6 April 1910 City Refuse Destructor
6 April 1910 City Refuse Destructor
The Refuse Destructor for the Adelaide City Council in the Halifax Street Depot was completed on 6 April 1910, and incineration of the city's and inner suburb's refuse commenced on 20 June. Garbage was burnt in two furnaces designed to give perfect combustion. The hot gases then passed through two water tube boilers which generated power for use in other buildings and plant on the site. Surplus power was sold to the Adelaide Electric Supply Company (later the Electricity Trust). The site also contained a flag-making plant for footpath paving slabs, and a laundry and steam disinfector station to handle hospital linen.Residue from the furnaces was dumped in a pughole at Brompton.
This method of disposal was used until May 1954; since then all the city's rubbish has been taken to the Wingfield dump. Of the entire complex only the chimney remains although the site has recently been developed as medium density housing.
Susan Marsden, Paul Stark, Patricia Sumerling (eds), Heritage of the City of Adelaide, Corporation of the City of Adelaide, 1990,
pp. 213-214.