The Steamtug Blog

Having 4 days off in a row is too big an opportunity not to do something interesting with, so I headed north trying to escape the winter chills to the place that advertises more sunny days than the Goldcoast; Mildura Victoria. But it was even colder in the mornings, and not much warmer than Geelong through out the day. With not a breathe of wind, if you could find a sunny spot to stand with the sun on your back it was lovely. Like a lizzard on a rock, eh? I visited 2 steam pumping stations, a paddles steamer, and tried some nice local beers. Read on for more!

Psyche Bend pumping station

The pioneering days around Mildura were tough. The Mallee region of far north-western Victoria were much drier than the rest of the state, boarding the edge of the desert. The only saving grace, the biggest river in Australia; The mighty Murray River! In the late 1800’s a huge sheep station called “Mildura” was carved out of the Mallee scrub and after years of drought, followed by a rabbit plague closed down with substantial debts. It was obvious that farming techniques used in other parts of the state would not work here.

The minister for water, Mr Alfred Deakin (who later became the 2nd Prime minister of Australia and held this post 3 times!) was having a beer in a pub in Southern California when he got talking to a couple of Canadian boys, The Chaffey brothers who had just completed a project to irrigate the Southern Californian desert . He invited them to come over to Victoria and see what they could do. George Chaffey arrived in 1886 and chose Mildura as the site of the first irrigation project, and the settlement of Mildura was officially declared in 1887. The mightly Murray river was damned in several places, and pumping equipment was installed to bring the water of the Murray river up to irrigate the barren farm land. The temporary pumps at Psyche Bend, about 10 kms south of the Mildura township, were replaced with a permanent pump in 1891.

The Psyche Bend pump is 1000 hp, and drives 3 large pumps on a common shaft from the main crankshaft. The unusual engine was designed by the Chaffey boys, and built by the well known firm Tangye of Birmingham UK. It is a 4 cylinder triple expansion with the HP and IP cylinders in tandem configuration, with the 2 LP cylinders on either end. It uses a jet condenser, which mixes river water into the exhaust steam creating a vacuum to improve engine efficiency.

The engine valve gear is run from a separate valve shaft run by gears from the main crankshaft. It has a single, central eccentric driving the HP and IP valve gear from the front, while the big heavy LP slide valves have 2 eccentrics each located on either end of the valve shaft. The engine had some knock as it whirled around, but the engineer confessed to me later that it was the gears that drive the eccentic shaft. You see they come under load when all 4 eccentrics are lifting the LP valves on either end, but then when they fall down, they drive the shaft ahead of the gears until they clunk when catching up to lift again. Maybe a good handfull of ‘black-jack’ open gear compound might take up the slack….

Steam was originally supplied from 2 Babcock and Wilcox WIF boilers which were demolished when the station closed down in the early 1960’s when electric pumps were installed right next door. This has been replace by a boiler for a steam locomotive, which is now fired on oil. Fortunately, the beautiful brick building which looks like a church, and the intriguing engine survived. Although vandalised over the years with all the brass stolen, there was another engine further up the creek which was cannibalised for spare parts to get the Chaffey engine going.

Lock 9 Pumping station

While I was there, I got talking to the Chief Engineer, and after he discovered that I understood how it all worked, he mentioned people that we knew mutually through the world of steam. Once I had gained his confidence, he told me about another pumping station down stream about 60 kms at Lock 9. Here a group of boys were lighting up the boiler for the first time, and were planning to give the engine a run with the hope of opening this station to the public next year. He suggested I drive down and have a look.

I arrived there to find the man in charge just cracking some warming steam into the engine, and I was there to see her roll over. The engine is much smaller at 300 hp built by Thompson’s of Castlemaine and very similar to the generator engine at Lake Goldsmith which I restored and made go many years earlier; so I was familiar with the controls and workings of this engine. There are 2 large diameter pumps designed by George Michell, one of my engineering heroes but the pump coupling was disconnected, so the engine was running on it’s own.

Outside the building with a “lean to” over the top, was the boiler; a large under fired, the same as the boiler which supplies steam to the generator at Lake Goldsmith. It is fitted with a superheater which had to be bypassed because of too many leaks. When the safety valve for this boiler lifted at 80 lbs, rather low for a big triple expansion engine, I asked the boiler man… “Only 80 lbs eh?” he just looked at me and answered “It’s as much as we were game to give it until the boiler inspector comes and has a look to give us a ticket!” (Hmmm this made me feel a little nervous!)

As I was about to leave, the boiler man said to watch out for the chief as he was due back and didn’t have any brakes. I really didn’t understand what he meant until I saw the chief engineer flying down the dirt track in a 1927 Buick car. Boy, it sure scoots along for a car with bad brakes!

Paddle Steamer Industry

As I was almost on the South Australian border, and already half way to Renmark, I thought I would pop over and see the old paddle steamer Industry. She is one of my favourites with her huge boiler and big diagonal engines either side of the boiler. The boys there were just unwinding after a long day steaming for the holiday makers. They let me go aboard and stand and warm myself over the boiler. The last time I was here was with my Russian mate Evgeny a couple of years ago. (read previous post) But all this steam was making me thirsty, and the sight of the huge Renmark Hotel across the street was calling me!

I ventured over and summed up the beers on tap. I was interested to find a couple of local micro beers on tap, and the barman was very kind to give me a little sample. Well normally you get a sip in a thimble, but this barman was explaining how the dark ale was flavoured with wattle seed, as he poured me out half a big glass to try. In another glass he poured me the lighter ale again a half a glass! The lighter ale tasted a bit like my pale ale, a little less hoppy, but you could still taste cascade hops was used as the finishing hop. I had made my choice, so I said give me one of the dark ales. It has a very intriguing flavour….

As he grabbed a clean glass, I felt guilty about drinking the beer already had and him having to wash 3 glasses, but he said “No, I can’t afford not to give you a clean glass”. Of course this made no sense at all, so I insisted “It’s OK, it’s the same beer and only ME been drinking it” then he explained to me that the health department had made a law that if a fresh glass is not used, the barman and the establishment would both be fined $25,000! Now I have seen some crimes committed where the fine was not enough, like some hoon that took the police on a grand chase and smashed up some cars and stuff, and he got a fine of $1000. But of course that is not as shocking as serving beer in a recycled glass! $25000!!! You probably get less for murder!

The Road Home…

Just down the road from Mildura is Red Cliffs, which is the home to another famous pioneering marvel… Big Lizzie. She was built by this nut in Melbourne with the idea he would drive it around the outback collecting wool bales etc, and it would be better than the old fashioned bullock drays. They fitted it with an 8hp crude oil engine… big single cylinder put put, and calculated it would the blistering speed of 3 mph. But it only ever achieved 1 mph. But undetered, and with a turning circle of 200 feet, he headed off to the north west and drove this thing around for a few years moving all sorts of stuff. Just when everyone thought it was no longer good for anything, the local government gave it a job clearing Mallee scrub for the new soldier farm settlements they had proposed for the district. She was left rusting on an old farm for many years before being brought back to town and with a roof errected over the top, she now stands as a testiment to the pioneering spirit of the Mallee. It makes me remember the post I did about dumb things that were invented and made successful because we didn’t know any better (see previous post http://steamtug.com.au/2011/05/12/reminiscing-the-mechanical-marvels-of-yesteryear/)

The only stress on the jouney home was buying LPG for the car at Warraknabeal. My car doesn’t run on petrol only LPG and getting desperate for fuel, I found the good old Shell servo with LPG. So I stopped, but some farmer with a big trailer was blocking the LPG pump while he filled up with diesel. So I waited… no stress. He was gone for ages! And the pump on the other side became free, so I started up and drove around only to have another car shoot in before me for the diesel pump and block the LPG pump again. Grrrrr! So I drove around again and parked behind the trailer which had been there for a while now. Waiting…. waiting… then he comes out with his arms full of hamburger and chips, goes to the passenger side to distribute said merchandise, then slow makes his way to the drivers door. (No one is in a hurry in the bush!) Finally he gets in and fiddles with several things, stows his chips and finally drives off! So I pull up the required 2 metres to the gas bowser and connect. The LPG begins to flow slowly, then slows to a little less than a trickle. After a full 5 minutes (I could exagerate and say 10 but 5 is a long time when your hanging by your balls) so, after 5 minutes it had made it to half a litre, and 42 cents worth of gas. I stopped, disconnected and stormed into the counter. The 15 year old girl at the till just laughed at me… “Oh, only 42 cents worth today? Ha ha ha…” Her smile soon disappeared when I gave her a serve and told her about blocked bowsers and no gas. I then slammed 45 cents in change on the counter, told her to keep the change and stormed out. I bet she still feels sorry for me! (NOT!)

Finally neary home is the historic township of Clunes. Once a prosporous centres built with gold money during the gold rush, it’s typical of small victorian towns that have magnificent buildings and there is only about 30 people living there to enjoy them now. Anyway, thanks for reading… it’s time to refill my beer glass! Cheers!!

By the way… if this has whet your appertite, the world’s biggest steam extravagansa will be held right here in Victoria on the 3rd November at Lake Goldsmith when they celebrate their 100th steam rally! There are so many people talking about this event, it should be a hoot and one not to be missed by anybody remotely interested in anything vintage, being motorbikes, vintage cars, tractors, oil engines right up to the biggest steam ploughing engine. My contribution? I am planning to take the traction engine from the Geelong Showgrounds up for the 3 day weekend (Melbourne cup weekend). Hope to see you there! Download the brochure here…. http://www.lakegoldsmithsteamrally.org.au/downloads/100th_rally.pdf