until the commissioning of the new Townsville generating station on 11 May 1953. Eight days later the Home Hill Powerhouse, whose whistle had blown every day at 8am, 12 noon, 1 pm and 5 pm, regulating local working hours, for 31 years, was decommissioned. In the mid-1960s rice growing emerged as an important new agricultural pursuit for the Burdekin. In 1969 the former Home Hill Powerhouse was officially opened by the Premier of Queensland, the Hon. Joh Bjelke-Petersen, as the Lower Burdekin Rice Producers Co-operative Association Ltd's rice mill. Considerable infrastructure for the rice milling process was developed round the former Power House. During this time the shed located on the northern side of the power house was removed and replaced by a single story corrugated iron skillion shed. Some internal partitioning and office walls of concrete block were constructed on the ground floor of the Power House building. The machinery and machinery foundations were removed from the machine shed which is located against the eastern facade of the three storey generator building. More recently the complex has housed agricultural chemicals for the sugar industry. Description The former Home Hill Powerhouse is a brick and corrugated iron structure situated on a large block in First Avenue, Home Hill. The surviving original powerhouse structure comprises two main elements: an administration area and the generator house. The administration area is a two-storeyed asymmetrical building constructed of brick on concrete foundations and has wings on both sides of a central round arch doorway. The building has a small frontispiece, which is painted green. The arch doorway is surmounted by a pediment decorated with the date of construction of the building, "A.D.1922" and the name of the present function of the building, "Pivot Service Centre". The doorway opens to an entrance hall and staircase, which leads to the first floor. The staircase is constructed of concrete with an iron handrail. The western wing has narrow brickwork columns dividing the facade into three bays. It supports a verandah on the ground and first floors. The ground floor has been partitioned into three rooms: a laboratory, storeroom and galley kitchen. The interior walls are rendered and are painted white. The first floor has been partitioned into two rooms with a timber-framed wall, which were bare of any fixtures and fittings and have a very simple interior. The ground floor of the eastern wing contains the main