History
The Ruins – History
Glen Davis Oil Shale Works
The importation of Oil for both domestic and industrial applications in Australia has been a source of pain for Australian Governments because of the uncertainly factor in loosing control of a vital power and energy source. The search for Oil shale goes back to the the early 19 hundreds and there are many reports that detail the rise and fall of many of these discoveries from Mittagong to parts of the Northern districts.
Long before the grand retorts at Glen Davis were first fired up in 1940 Torbinite or Oil shale was first discovered at Hartley and later at Mt Airley. just a few kilometers from Capertee. Mt Airley was quite remote in the 1860’s so discovery was no a days walk in the Park. You only have to walk around some of the sandstone cliffs and outfalls of the Capertee Valley to realize the determination and grit that these early explorers had since there was no trail line, roads or any other communications so they were reliant on their own skill,judgement and tenacity. The discovery of torbinite at Mt Airley was recorded in 1920 and a license was issued to four miners who eventually has to pass it on to a larger company because they lacked the funds to develop the mine and the infrastructure necessary to retort and transport the oil. It is a shame that the original single tramway that was built from Mt Airley to Capertee in no longer there indeed, very little of the original village still stands. Actually before Mt Airley was developed the first discovery was in Harley and was first noticed by one of the early explorers who upon returning from a trip to the fledgling town of village made an overnight stop at Harley and noticed the strange smell emanating from the fire place and recognised it as Oil shale. The following morning he was shown the location of the source and took a few samples no doubt with a promise of great rewards and sent it off to Scotland for a assays report.It transpired this sample was very rich in Oil and this was the start of Shale prospecting in neighboring areas.
Newnes
Spectacular scenery and so remote made this an ideal place for a holiday but hardly the place to set up a modern processing pant to process Turbinate or shale oil. The sides of this unique valley are almost straight solid sandstone cliffs and the idea of building a road much less a railway track out of the valley floor all the was to Lithgow some 30 kilometers is quite unfathomable. The original timber hotel still stands at Newnes and there are plenty of camping facilities and some excellent cabins to stay at Newnes. The walk around the old buildings and remains is very rewarding and whilst much of the original infrastructure is no longer there the reminders are still in place showing the prowess of these early miners and workers is quite something. I suppose Oil shale offered untold riches to the brave and sightful and Newnes is named after its first investor a wealthy publisher(Newns) who invested vast sums of money . There is quite a lot written regarding the highs and lows of Newnes needless to say it ended with no real returns to the investors and even the miners were a bit grumpy. So in the early 30’s the Government put together a team of experts and gave them a fancy name The Newns Investigative Committee. Their job was to consider the prospects of either continuing with the diminishing resource at Newnes or consider how to combine with the recently discovered shale deposits at Glen Davis. Now the distance from Newns to Glen Davis is really only about 15 kilometers on a direct path however not exactly an easy trip. Between the two valley of Wogan and Glen Davis there are the 3000 foot sandstone cliffs and whilst I have heard of miners running over to Newns from Glen Davis in a matter of hours it seems to take most people the best part of a day to do the hike today as it involves a bit of track searching, climbing to 3000 feet and down the other side. By the time the Newnes Investigative Committee has got their report together the nervous rumblings in Europe paced a certain amount of concern for the reliable supply of oil coupled with the national unemployment gave the Government the trigger to follow on the recommendations of the committee and rebuild a completely new Mine and processing plant at Glen Davis. Now it has to be said the retorts at Newnes were a bit problematic and somewhat simplistic so that the conversion of oil shale to Napthur or crude oil was far from efficient and it was hoped to purchase new and more efficient equipment from Estonia which was thought to have the best technology in regards to retorting shale. The next stage was to find a few willing investors
Glen Davis
Both the Federal and State Governments were anxious to find an third investor and operator. Advertisements were posted for suitable persons/companies to tender and despite the fanfare no suitable group could be found. One person who seemed a likely figure was George Davis who operated and very successful company call Glen Davis Gelatine and George and his brother were both successful . In addition to his own gelatine business George operated the ship building Yard in Sydney Harbour and turned a loosing industry into a profit in one year. His brother Malcolm was less enthusiastic and Mr Beasley the labour minister travelled to New Zealand and spend a day in his back yard trying to convince Malcolm of the rich returns that lay waiting for them at Glen Davis. The deal ended up roughly 650,000 pounds from the federal Gov , 350,000 pounds from the State and another 350,000 pounds from Davis Gelatine. Now bearing in mind the miners wage in those days was about 2 pounds a week you might end up with a comparative value of around 5 Billion in today’s money. Now if you were about to spend 5 Billion on a project you would think there might be a bit of a evaluation planing and programming or at ,least a due diligence sheet. I mean if you planned to build a huge generating plant and even bigger steam generating plant would you not think …Hey where do I get all this water? Now in fairness Glen Davis does border the Capertee River which at times does flood and a lot of water moves down this river except that for much of the year is either completely dries up or a trickle of water comes down to remind you this is where the Capertee River is. The other factor is that steam generators require pure water other wise the boilers are constantly collecting impurities in the form of brittle crust and sediment . By the time the first sod of dirt was turned the impending war in the Pacific was becoming alarming close and security for Australia’s oil and petrol was becoming a real concern. Without wishing to delay action the essence of immediate action fell up on the newly formed National Oil Propriety Limited. The urgency meant that few of the original plans were followed such as importing new retorts from Estonia and other items of equipment from America instead the decision to relocate the aged tired and less than ideal retorts from Newns to Glen Davis. Capertee railway Station was the busiest Rail way station in the state at the time moving hundreds of tons of steel along a what really was a bush track in the mid 1930’s Concrete Constructions did most of the early work building the road and the main body of building to make up the requirement for shale processing. This company was part of the Commonwealth Bank and really did a splendid and high quality job. today the remains of this construction still stands despite the evidence that there was a concerted effort to destroy all of the works buildings after the mine closed in 1950.
The Processing operation
Torbinite unlike coal, is an organic product created over millions of years from decaying crustaceans and shell fish laid on the bottom of lakes. The combined forces of pressure and heat have created this sedimentary oil rich product often found in seams associated with sandstone. Having formed on the bottom of lakes the shale seam is often lenticular in shape so the center is a lot thicker than the edges. The mine opening called MP3 at Glen Davis is 300 feet above the valley floor and about 1500 feet from the top of the cliffs. The shale was excavated using picks and shovels and loaded into horse drawn crates that moved the shale to the opening of the mine and then a hundred meters to the crushing and holding bins. From here it was taken by conveyor belts to the surge bins and thence to the top of the retorts. Once loaded the retorts were heated by a bed of coal at the base of the retorts and the resultant gasses were drawn off to be processed in the cooing tower and onto the exhauster house. the resulting napthur contained many useful elements and the shale residue was emptied onto steel carts at the base of the retorts to be moved to a loading ramp where the chitter of shale ash was transported by overhead steel rope conveyors to stock piles which are evident now around the Capertee river. One way of explaining the use of the retorts is similar of putting combined elements into a giant pressure pot and heating to some 400 degrees c with the result that the shale will break down into its component gasses and residues. The gasses are released from outtakes at varying intervals on the side of the retorts. and transported to the cooling towers. Quite simple in operation needless to say quite inefficient. Much of the shale would be removed with the ash so that the resultant chitter is a combination of ash and unburnt shale. Much has been written about both the operation of the retorts and the attendant danger of working in such a volatile and dangerous environment. Several people were injured during operations and at least one person was killed from the explosion of gasses that would explode from time to time. Health and safety issues were not top of the agenda and one can imagine working here at the height of summer where the temperatures at Glen Davis often go over 40 degrees in summer. Some of the excess gas was used as ignition fuel and today you can see the nozzzles at the base of the retorts that direct the gasses into the shale retorts. The relocation of the old retorts form Newnes to Glen Davis was a major factor is ensuring the plant would never be economically viable. The tour of the old works on every Saturday afternoon shows evidence of the shortcoming of the retorts. Together with a walk around the other processing buildings gives us a glimpse of the scale of this massive operation.
Distance and isolation of the plant was obstacles that had to be overcome. Not only was there a massive plan to build some 300 or more houses at Glen Davis the workers either lived in the accommodation centre on the northern side of the Capertee river whilst others mainly married couples lived on the hill sides just to the north in very primitive conditions. Aptly named ‘Bag Town’ because most of the camps were little more than ready made lean too’s with maybe a brick fire place which served as kitchen come living room. Floods were not uncommon together with relentless hot long summer days. Despite the rudimentary living conditions families recall fond memories of their time in Glen Davis. the excellent book on the early like of residents is recorded in Leone Knapman’s Book Glen Davis well worth a read.
Water was not only an issue for the massive boiler room but even the residents had to buy water from a delivery truck a a few shillings per 44 gallons. So crucial was water that without a fresh supply of clean water the processing operation was in peril. A decision was made to pipe clean water from the Oberon Dam goodness knows how many kilometers away over particularly difficult terrain. The pipe line was constructed using steel 6 inch pipes and joined by an ingenious method of joining the pipe with a special steel collar using a combination of phosphorus and magnesium the collar was heated till white hot thus securing a weld which has lasted more than 70 years. Today the few residents of Glen Davis still enjoy a supply of fresh water from the original pipe line. Lithgow Council still enjoys the revenue from the sale of water to many local and distant businesses and residents.