Munmorah Power Station’s iconic 155m-high chimneys demolished
HUNDREDS gathered at the decommissioned Munmorah Power Station — where thousands worked from 1967 until its demise in 2012 — to watch the iconic pair of 155m-high chimney stacks brought to the ground just after 10am today.
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THEY stood tall and proud in the Munmorah skyline for 50 years, but stacks of Central Coast history came crashing down in just 10 seconds on Sunday morning.
Hundreds gathered at the site of the Munmorah Power Station — where thousands worked from 1967 until its demise in 2012 — to watch the iconic pair of 155m-high chimney stacks brought to the ground just after 10am.
A 500m exclusion zone was in force to keep onlookers from getting too close, before a pair of hollow bangs echoed up and down nearby streets as the explosions knocked the concrete pylons to the ground — much like a lumberjack bringing down a tall oak tree.
Dust billowed and eventually settled again, and just like that, it was done. A big part of the community, described by locals as a “visual representation of home”, was gone in just seconds.
Bob Porter, who worked at the site as an engineer and in a management role, said he was thrilled to see Coasties out in force to farewell the twin soldiers.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia associated with this site and much of it just went west,” he said, jokingly. “It’s been a landmark and you can see from the number of people that turned up today the history and the relationship that a number of former employees have with the site.
“The social fabric of Munmorah was very strong and particularly built around this park where we are now so the area had an aura about it that some of the other stations may not have had.
“It’s very satisfying to see the enthusiasm that has been shown about the site.
“This will open up a lot of valuable land for redevelopment in an area that is beginning to bulge at the seams.”
At its peak, the former Delta Electricity coal power station in Colongra had a generation capacity of 1400 megawatts. But since being decommissioned in 2014, it had merely occupied valuable land on the north end of the Coast.
Removing the stacks is part of the ongoing clearance of the site, but for Dianne Anderson of Buff Point, it marks the sentimental end of an era for her family.
“As a long-time resident these landmarks have been a visual representation of home to me and my family for more than 45 years,” she said.
“In the day when a large percentage of the population had husbands, fathers and brothers working in either coal mining or electrical generating, these stacks represented jobs, security and future growth for the area.
“Friends worked at the power station and there was a real sense of community.
“When returning home from trips outside the area, the twin stacks always greeted us home. We knew the journey was almost over.
“While I understand the community has no use for the power station and to some, these stacks may be seen as a blight to our environment but, to me, I will miss those stacks and the community who were proud to be part of that tradition.”
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