a subsidiary of  

Located in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, 130km west of Sydney

NEWNES JUNCTION OIL STORAGE TANKS

By Mark Langdon, published in Zig Zag Railway's Magazine, Switchback, Issue 117, Sept 2005 With the build up of military forces in Australia following the entry of Japan into the Second World War, there was a corresponding increase in demand for petrol, which was the lifeblood of modern armies. To meet this demand it had been determined in April 1942 that storage facilities for an extra 46,000,000 gallons of motor spirit would be required by the end of October 1942.1 To hold this fuel new storage facilities would need to be constructed that would fit in with the operational plans of the army and eight sites were selected around Australia at Townsville, Gladstone, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Port Pirie and Albury, but only one, at Newnes Junction, would not be located at a coastal port. Priority would be given to the facilities in Queensland and Western Australia, with the tanks in Townsville the first to be built.2 Although the exact reason for selecting Newnes Junction is uncertain it appears that it stems from a request from the army in March 1942 to use the National Oil Company's storage tanks at both Glen Davis and Newnes Junction to store petrol then held in Sydney. The government expected Japanese raids on the Sydney storage depots and wished to 'difuse' this petrol about the country. National Oil had the capacity to store three million gallons of petrol,3 the capacity proposed for the new storage facility at Newnes Junction. In order to make use of their expertise, final site selection, construction and operation of the new storage facilities would be delegated to the major oil companies operating in Australia.4 However, construction of the new tanks was delayed owing to a shortage of suitable steel and ultimately a standard design of tank that made best use of the available resources evolved. Each tank would have capacity of one million gallons,5 with a concrete outer shell and a steel liner, with the steel plate coming from refugee cargoes,6 cargoes that had originally been bound for areas now occupied by the Japanese. Responsibility for site selection at Newnes Junction was jointly delegated to the Commonwealth Oil Refineries and the Vacuum Oil Company7 and their construction engineers were at Newnes Junction early in May 1942.8 However, in the following month, the work was re-allocated amongst the oil companies and the Commonwealth Oil Refineries became solely responsible for the Newnes Junction site.9 Three, one million gallon capacity tanks were to be erected at Newnes Junction, with the sides of each tank lined with half inch mild steel plate and eight inches of reinforced concrete, while the tank bottoms were unlined reinforced concrete with a water seal. A concrete pump house was located adjacent to the tanks, while a twelve thousand gallon capacity gravity feed tank and a subsidiary pump house were to be built next to the up sidings at Newnes Junction Railway Station. To enable the transfer of petrol to rail tank cars,10 six filling points were located next to National Oil's loading facility.11 Also on site was a concrete office building and a foam generator house.12 In 1942 the Department of the Army requested the New South Wales Railways to recondition the first fifty-one chains (1000m) of the Wolgan Valley Railway,13 most likely so that materials for the new tanks could be delivered along this section of line direct to the work site. In May 1943 construction of a vehicle filling point that would enable four road tankers to be filled simultaneously was also commenced on the Chifley Road below Newnes Junction.14 However, the three tanks and associated facilities were not ready until December 1943,15 having cost over £86,000 to build.16 The National Oil company was then asked if they would safeguard the tanks until they were brought into use,17 but it appears that the facility was never used as the twelve thousand gallon gravity tank was not installed,18 nor, apparently, was the vehicle filling point completed.19 Finally, in September 1944, it was proposed that a portion of the fuel depot be dismantled and used elsewhere.20 This proposal was apparently not proceeded with and it was not until December 1946 that the Joint Planning Committee of the Department of Defence discussed the future use of all the bulk storage depots that had been built during the war. It considered that only the tanks at Alice Springs, Tocumwal and Wallangarra be retained and the remainder be disposed of as there was no strategic reason for their retention21 (these three facilities had been built earlier in the war using a number of standard twelve thousand gallon steel tanks22). In November 1947 the complete facility was offered to National Oil,23 however their existing facilities were sufficient to meet their requirements and they declined the offer.24 The Commonwealth Government then circularised all the major oil companies,25 with the offer of the Commonwealth Oil Refineries being accepted to purchase all of the removable assets, including the twelve thousand gallon steel tank, all the pipelines and associated fittings and the 'Simplex' Airfoam plant for a price of £1,550.26 With the main storage tanks remaining unsold the commonwealth government then purchased, in 1950, five acres of land surrounding them to avoid the cost of their demolition27 (an area of over twelve acres had originally been leased for the depot). Efforts were again made to sell the site in 1965,28 but it apparently remained the property of the commonwealth government until it was eventually sold to Clarence Colliery.

Updated 14 November 2008