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Portland


All down one side of the main street of Portland is closed off - industrial buildings, houses, parklands.  It is the site of the once thriving Portland Cement Works which sustained the town for 100 years and shut down in the 1990s.   It was essentially a company town.

Now Portland is a bit of a struggle town but is kept ticking by the nearby Mount Piper Power Station, mining and rural activities.

The previous government was going to expand Mount Piper Power Station which would have brought in an influx of 1000 or so workers into Lithgow and these surrounding towns during the construction phase.  I'm not sure where that got to, being coal powered there was plenty of opposition to it.  It will be part of the power sell off now.

See more of Portland over at 100 Towns.

Comments

  1. JulieJune 4, 2012 at 2:28 PM

    The shot of the fence is a great way of getting the point across. Not sure how the power sell off is going to progress ... or the bus sell off ... or ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethJune 5, 2012 at 5:54 PM

      The crazy thing is that if Morris had been able to sell the power assets we the taxpayers of NSW would have received a MUCH bigger price at the time. Now with the Carbon Tax, the Mining Tax and economic problems in Europe the price is a small fraction of what we would have got.

      The cost of generating electricity is too expensive for any government ... that is why the states are all selling them off to make better use of the funds.

      Delete
  2. PJJune 5, 2012 at 1:43 PM

    Who do they expect to buy it and what will they do with it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethJune 5, 2012 at 5:56 PM

      Hi Paula, I've explained about the power in response to your question on the previous post. I am not sure anybody would be interested in buying the old cement works which was always privately owned.

      Delete

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