BY JEM ANSHAW
Much like when the final turbine was turned off in April 2023, the demolition of the chimneys at Liddell Power Station gave a few false starts before conditions were just right.
They came down just before 11am on Tuesday, May 26, with around 6000 people logged in to the live feed, including local schools and workplaces, and around 250 former staff attending an event at the Muswellbrook RSL Club.
One of the former staff members who was invited to watch from the media area at Lake Liddell Recreation Area was Danny Haigh who retired with the station after more than 40 years working there.
“I had 20 years thereabouts as a fitter there, and then I moved into the operations side of things for the remainder there, so I think it was 43 years all up,” he shared.
“I shut down the first unit, so I was on the control panel as a panel operator for the shutdown on unit three, it was the first unit that was completely taken out of service.”
While waiting for the demolition countdown to begin Danny spent some time reflecting on his tenure at Liddell Power Station, through all the name and ownership changes.
“There was a lot of changes over the years with plant and things like that, a lot of upgrades, they bought in a computerised control systems for the units and things like that,” he shared.
“When I started operating on the panels this system was already in place, so I didn’t have to go through that transition, but that was a pretty major change to the way the station was operated.
“Over the years it was a very, very stable work environment, and we’ve got good memories of just good work crews, good people to work with, that knew what they were doing and always willing to help out.”
Prior to demolition Danny shared he didn’t feel too emotionally tied to the station, but as the dust settled, we checked back in with him.
“There was definitely a build up there, and I had actual butterflies, which I kind of wasn’t expecting, I was kind of nervous about the whole thing,” he told The Hunter River Times.
“I don’t know why, because we’re pretty safe where we are, but I guess it’s a big thing.”
Brad Williams, AGL General Manager of Site Transition, viewed the event as the culmination of years of planning.
“It’s certainly a very symbolic moment for our team, for our community, and particularly for our former employees. We certainly understand and recognise there’ll be lots of mixed emotions today, in terms of the end of one era of power generation at Liddell, but hopefully the start of a new era for the site and for the region,” he said.
“From this distance, it all looked like it went perfectly to plan. We’ll go and find out a little bit more this afternoon, but it looked like it all went perfectly, now the process starts to clean up the debris associated with the chimneys.”
Each of the chimneys will have crumbled to around seven and a half thousand tons of rubble that will be sorted and disposed of accordingly.
The turbine halls will also be demolished, coming down separately in two detonation events.
