Sydney's First Gasworks

The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was established on 7 September 1837, and built Sydney’s first gasworks on land in Jenkins Street on the foreshore of east Darling Harbour at Millers Point. At the time, Sydney had a population of only about 25,000 inhabitants.

Gas was manufactured from coal from the Hunter Valley, which was shipped in from Newcastle by colliers known as the 'Sixty Milers'. Gasmaking equipment was fully imported. Lacking colonial expertise, the company's directors, who included the Commanding Royal Engineer Major George Barney [Captain in 1836, promoted to Brevet Major in 1837], requested "working drawings of the gas works with the most explicit instructions for guidance in their erection". When the equipment arrived it was accompanied by James Bryan who had great experience and ability in gas engineering and who became Sydney's first gas engineer.

The first gas street lights were turned on in 24 May 1841 to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria.

The Millers Point Gasworks operated until 1921. Operations were cut short due to an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which necessitated the construction of a rat-proof wall running along the wharf and what became the thoroughfare of [the new] Hickson Road, which cut through the Gasworks site. Upon the facility’s closure, the operations of the Australian Gas Light (AGL) Company were transferred to the Sydney suburb of Mortlake.