In the beginning there was darkness, and then God said, ‘Let there be light’. So it was in Launceston on the evening of February 1, 1896.
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Half an hour after the flaming sun disappeared behind the horizon, the first street lights in the Southern Hemisphere switched on bringing electric light to the night streets of Launceston.
In the late 1800s, Launceston was a town of progress, quick to adopt new innovations and ideas.
It was in this climate a number of upstanding Launceston citizens formed the Launceston Electric Light and Motive Power Company with the aim to develop an electric hydro station on the South Esk River to generate enough power to light Launceston’s streets.
But the Launceston Municipal Council, not taken with the idea of a private company taking on the project, instead secured the water rights needed to proceed from the parliament.
The Launceston Electric Light Act came into effect on December 20, 1887, and gave the council three years to begin work on the hydro-electric scheme.
But as debate raged about the ideal location for the power generator, this timeframe got extended to 10 years.
In 1890, after a suggestion the hydro power station be built at the First Basin, something inconceivable now, Duck Reach was selected as the ideal site.
Work could begin on the project, which had an estimated cost equivalent to $15 million today.
In 1893, work was under way, and on March 18 of that year The Examiner reported, “Residents of Launceston who are following sedentary occupations, and who consequently require a little healthy exercise, cannot do better than take a walk out to Duck Reach, and inspect the works now in progress there in connection with the scheme adopted for lighting the city by electricity”.
Late in 1895 Launceston’s electric light scheme was nearing completion and on December 10, 1895, it was trialled. Electric lights for the first time illuminated Launceston’s streets from 8pm to 10pm.
“The trial was very successful, and was much commented upon during the evening,” The Examiner reported the following day.
Finally, after a long, and at times contentious, journey Launceston’s electric lighting scheme and the Duck Reach power station were complete and on February 1, 1896, the electricity generating machinery was switched on.
The street lamps lit from half and hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise.
With the introduction of the Southern Hemisphere’s first electric street lights in Launceston, electric light fever hit the town.
Business owners and homeowners jumped at the chance to take advantage of the newly created electricity.
The development lit the way to the Launceston of today.