How three councils incinerated their garbage at North Balgowlah

For nearly 20 years thick smoke from an incinerator at North Balgowlah, polluted both the landscape and the lungs of local residents.

The Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah. Photo Mosman Library

For nearly 20 years thick smoke from an incinerator at North Balgowlah, polluted both the landscape and the lungs of local residents.

To add insult to injury, much of the garbage burned in the incinerator came from Mosman.

Prior to the use of incinerators, councils either buried their rubbish or tried to flush it out to sea.

Landfills served their purpose, at least in some places, by providing the material over which sports grounds were subsequently laid.

In other places, such as both sides of Curl Curl Lagoon, the landfill was used to “reclaim” the lagoon for the use of people at the expense of the health of the lagoon.

The interior of the Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah in 1947. Photo Mosman Library

The other way waste was disposed of was in large incinerators, which came at their own cost to the environment.

The dishonour of building the first incinerator on the northern beaches belongs to Manly Council, which began burning garbage in 1913 using a Hughes Sterling incinerator built by McEuen and Co that was capable of burning 50 tons of rubbish a week.

The incinerator was near Addiscombe Rd, not far from Burnt Bridge Creek.

In 1936 a huge incinerator was built at North Balgowlah – within the boundaries of Warringah Council – by Mosman Council.

The Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah. Photo Mosman Library

The Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah. Photo State Library of NSW

More developed than village Manly or rural Warringah, Mosman had been struggling with its rubbish since the turn of the century, dumping garbage at a tip at Pearl Bay, near The Spit, and burying its nightsoil at Frenchs Forest.

When the Pearl Bay tip closed in 1911, Mosman Council began tipping its garbage at the southern end of Balmoral Beach, but opposition to the despoliation of the area increased as rapidly as the mounting piles of garbage.

The interior of the Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah in 1947. Photo Mosman Library

Mosman then considered Beauty Point as the site for an incinerator as early as 1913 but quickly rejected its own bad idea.

Debate over an incinerator continued through the 1920s and early 1930s as an acceptable site was sought.

Although Balmoral was considered, some of the aldermen preferred the council-owned quarry at the northern tip of Parriwi Point, at the foot of the Mosman side of The Spit.

Manly Council fought against that proposal, claiming it would be objectionable to the nearly five million people who passed it each year, but the matter was resolved by the health minister, who rejected it.

Attention then returned to Balmoral but the locals were not going to accept that.

The only solution that was going to satisfy everyone in Mosman was to ship the garbage out of the area and into someone else’s backyard.

As many writers of letters to the Mosman Daily asked, “Why should the people of Mosman tolerate an incinerator in any part of their marvellous suburb, with its odours, fumes and garbage carts?”

Smoke from the Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah in 1948. Photo Northern Beaches Library

So Mosman Council began negotiations with Warringah Council in June 1934 for the purchase of a site within Warringah on which an incinerator could be built.

The site that was chosen was on the northern bank of Burnt Bridge Creek, at the foot of Condover St, North Balgowlah – the southernmost part of Warringah and just across the creek from the municipality of Manly.

Naturally Manly Council and local progress associations protested against the proposed siting of an incinerator but their protests to the local government minister were met with glib assurances that the site had been approved by all the relevant authorities, making Manly’s case difficult to sustain.

The Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah in 1947. Photo Mosman Library

Despite having its own incinerator, Manly Council fought on, informing Mosman and Warringah councils in October 1934 “that a dispute exists in connection with the incinerator proposal and the carting of garbage over the narrow and winding road from The Spit will be prohibited”.

But by then it was too late – construction of the Heenan and Froude garbage incineration plant by Babcock and Wilcox was proceeding apace.

The incinerator, one of only two of its kind in the country at the time, was officially opened on December 1, 1936, by local government minister Eric Spooner, having cost nearly £10,000 for the site, plant and caretaker’s residence.

The Mosman incinerator at North Balgowlah. Photo Mosman Library

With the incinerator now a fact of life, Manly Council gave up the fight and after its own incinerator gave up the ghost in 1940, it joined Warringah in using the plant to dispose of its own garbage.

By 1946 the incinerator, or destructor as it was sometimes called, was drying and burning 17,000 tonnes of garbage a year.

But the site which in 1934 was out in the bush was, by the 1950s, slowly being surrounded by the growing suburbs of Balgowlah, North Balgowlah and Seaforth, and calls for the closure of the incinerator increased as the population increased.

The incinerator finally closed in 1954.