The Duck Reach Power Station was built by the Launceston Municipal Council and generated hydro-electricity almost continuously for 60 years – from 1895 to 1955. It was the first publicly-owned hydro-electric power station in Australia and one of the earliest in the world.
At its peak the station had a capacity of 2,600 horsepower and could produce two megawatts of electricity, enough to light 1,200 homes in Launceston. In the 1920s, Duck Reach powered unprecedented industrial development in Launceston and set the model for the later hydro-industrialisation of Tasmania.
Paperback edition.