Seven lucky Moe Rotarians enjoyed a guided tour of Yallourn Power Station and Coal Mine last Friday.
We knew it was no ordinary tour when gate house staff directed us to don full safety apparel, from hard hat and safety glasses down to “toe-tectors”. There was real consternation when several of our party seriously under guessed their overall size and literally tried to shoe horn a quart into a pint pot. Bodies were bursting from the seams!. Voices were octaves higher. So climbing into the people mover for the run to the Power Station was not easy.
A short drive and Alan B had already used used his daily allowance of 10 questions on the drive up to the Admin building!.
Met by Neil and John, we were described the function of the key power station parts, followed by a tour of the physical assets.
The size of the plant was impressive, and several remarked about the absence of people. Modern control systems enable an operating team to control the plant from a central control room. On our tour of the boiler house our senses were assailed with the smell of steam and whiffs of burning brown coal. The roar of the furnace firebox and the sight of burning coal being blown into the chamber made viewing the furnace a toasty experience not to be forgotten. We were treated to a light lunch and then Lance, our open Cut guide, briefed us on where the open cut has come from and more particularly where it is going over the next 15 or so years.
Squeezing into a 4WD we drove into the open cut for a birds eye view of overburden and coal winning works. I think we were all impressed to see the re-mediation works and capping of boundary batters. The environmental teams are endeavouring to provide the community with an asset once the mine is finished. The ability to progressively refill the open cut with overburden makes this mine rather unique from both stability and hydraulic aspects.
As we drove deeper into the mine the ant like forms we had previously viewed came up close and we observed raw coal heading out to the power station. Deep in the open cut we were confronted with a large black pond, so after a bit of shimmying around in the mud, Lance declared “I think we can get through here – hold on!”. And we did.
It was worth it, because we were able to view up close one of the largest bulldozers in the world pushing 90 tonne loads of brown coal and fossilised trees into a feeder-breaker unit, which delivered lumpy brown coal millions of years old onto the conveyor system. Driving back we were briefed on the disaster of the Morwell River Diversion failure when the mine was severely flooded.
It was fascinating to hear the account from someone who was there at the time.
Emerging, somewhat dusty, at the end of our tour we knew we had been given a very special look at the complex operation which comprises Energy Australia Yallourn Power Station and Coal Mine.
Many thanks to our hosts for a thoroughly enjoyable visit.
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