Duck Reach Power Station was the first publicly owned hydro-electric plant in the Southern Hemisphere, and provided the Tasmanian city of Launceston with hydro-electric power from its construction in 1895 to its closure in 1955. Construction The site was picked by Launceston city surveyor and engineer Charles St John David in 1892. The penstock ran diagonally down the hill into the centre of the rear of the power station where it channeled in to successively smaller pipes and finally to eight Siemens turbines. Drilling the tunnel The tunnel was drilled to a length of at a 1 to 110 grade. The tunnel was cut through the hill side instead of being piped around and it took 16 months to complete using pneumatic drills. Dolerite is so hard it took one week of eighteen 8-hour shifts cutting from both ends of the tunnel to cut just however the average speed of the drilling was about a week. Two men were killed in accidents. When both ends met it was found that the accuracy was within 1 inch. Operational history The Duck Reach Power Station first operated on a trial basis on the evening of the 10th of December 1895, when it was used to illuminate some of Launceston's streets using arc lights. On the 1st of February 1896, the hydro-electric power system was officially switched on, remaining in operation until 1955. The following is paraphrased from the display plaques now within the power station: Originally the installation had a capacity of 75 kW DC, provided by five 15 kW dynamos, and 360 kW AC, provided by three 120 kW 92 c.p.s. alternators. The turbines were manufactured by Gilbert Gilkes and Co., Kendal, whilst the dynamos and alternators were built by Siemens Bros. and Co.. All of the alternating-current (AC) supply was single-phase. Towards the end of the 1890's more power was required and in 1898/9 two additional 120 kW 92 c.p.s. alternators were installed. By the early 1900's the demand was still rising and again it became necessary to further upgrade the plant. This was achieved by removing much of the original equipment and replacing it with four horizontal shaft 445 hp Francis turbines manufactured by Kolben and Co. of Prague, each coupled to a single 300 kW three-phase 50 c.p.s. alternator again built by Siemens Bros. and Co.. This raised the AC capacity of the station to 1.2 MW. The