Prior to 1951, power at Leigh Creek was supplied from a diesel generating plant located at Telford. With the planned introduction of more efficient electric excavators, including the 9W Dragline, it was apparent that a much bigger power station was required. Plans were drawn up in the late 1940s; construction of a new coal fired, steam power station commenced at Northfield in 1950 and the first electricity was generated early in 1951 - just in time for the 9W to be commissioned. Within a decade, further developments and even larger electric mining equipment required substantially more power and by 1961 a 132kV transmission line from Pt Augusta had been constructed - effectively quadrupling the power supply to Leigh Creek. The Northfield Power Station had become obsolete and was later demolished.

These Ruston-Bucyrus brochure photographs, found in ETSA historic records, show a range of electric shovel and dragline models considered for use at Leigh Creek. By mid 1950, ETSA reported the following electric excavators operating at the coal field: 1 x 9W Dragline, 2 x 5W Draglines, 1 x 100RB Dragline, 1 x 100RB shovel and 1 x 54RB Shovel.

The Wallaroo Alcohol Distillery

In 1943 the Federal Government announced Wallaroo would be the location of a power alcohol distillery which, as part of the war effort, would produce 3-4 million gallons of alcohol from wheat. The alcohol would be used to improve the octane rating of petrol and was essential to munitions manufacture. However, although the distillery was built, it was never used and in 1948 it was sold and demolished. ETSA purchased a large portion of the plant to build a power station at Leigh Creek, including the smoke stack, two boilers and a 400kW turbo generator. Below are photographs of the Wallaroo distillery. It bares an uncanny resemblance to the subsequent Northfield Power Station.

Construction at Northfield -1950

Prior to construction of Aroona Dam in 1955, Leigh Creek’s water was provided from bores at Sliding Rock. Owing to the high proportion of impurities in the water supply, a “cold lime-soda” water treatment plant was required. Additionally, to conserve water, an atmospheric cooling tower was constructed as part of the circulating water system.

The completed Northfield Power Station

Between 1951 and 1956, additional plant was added to the Northfield Power Station including another boiler and two 1500 kW turbo generators.
The original Telford diesel generators were also relocated to provide emergency back-up power.

Maintenance of the 132kV transmission line in the 1970s (Rosalie Patterson)