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 Au ...

. 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 met ...

– the Metropolitan Gas Company 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 e ...

, one of only two remaining private gas companies in Victoria at the time. The Ballarat Gas Company 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 Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

.Gasworks Arts Park – History
/ref> The Lurgi Gasification Plant opened in Morwell in 1956, which used the German Lurgi process 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 Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

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 Coal ...

scattered throughout Melbourne and elsewhere, such as the

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

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, liquefie ...

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 carbo ...

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 waterwa ...

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

and

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

in 1965. The Longford gas plant 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 Victorian Energy Networks Corporation (VENCorp) was a Victorian State Government-owned entity established in December 1997 responsible for the efficient operation of gas and electricity industries in Victoria, Australia, within Victoria's p ...

. The Kennett Government subsequently

privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

the distribution, retail and transmission companies, along with the

State Electricity Commission of Victoria The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, ...

, 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 Origin Energy an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Australia’s largest coal-fired power station at Lake Macquarie, New ...

, AGL and TXU. The corporation's headquarters, the

Princes Gate Towers The Princes Gate Towers were a set of twin office tower blocks that were located at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. They were designed by architects Leslie M. Perrott and P ...

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