Industrial Expansion
The area around Macquarie Point formed part of Wapping, a densely settled working-class neighbourhood built on low-lying land beside the Hobart Rivulet. Its location made it vulnerable to flooding, poor drainage and hygiene.
By the mid-1800s, working-class homes, boarding houses and pubs were increasingly displaced as factories and noxious industries became established nearby, including the Hobart Gas Works, slaughter yards and tanneries.
To the east, the slaughter yards comprised a large complex of holding yards, sheds and slaughterhouses supplying Hobart’s butchers.
It required more land than was available, and in response, the first phase of large-scale land reclamation was carried out. More than 87,000 animals were processed at the slaughter yards in one year during the early 1890s. The facility remained at Macquarie Point until 1909, when it was relocated to Glenorchy.
Image source: Hobart Town, 1879, A.C. Cooke, State Library of Tasmania, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, AUTAS001128189.
The Hobart Gas Company
The Hobart Gas Company was one of the first major industrial operations established in the area. Created by an Act of Parliament in 1854, the company manufactured gas to light Hobart’s streets.
Hobart became only the third place in Australia to manufacture gas. In March 1857, the city’s streets were lit by 220 gas lamps for the first time. A year later, gas was also being supplied to hotels, shops and other large institutions.
By the 1880s, increased demand led to a new plant, new equipment and an expanded site that eventually covered 3.1 acres. The gasworks, as it was known locally, came to dominate the area now known as Mac Point.
During its operation, coal tar and oils from the gasworks contaminated the ground with a range of chemicals, including heavy metals.
Image source: Hobart Railway Station Showing Lines, Back of Gas Works, Looking up Macquarie Street, c.1967, photographer unknown, Tasmanian Archives (TA), PH30/1/1339.