AGL has safely and successfully demolished the stacks at Liddell Power Station, marking a significant milestone in the company’s history and Australia’s energy transition.
The two 169‑metre‑high chimneys were brought down using a highly controlled, precision‑engineered blast carried out in partnership with CMA Contracting. Hundreds of individual charges were placed into pre‑drilled holes to weaken the base of each stack and allow them to fall in a planned direction.
The demolition was carried out as a single, tightly sequenced blast, using millisecond delays to control how the structures collapsed, with safety measures in place for workers, the community and the environment.
In regard to why the stacks were demolished, AGL site transition manager Brad Williams says it’s cheaper and safer to do it now.
“The stacks themselves do deteriorate over time,” he explained.
“They’re designed to be warm. And so the warmth keeps the condensation out of the chimney structure, keeps the rust out, et cetera.
“So once the power station is non-operational, the stacks do deteriorate over time. And so while these are in reasonably good condition at the moment, they do require ongoing inspection and maintenance, and that’s costly in the long run.”
Muswellbrook Mayor Jeff Drayton says the stacks coming down signifies a massive moment for many locals.
“Myself, like anyone else who’s lived for any length of time in Muswellbrook, the stacks were that landmark,” he said.
“If you’d been away and you were heading home, once you’d seen the stacks of Liddell, you knew you were home. You knew you were nearly there.”
Mayor Drayton also has personal ties to the site, like many others in the Shire.
“Both my boys went through there as apprentices, one of them still works there now, and my father also worked at Liddell for a long time.”
AGL site transition manager Brad Williams says many have mixed emotions.
“I use the word bittersweet,” he said.
“I imagine a lot of people would have mixed emotions about today, particularly our former employees and members of the community that have lived and worked and seen these stacks. They’re icons for the Upper Hunter. So very cognisant of the fact that it will be a sad day for many.
“From a project point of view, it’s a significant day. We’ve been working towards this day for over six years now in terms of planning for demolition works at the site.”
In regards to the future, Williams says there’s a lot of potential with the site.
“The site itself has natural advantages in terms of a flat industrial piece of land, obvious water supplies, connections to the grid, close to the highway, etc. So it is ideally suited for redevelopment, whether that’s more batteries, whether that’s a data centre or alternate forms of development,” he said.
