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| A reverberatory incinerator uses a vertical top gravity feed process. It was an Australian patented design by Essendon engineer John Boadle. It achieved much higher efficiency preheating and partly drying the refuse whilst it moved down a sloping, vibrating grate within the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber was designed to ‘reverberate’ heat on to the incoming refuse. The vertical top gravity feed process required incinerator buildings to be built on steeply sloping sites or embankments. |
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| So, yes, in answer to Letty's query of yesterday, an incinerator for burning stuff, just not amputated legs! Household refuse and sanitation bins. As you can see from the clipping, there were NIMBYs in those days, too. Eventually these complaints became a crescendo and the incinerator was stopped in 1974. It was converted into a restaurant for a few years, then a set of offices for architects, then it remained empty for a decade. Then Willoughby Council came to the rescue, and voila, The Incinerator Art Space. |
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6 comments:
You got me thinking about incinerators yesterday (how do I spend my Sundays? Thinking about incinerators!!) and when I was talking to my Mum on the phone, I told her what she had told me all those years ago. She then went on to describe in great detail how the rubbish men used to run down the driveway to the back of the house, collect the rubbish - apparently they had a bin into which they emptied your bin and then it went into the truck which went down to the Mort St incinerator. Mum has a great eye for detail (me, not so much).
I don't really remember all that. I think by the time I could remember, burning stuff had come to a halt.
Imagine the things they must have burnt!!!
Anyway, it's kind of interesting to me how the word "incinerator" is reflected in the design of the building. You know; "incinerator" is a sharp, jagged, spare kind of a word - just like the building.
Hi Julie. Interesting to see this – I used to pass it regularly back in the fifties when I was growing up in Neutral Bay. I'm also enjoying your Castlecrag meanderings – in fact, in making a relatively local area so interesting, you've inspired me to start a new blog about where I live.
All it needs is a cross and it could pass for a modernistic church.
Gee. A reverberating incinerator to a restaurant and then an art piece. This building has had a few incarnations. I wonder what the restaurant was called?
From a dump to a restaurant, the mind boggles. Good idea to turn it into an art space though.
Hah! Joe, it was called ... wait for it ... wait for it ... 'The Incinerator Restaurant' ... according to Willoughby Council here http://www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Community/Facilities/Willoughby-Incinerator/site-information/
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