The Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria (G&FC) was a government-owned monopoly supplier of household gas in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

. It was established in 1950 and took over two of the three main gas utilities in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

– the

Metropolitan Gas Company The Australian state of Victoria has a number of defunct energy supply and distribution utility companies. The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated an electri ...

and the Brighton Gas Company. As part of the conversion to natural gas, in 1971 the corporation acquired the

Geelong Gas Company The Geelong Gas Company was a private company set up to produce and distribute town gas in the city of Geelong. From a gasworks in North Geelong it converted coal into town gas for use in homes and industry. The company was founded in 1858 and ...

, one of only two remaining private gas companies in Victoria at the time. The

Ballarat Gas Company The Australian state of Victoria has a number of defunct energy supply and distribution utility companies. The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company The North Melbourne Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated an electri ...

closed at the time. The G&FC was wound up in June 1995.

Consolidation

One of the first tasks of the corporation was the construction of a centralised

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

fueled gasification plant at Morwell.Gasworks Arts Park – History
/ref> The Lurgi Gasification Plant opened in Morwell in 1956, which used the German

Lurgi process Lurgi can refer to: * Lurgi AG : The German Chemical and construction company * the Lurgi process for making gas from carbonaceous fuel under high pressure * Lurgi generator - a device used to produce gas from coal (see Gasification Gasificati ...

to produce gas, that was transferred to Melbourne via a high pressure gas pipeline.Technology in Australia 1788-1988
/ref> Construction of the Morwell plant led to the closure in 1957 of a number of town gas producing

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coa ...

scattered throughout Melbourne and elsewhere, such as the South Melbourne Gas plant, some of which became gas storage sites. The production of

Syngas Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in various ratios. The gas often contains some carbon dioxide and methane. It is principly used for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as ...

started in the 1950s, which is a process that converted waste gases from

oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquef ...

to a useful energy product. In 1966, 30% of gas was being produced from residual oil, 30% from refinery gas and LPG, 30% from Lurgi gas, and less than 10% by carbonization of black coal.

Natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

was discovered in

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct wat ...

Esso Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...

and BHP in 1965. The

Longford gas plant Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

acted as the onshore receiving point for oil and natural gas output from production platforms in Bass Strait. By 1969 the production plant and distribution network were complete, allowing natural gas to be sold to consumers, and a natural gas conversion program took place over the next 20 months, ending in December 1970. The conversion to natural gas required the conversion of around one million gas appliances, and resulted in over 1,000 workers becoming redundant. All the gas plants and storage sites in Melbourne and regional centres were closed down and the sites sold.

Privatisation and winding up

In July 1997 the Gas and Fuel Corporation was broken up into three divisions: gas distributor and retail companies, a gas transmission company and an independent market operator, VENCorp. The Kennett Government subsequently privatised the distribution, retail and transmission companies, along with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Victoria's main electricity utility. The G&FC was wound up in June 1995. Gascor acted as a gas wholesaler, purchasing gas from Esso/BHP and on-selling it to private sector gas retailers Origin Energy, AGL and

TXU TXU or txu may refer to: *TXU Corporation (formerly "Texas Utilities") a USA group companies **TXU Energy, energy generation subsidiary of TXU Corp. **TXU Energi, subsidiary of TXU Europe, formerly "The Energy Company" *txu, ISO:639 code for the K ...

. The corporation's headquarters, the Princes Gate Towers on Flinders Street, built in 1967, were demolished in 1997 to make way for the

Federation Square Federation Square (colloquially Fed Square) is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district. It covers an area of at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets built above busy ra ...

development.

Consolidation

Privatisation and winding up

References

Further reading