Barely a dry eye as old Lady Liddell powers down
The press of a button ended the life of the coal plant that for more than 50-years powered Australian households and sustained generations of families in the NSW Hunter Valley region.
The press of a button ended the life of the coal plant affectionately called Lady Liddell that for more than 50 years powered Australian households and sustained generations of families in the NSW Hunter Valley region.
On Friday, workers in orange hi-visibility vests gathered inside the control room to watch as the last unit powered down, the megawatts falling from 249 to zero in less than an hour. At 10.19am it was over and the remaining workers applauded, some shedding tears. Lady Liddell was dead after 51 years, 11 months and 12 days.
Shift manager Steve Lanesbury, 60, will retire early after starting as an apprentice at Liddell Power Station at 16. “I didn’t even have a car licence so I actually had to get a lift off a couple of old blokes,” he said.
He said workers tried to let the plant go gently, but there was still life left in Lady Liddell. “I was just amazed she was still going,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“We were basically trying to switch her life support system off and let her go by herself but we couldn’t do that in the end. We actually had to push the button, which was a bit sad.”
The first unit of the power plant was first turned on May 17, 1971, and on Friday orange turbines were caked with black coal dust.
Station operator Gus McNeil said communities existed within the Liddell plant and everyone had been united by their dedication and commitment. “The actual legacy of Liddell is how everyone bonds together,” Mr McNeil said, his eyes bloodshot.
AGL chief executive Damien Nicks said there had been no forced redundancies as part of the plant’s closure, which he said had been planned extremely well.
“We’ve got 55 per cent of our workforce moving over the Bayswater (power station), and the balance are either taking early retirement or going over to other opportunities,” he said.
The Liddell power plant is nestled between the towns of Singleton and Muswellbrook and has employed generations of both towns’ residents.
At the Railway Hotel in Muswellbrook, barmaid Jackie White said her late partner worked at the plant for about a decade and said she worried about the fate of the workers. “It’s a sad day for the town,” she said.
The power giant’s largest shareholder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, has vowed to reimagine AGL as a greener electricity generator, with its two remaining coal plants at Bayswater and Loy Yang in Victoria to close by 2035.
Anthony Albanese dismissed concerns the closure of Liddell would cause power disruptions or increase costs for households already struggling amid high inflation and interest rate rises. “I’m very confident that we can get this right,” the Prime Minister said.
Electrical Trades Union national secretary Michael Wright said Liddell was the 12th coal-fired power plant to close over the past decade, while there had been no plans to look after affected workers, regions and communities.
“It’s just unconscionable we’re now in 2023 and the steps the Albanese government is hopefully taking in the May budget should have been taken a decade ago,” he said.
Former Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon said the closure of the aged power station was “inevitable” but raised concerns about the scheduled closure of the Eraring coal power station in 2025.
“We are moving to different forms of energy and decarbonising the economy,” he said. “That’s a good thing, but closing power stations like Eraring, which are still in very good shape, is a bridge too far as we’re not ready.”
The NSW government is expected to hold talks with Origin over the option of keeping the Eraring power station open past its scheduled close date. The coal-fired plant accounts for 25 per cent of the state’s electricity needs.
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