of 48 – A photoblog of Adelaide's abandoned buildings, underground tunnels and places to explore. Urban exploration (urbex), off-limits, spelunking, drains, derelict buildings & ruins.

February 11, 2017

Urban Exploring: Port Augusta Northern Power Station

The 'Northern' Port Augusta Coal-Powered Power Station. — The ‘Northern’ Port Augusta Coal-Powered Power Station. (Photo courtesy Alinta Energy)

The Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) started construction of the Northern Power Station (located 275km North of Adelaide) in 1980 and took 5 years to complete. It was officially opened by the Premier of South Australia, John Bannon, on the 17th of October 1985. The station was built on reclaimed land; on top of nearly half a million cubic meters of ash spoil from the nearby Playford Power Station. Supplied by coal from Leigh Creek and cooled by sea water from Spencer Gulf, for 31 years it produced the cheapest electricity in the State.

After ETSA was privatised in 1999, the Port Augusta Power Stations changed hands several times. They became owned by Alinta Energy in 2007 when Alinta acquired it from former owners, Babcock & Brown Power.

The Process – simplified

Each week, six trains with 160 wagons would deliver more than 57,000 tonnes of coal to the power station. As coal was needed, it moved via conveyor belt to bunkers at the top of the boilers, then ground down to a fine dust and burnt. Two boilers, each 80 metres high and containing 24 huge burners would consume 170 tonnes of coal per hour — heating water inside to a temperature of 1050°C. Water pumped through tubes inside the walls of the boilers turned into steam which was then forced into the turbines under high pressure causing them to spin at 3,000rpm. Each of the sites two generators produced 260 megawatts of electricity at 18,000 volts, which was then transformed to 275,000 volts for transmission across all of South Australia.

Closure

The closure of the Leigh Creek Coal Mine and the Northern and Playford B Stations resulted in over 470 job losses. The Leigh Creek Coal Mine ceased operations on 17 November 2015. The last generator at the Northern Power Station was shut down at 9.40am on Monday 9th of May 2016.

It has been described as the “end of an era” for Port Augusta and South Australia for coal-fired electricity generation. Starting with the Playford A station in 1956, the mining and power operations employed thousands of local people over the last 60 years.

Historical Staff Pictures

Over the years, staff of the Port Augusta Power Station passionately preserved photographs of their worksite. Here are a few select images from their wonderful archive:

Over the last year, we visited the Northern Power Station multiple times. It’s now under the operation of demolition contractors with decommissioning works expected to take two years. The chimney is expected to be felled by mid-2017. The images here are 6-12 months old and present a record of the Station at that time.

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December 28, 2016

Urban Exploring: The Elms Glenside Psychiatric Hospital

Back in May 2016, the people of Adelaide were invited to see The Elms for the last time as part of a guided walking tour of the heritage buildings at the former Glenside Psychiatric Hospital. It was the last chance for any of us to see inside The Elms.

The Elms — Glenside Psychiatric Hospital, Metro Adelaide. — The Elms at the Glenside Psychiatric Hospital, Adelaide c2016. (Photo by WildStar)

The tours were booked solid! The guide on the day was deeply saddened that I may have missed the last opportunity. Fearing we’d missed out, we did some quick talking and thankfully managed to get an invitation to a uniquely special private tour. It enabled us to get some pretty unique pictures for you all.

The Elms housed mentally ill and poverty-stricken female patients. It was originally known as the “Additional Female Ward”. It later changed to “Women’s E, F and G Wards” and in 1982, to “The Elms”.

The Elms c1920 — Glenside Psychiatric Hospital, Adelaide. — 1920 The Elms and main building at Glenside. (Image from ‘Centenary of Glenside Hospital’ by The Griffin Press)

It was built in 1880 of hard Glen Osmond stone. A red-bricked Dining Room was added to the eastern end in 1954. An ablutions block for bathing and showering (cladded with shiny metallic sheeting) was added to the side of The Elms in 1959.

In its latter years, The Elms was used as a Domestic Training Unit and for Music Therapy. Recently the State Government changed the land’s zoning in order for it to be used for commercial and residential use. The Elms is expected to retain its heritage status and be retained. It’s to be adapted for use as a recreation facility.

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November 25, 2016

Urban Exploring: The Comms Tunnel

Early Adelaide telephone lines were copper wire. They traversed the city mounted on poles along the street, leading from your home (or place of business) all the way back to the telephone exchange. As you’d imagine, city telephone exchanges had a mass of incoming wires.

As the amount of customers grew, so did the amount of wires. Extra cross-arms had to be added to telephone poles to support more wires. They were extremely noisy in the wind, ugly, and broke during extreme weather events. Repairs were costly and took a very long time.

Adelaide Telephone Exchange c. 1909 — Top: Adelaide Telephone Exchange, Franklin Street, Adelaide c. 1909.
Bottom: Adelaide Telephone Exchange Back Entrance c.1909.
Photos courtesy State Library of South Australia.

The invention of the cable helped! Individual wires were grouped together and covered in a waterproof sheath. This allowed the wires to be placed underground, into tunnels, solving the problems associated with above-ground lines. Most cities have large cable tunnels under the main roads and footpaths, and these cable tunnels are still in use today.

Cable Tunnel to Telephone Exchange. — Top: Chris Ross, a cable repair access technician, inspecting an underground cable tunnel.
Bottom: A cut 1000-pair-cable showing the individual copper wiring.

Incoming cables from the cable tunnels are brought up from the underground tunnels into the exchange. The wires are broken out of their sheath and each pair of wires are terminated at a set of terminals on a Main Distribution Frame (MDF). The MDF also carried fuses which allowed lines to be connected or disconnected, as well as tested for faults.

Telephone exchange cable tunnel and Main Distribution Frame. — Left: A cable chamber, showing the cables on bearers and turning upwards to the MDF on the floor above.
Right: Cables from the cable chamber below connecting to the Main Distribution Frame (MDF).

From there, lines are connected to sophisticated digital switching computers that, when required, connect your line to phones locally, interstate and around the world.