Power for the People: A history of electricity in Sydney

Picture the two men, standing opposite each other on the canvas mat, testing their experiments by giving each other electric shocks.

"Ready, Mr Banks?"

"Yes Mr Solander...OUCH!"

In the ensuing years a few sporadic attempts were made to harness what was then a new and exciting phenomenon.

In 1863 Sydney celebrated the marriage of the Prince of Wales by erecting an arc lamp on Observatory Hill. The Observatory Hill lamp was so bright people claimed that they could read a newspaper by it one mile away…probably a slight exaggeration.

Fifteen years later Sydney and Melbourne were locked in a battle over which city would hold the first International Expo. Sydney trumped Melbourne by importing several electric generators from England so that building work on its Expo site, the Garden Palace in the Domain, could continue 24 hours a day.

Soon private companies began setting up generators, mainly to light street arcades - the Strand Lighting Company, for example. One of the Garden Palace generators was used to light Parliament House in Macquarie Street. The GPO also had its own generator.

A few wealthy people installed generators in their homes. It was quite a party trick for the electric lights to be switched on suddenly halfway through a dinner party. The ladies present were taken aback because their complexions showed so much more than in candlelight and they had to learn new make-up techniques. Fashions changed too because of the brighter light. Shot taffeta became all the rage because it reflected the new electric light.

In 1887 a big moment for Sydney occurred when the Lord Mayor asked the Postmaster General to extend his electric power at the GPO to a lamp above a horse trough outside the GPO in George Street. Small step though this may have been for horses passing down George Street, it was a giant stride for electricity. It was Sydney's first permanent electric streetlight.

In 1888 Tamworth became the first city in the southern hemisphere to install public street lighting. Sydney was starting to lag behind.

By 1890 the NSW Railways opened its own power station and began electrifying the tram service. Trains weren't electrified until 1926.

By 1891 the towns of Young, Penrith, Moss Vale and Broken Hill had all set up their own electricity supply systems. More embarrassingly, Redfern, so close to the Municipality of Sydney, had built its own powerhouse - and it still stands today. Balmain also had its own powerhouse.