Lorne, Victoria, Australia

ELECTRICITY

In 1910 photographer A.E. Jarratt bought an oil engine and installed an electric light generating plant for his business in Lorne. Soon the Winchelsea Shire Council commissioned him to install streetlights throughout the town, so he bought a larger oil engine generator and a set of batteries and ran wires from the bridge to the Pacific Hotel with poles carrying Lorne’s first electric streetlights. (The first gas lamplights were erected in the streets of Lorne in 1888).

Albert also supplied power to the pier for a navigation light, using a water pipe into the sea as an earth return. It was normal in those days to save money by feeding power through only a single wire and the circuit was complete through the earth. After several years the pipe under the pier almost rusted away and the light would only burn when waves lapped against the remaining length of pipe to complete the circuit through the water to the earth. Seafarers were baffled by the strange, intermittent light as they tried to figure out what the ‘code’ meant.

This early electricity supply was also connected to Erskine House and most other guesthouses and hotels, but several of the guesthouses supplemented it by installing their own auxiliary power plants. Homes were also connected to his system.

Around 1920 a larger generating plant powered by crude oil engines, generated 230 volt D.C. (direct current) for the town and was used mostly for lighting. The plant was situated on the bank of the Erskine River in the current location of the Visitor Information Centre. The first engineer was Bob Reid who planted an oak tree (still standing) beside the old powerhouse site, which was the property of the Winchelsea Shire Council.

Bob started the plant up just as it was getting dark and gauged the fuel in the tank to run out at about midnight, so he wouldn’t have to get out of bed to turn it off. The plant also operated on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so that the ladies could do their ironing. Most households had only one or two power points in those days. The system closed down in 1936 when the State Electricity Commission connected the town to its abundant supply of electrical power at today’s standard 240 and 415 volts of the much safer and more efficient A.C. (alternating current).

WATER

Lorne’s first water system came from a pool at the head of The Rapids via a one and a half inch (37mm) galvanized pipe, but it provided only enough water for Erskine House and it’s fruit and vegetable gardens. In 1880 Henry Gwynne asked three local businessmen Joseph Duncan, Theodore Hancock and John Stirling, if they would be willing to share the cost of a larger two-inch (50mm) pipe system from the rapids pool to service their businesses. They agreed and the system was installed. The remains of those old pipes can still be seen here and there along the riverbank.

The increasing demand for a town water supply culminated in the first meeting of The Lorne Water Trust in 1887. Mr Charles Beal was appointed the first Commissioner and J.R. Hopkins the Chairman. Unfortunately Charles Beal was killed the following year when returning to Lorne from Winchelsea after a Water Trust meeting. He was thrown from the box seat of a coach after the brakes failed. An enquiry into the accident was held at The Lorne Hotel and the driver of the coach, Mr Mountjoy, was exonerated from blame after a gruelling inquest. Mr Beal, a popular and likeable man, had contributed much to the community who respectfully named a street after him.

By 1890 a much bolder scheme to provide water was underway. A square wooden box flume was laid from a weir in the Erskine River about 10kms upstream from the town, a little below the junction of The Splitters Falls. The flume carried water about 8kms to a holding reservoir of 685.000 litres, 90metres above the town at the top of William Street near Polwarth Rd. From this elevated reservoir, water was reticulated to all the streets of the early township. Unfortunately frequent bushfires played havoc with the wooden flume and it was eventually replaced with cast iron piping.

A four-inch (100mm) main water pipe from this scheme crossed the saddle below the area known as the ‘Rough and Tumble’ on the Erskine Falls Road. Farmers took advantage of the exposed pipe by boring a hole in it and plugging it with a wooden peg. This allowed them to remove the peg to give their horses a drink as they passed along the steep road. As a result this area became known locally as ‘The Plug’ and as kids, Doug Stirling remembered, we daringly took a drink from the pipe and were drenched while desperately trying to shove the peg back into the hole against the water pressure.

Sources:

• Lorne A Living History by Doug Stirling
• Lorne Historical Society Collections