East Perth Gas Works was built in 1922 for the

Perth City Council The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth metropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government is commonly known as Perth City Council. The City covers the Perth city centre and sur ...

to produce

town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

from

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, supplying the city of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It could initially supply of gas per day. It was built on the site of the earlier 1886

Perth Gas Company Perth Gas Company was a gas producer in Perth, Western Australia. It had plant in East Perth that was constructed in 1886, and superseded by new operators and plant in 1922. The company conducted a range of improvements and modifications to its ...

plant. The works was situated on the north bank of

Claise Brook Claise Brook is a stream which empties into Claisebrook Cove before running into the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia. The area surrounding the stream is on the outskirts of the Perth CBD and is part of the suburb of East Perth. Claise ...

and operated until its decommissioning in 1971. It was dismantled over a number of years, and the landmark 20-sided

gasometer A gas holder or gasholder, also known as a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas (coal gas or formerly also water gas) is natural gas storage, stored near atmospheric pressure at room temperature, ambient temperatures. ...

known as the "No. 2 Cityholder" was removed in 1985. As a result of the processes in its operation, land surrounding the works was badly contaminated with

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is any member of a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple fused aromatic rings. Most are produced by the incomplete combustion of organic matter— by engine exhaust fumes, tobacco, incine ...

s (PAHs). From the mid-1980s, a major

environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...

project on behalf of the

State Energy Commission of Western Australia The State Energy Commission of Western Australia was an Australian energy provider. It was established on 1 January 1975 as an amalgamation of the State Electricity Commission of Western Australia and the Fuel and Power Commission.

, which owned the land, was undertaken to remove the contaminated soils created by the works. Remediation included dredging of of adjacent riverbeds and removal and treatment of of soil.

References

{{reflist East Perth, Western Australia Oil and gas companies of Australia