Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
Knapman, Leonie; Hutton, Adrian.
Title
Mining of Kerosene Shale at Glen Davis - Was It a Success or a Costly Failure?
In
Second Australasian Conference on Engineering Heritage, Auckland, 14-16 February, 2000: Proceedings
Imprint
Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand, 2000, pp. 145-150
ISBN/ISSN
0980960352
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.910519754651560
Abstract

The decision to establish the National Oil Pty Ltd company, in 1937, to produce petrol from kerosene shale at Glen Davis was an Australian Commonwealth Government decision. With the threat of World War II, and the threatened interruption of overseas supplies, it appeared that Glen Davis would provide a vital and much-needed resource for a sea-locked country at war. However, with the pressure of war gone. Glen Davis was living on borrowed time. Production expectations were well below maximum and, with many other factors appeared to work against the venture and the company ceased operations in June, 1952. Three of the main problems, the darg, water shortage and floods, are reviewed in this paper. The discussion of these problems will show that many seemingly logical and technical considerations were changed, delayed and even ignored. The question arises then as to why the Glen Davis operation was set up in the first place when throughout its relatively short life it appeared to have been doomed by the very same organisation that brought it into the world, the Commonwealth Government of Australia. Hindsight suggests Glen Davis was simply a political exercise. It did not matter what technologies were used and nor how the miners operated. Glen Davis could not succeed.

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