page_title: Gas Stripping Tower
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gas Stripping Tower / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic view of the Gas Works on Beesley Street, South Brisbane 1935. The elongated view is accompanied by an engineering drawing of the site adjacent to the Brisbane River. The stripping tower near the centre of the photograph is now a heritage listed item, re-erected outside Davies Park.
context_page_description: The Gas Stripping Tower is a heritage-listed tower at 277 Montague Road, West End, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Robert Dempster & Sons Ltd and built in 1912. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: This demountable cast iron tower was manufactured in 1912 by Robert Dempster & Sons Ltd, of Elland, Yorkshire, and transported in segments to Brisbane, where it was erected at the West End Gasworks in Montague Road operated by the South Brisbane Gas & Light Company.
  The South Brisbane Gas & Light Company was established in 1885, in direct competition to the Brisbane Gas Corporation. Initially the companies supplied gas to both sides of the Brisbane River, but in 1889 agreement was reached whereby the BGC supplied the northside, and the SBGLC to the south of the river.
  As a result of growing demand for gas and the need to upgrade their facilities, in 1911 the company sent their principal engineer to Britain to assess the latest in gas production technology. The decision to erect a stripping tower was a result of this visit.
  The tower was used in the removal of tar and ammonia from raw coal gas. Gas was piped into the base of the tower, from where it rose to the top via a series of internal baffles over which water was sprayed from a header tank at the top of the tower, stripping the gas of coal tar and ammonia in the process. The liquid was drained via a water seal at the bottom, and sold as ammonia liquor.
  By 1949 more sophisticated techniques were being employed to remove impurities from gas, and the tower was no longer used. With the availability of natural gas to Brisbane in the 1970s, the company's Montague Road works were made redundant and in 1975 most of the structures on the site were demolished.
  In the same year the stripping tower was acquired by the National Trust of Queensland, who dismantled the structure and stored it pending availability of a suitable relocation site. In 1979, it was reassembled in Davies Park, approximately 150 metres (490 ft) from its original position. In 1988, Allgas Energy Ltd (formerly the South Brisbane Gas & Light Company) refurbished the tower and landscaped the surrounding area, as a bicentennial gift to Brisbane.
  Although relocated, the tower survives as the only one of its type in Australia.
caption: Gas stripping tower in its original context in South Brisbane, 1935
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