Electrona is a rural residential locality in the local government area (LGA) of
Kingborough
Kingborough Council is a local government body in Tasmania, and one of the five municipalities that constitutes the Greater Hobart Area. Kingborough is classified as an urban local government area and has a population of 37,734, it covers the ...
in the
Hobart LGA region of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
. The locality is about south of the town of
Kingston. The
2016 census recorded a population of 364 for the state suburb of Electrona.
[ Electrona is also part of the Greater Hobart statistical area.
It is a small residential area on the ]d'Entrecasteaux Channel
The D'Entrecasteaux Channel is a body of water located between Bruny Island and the south-east of the mainland of Tasmania, Australia. The channel is the mouth for the estuaries of the Derwent and the Huon Rivers and empties into the Tasman S ...
in Southern Tasmania. It grew up around the Electrona Carbide Works which were established in 1909.
History
Electrona was gazetted as a locality in 1965. It is believed that the name was derived from the fact that a company making carbide
In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece.
Interstitial / Metallic carbides
The carbides of th ...
, the first electrolytic industry in Tasmania, was on this site.James Gillies
James McPhail Gillies, CM (2 November 1924 – 13 December 2015) was a politician and economist in Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1972 to 1979 who was elected in the Toronto, Ontar ...
began negotiations with the State government to permit the construction of a Hydroelectric Power Scheme at Tasmania's Great Lake, for the purpose of providing power for his newly patented zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
smelting process and a calcium carbide
Calcium carbide, also known as calcium acetylide, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula of Ca C2. Its main use industrially is in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide.
The pure material is colorless, while pieces of te ...
factory. Construction of the factory commenced in the vicinity of Snug, Tasmania
Snug is a small coastal town on the Channel Highway located south of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. At the , Snug had a population of 1440. Snug is a part of the Municipality of Kingborough, but with about 7% in the Huon Valley Council LGA. ...
in 1917, and shortly after the end of World War One the Electrona Carbide Works began production of "carbide" using lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
(from limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
), coke and electric arc furnace
An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc.
Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to ...
s. The carbide was used in the manufacture of acetylene gas. Gillies chose the name Electrona because of the electricity and electrodes used for smelting.
At the peak of production in the 1960s, the Works employed around 250 people. However, Gillies was unable to obtain sufficient liquidity to finish all of his planned electrification projects and, on the verge of bankruptcy, he lost control of the hydroelectric scheme to the Hydro Electric Department, a State Government department formed for the purpose of rescuing his scheme. The Hydro Electric Department later became the Hydro Electric Commission, then Hydro Tasmania
Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as the Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC) or The Hydro, is the trading name of the Hydro-Electric Corporation, a Tasmanian Government business enterprise which is the predominant electricity generator i ...
.[
] (The zinc smelter project was abandoned but later taken up again by another company and is currently operated by Nyrstar
Nyrstar is a global multi-metals business, with a market leading position in zinc and lead and growing positions in other base and precious metals, such as copper, gold and silver. Nyrstar has mining and smelting operations located in Europe, North ...
at Lutana, Tasmania.) In 1924 Gillies went into receivership and the Carbide Works was taken over by "the Hydro", and later by Electrona Carbide Industries Pty Ltd, who continued to operate it as such into the 1980s.
The Works were badly hit by the 1967 bush fires and with falling demand for carbide and multimillion-dollar losses from plant failure in 1979,silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...
smelter with a theoretical capacity of 10,000 tonnes/yr,[
] and produced metallurgical grade silicon "metal" from 1988. However, it was never able to make a profit
[
] and in August 1991, the plant was finally closed.
Geography
The waters of North-West Bay form the eastern boundary.
Road infrastructure
Route B68 ( Channel Highway) runs through from north to south.
Modern day
Electrona is currently home to some light industries and the residential area of Peggy's Beach.
References
{{Hobart suburbs, state=collapsed
Towns in Tasmania
Localities of Kingborough Council