SEPTEMBER 14, 2022 marks 100 years since electric lighting came to Wangaratta and not only illuminated Wangaratta's main street, but helped forge new standards of living and prosperity.
Before kerosene street lamps were installed in 1866, the only street lights were the hotels lamps and a publican could go to court for 'failing to keep their lamps lighted'.
In January 1888, the provision for electricity for lighting was proposed but the Gasworks were built and the transition from kerosene to gas began.
Gas lights had to be lit each night and both the company and gas lighter were fined for each lamp not alight when the Council Inspector did his rounds.
In November 1911 the subject of electricity was raised again after council received a letter from Messrs Lincolne and McDougall suggesting 'that the undertaking of pumping the water supply and providing lighting by electricity might be carried out by a combined plant'.
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Authority to install electric light was sought from the Government in Melbourne as the Borough had to obtain an 'order in Council'.
It didn't get through the council the first time and back and forth it went with schemes designed, reports prepared for the Electricity Commission in Melbourne and letters from ratepayers, engineers, electrical firms supply equipment and Government departments pouring into the council.
Eventually, in November 1915, the Works Department gave the authority.
In 1918 the Co–Store installed its own electric lighting which was run by a generator, and a number of other businesses including the Theatre Royal (Reid St next to Pinsent Hotel), Her Majesty's Theatre (Murphy St) and St Pats Pictures (Ford St) were also said to have their own generators for electricity.
But for the town as a whole, all went quiet and nothing happened until May 1921 when the council received a proposal from the new woollen mills to supply the town with power.
Just like the connecting of electricity, talk of a mill in Wangaratta started many years before – in 1876 – when a meeting was held at the Royal Victoria Hotel and deputations sent to mills in Geelong and Ballarat.
Insufficient funds prevented the venture's launch, as they did in the early twentieth century when the industry was reaching new peaks.
Following the First World War, local storekeeper, merchant and man of vision, William Callander Snr came up with a bold idea to promote his proposal for a mill: his two daughters, Alma and Lena, took to the skies in an open biplane and, seated on kerosene tins, scattered leaflets across the region urging people to buy Woollen Mill shares and make the town 'fly ahead'.
The ploy worked and soon £40,000 had been raised, a site selected, a provisional board of directors appointed (with William as chairman) and The Wangaratta Woollen Mills Company was incorporated on December 20, 1920.
The mill's proposal to the council in May 1921 was to supply electricity of the alternating type in bulk at an average price of three pence per unit or cost price plus 10 per cent (the former price was accepted).
There was some confusion (thanks to the Premier's Office) as to whether councillors who were shareholders in the Woollen Mills Company could take part in discussions about purchasing electric current, however that was all sorted out by June of 1922 and they were allowed.
Loans were procured, tenders for 14 contracts were received by council and work was finally underway on the Woollen Mills and an electric supply to the town.
The power house was completed in April 1922 with two generating sets; one 75HP compound reciprocating condensing engine connected with a 50kw, 3 phase, 50 cycle, 415 volt alternating generator with exiter coupled on the main shaft and the second set was of 150kw, with the sets being able to run as one or being synchronised.
The chimney stack was 100 feet high and the cooling pond held 1,500,000 gallons.
The poles and wires were next however many of the ironbark poles intended for use did not pass inspection from the contractor Mr Frost, or he had no trucks available to deliver the poles when they were approved, so it was slow going.
Consumers were canvassed and signed up to agreements to be connected to the Borough Council of Wangaratta electric lighting system at six pence a unit lighting and five pence for power with 120 homes and businesses (including the railway) taking up the initial offer.
Finally all was ready and the grand switch–on was announced for September 14.
Under the stars and the sky, the mayor stood on the balcony of the Commercial Hotel, ready to throw the switch and bring Wangaratta into a new age.
In the centre of the town below, 2000 eager residents and business owners stood waiting and as the darkness was transformed into light up and down the street, a great gasp and cheer went up at the brilliance of the feat.
They may have been one of the last in the district to convert to electric lighting but Wangaratta was finally an electrically–lit town.
Generation and supply of electricity to the town by the woollen mills continued until March 1927 when the State Electricity Commission began supplying power Yallourn current to Wangaratta.
Note: information sourced for article through Wangaratta Historical Society; D.M. Whittaker's Our Wangaratta Century; The Wangaratta Story by Bill O'Callaghan; Callanders 1889 to 1981 by the Estate of J.M. Callander and Trove articles.
