When the Gas came to Parramatta

 

The photograph shows the Congregational Church, corner Palmer and Church Street, the first church to use gas for lighting, and the plumbers next door, who specialised in the new gas stoves – photo taken in 1873.

At night, the streets of Parramatta were pitch black until the middle of the 1870’s;  only the dim gleam of a candle lantern hanging outside the Woolpack, the White Horse, or any other hotel, for they were required by law to keep a lamp burning for travellers.  The only public light in Parramatta was one the Council looked after, beneath the railway bridge on Church Street, were a single kerosene oil lamp was lit each evening and extinguished every morning.

Homes were lit using candles: quality candles were expensive but gave a good light (like candles today) but most people got by with tallow candles or slush lamps, both of which were smelly and provided poor light.  Kerosene, imported from the USA, was available from 1860 onwards but expensive, although every child knew the names and logos of the early Kerosene companies: Snow Flake, Evening Star and Light of the Ages, which were printed on the outside of the wooden boxes that the 32 litre Kero tins came in.  Cooking was still done in a fireplace, with or without a stove.

But some early Parramatta residents had gas from 1860, when Nathaniel Payten installed a Gasometer (the large container that holds gas) at his house Tara in George St, and he supplied some close neighbours with gas, although it is unknown from where he got the gas.  For the remainder, they would wait until 1873 when the Parramatta Gas Company started to supply gas from premises located near the Gas Works Bridge.  Gas was an immediate success for lighting, heating and cooking and wouldn’t be replaced by electricity until the 1920’s.