Power walk with me: Travelling the grid
Until 1931 coal was mined only a couple of kilometres from the centre of Sydney – in Balmain – via shafts sunk several thousand feet beneath the harbour, and for much of the twentieth century imposing coal-fired power stations operated nearby, on Iron Cove and at White Bay. Coal-gas for street lighting, and later (with the advent of electricity) for cooking and heating, was produced up-river, at AGL in Mortlake.