
Thargomindah, Queensland – a little town with an Aussie first!
Do you know the FIRST place in Australia to produce hydro electricity? It wasn’t the Snowy Hydro Scheme, or near a city. Thargomindah – a tiny town in the south west corner of Queensland claims it was not only the first town in Australia, impressively, it was third in the world! Drilling began in 1891, with the bore struck in 1893. Hydro-electric powered the street lighting from 1898-1951 by using the water pressure from the Artesian Basin. This Artesian Hydro Power Plant is believed to be the oldest working unit in Australia, and possibly the world! You can see close up a windmill and a decommissioned oil “donkey”. You can