predator/tennyson.txt

File: Tennyson.txt
Cont: The report on the infiltration of the disused Tennyson power station
      in Brisbane, by Sydney Clan member <predator> 14 May 1999
See:  Il Draino 50th Edition      
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Tennyson Power Station - Another Northern Cave Clan Triumph

During a meeting at an elegant Sydney yacht club with retired Brisbane Cave
Clan member Sheep Feet, <predator> was given a clue to the whereabouts of yet
another chunk of the national grid. Sheep Feet mentioned that, during his 
employment in a REAL JOB, he became aware that there was a disused power 
station not ten minutes by train from the Brisbane CBD. Since <pred> was 
en-route to the abandoned Hydro Power Station at Kuranda (via the disused 
gas-turnine at Rockhampton), he decided he'd have a go at the local offering.
 
Entry is via a short walk from Yeerongpilly station to the northeast side of
Softstone St (UBD map 179 F-5) where one climbs over the fence and walks 
east along the grassy riverbank towards the riverside edge of the old 
brick building,  until one hears the loud 50Hz hum of lots of big 
transformers. These throbbing juggernauts are behind prison-bar gates, 
some of which are warped to permit entry to slimmer Clan members... 
larger persons will need to get down and dirty by getting in through the 
old coolant pipes which exit into a canal near the river, but this route 
is not recommended since this requires mud immersion, and some of these 
pipes are meshed to prevent access. These bars could be jacked or pried 
by the usual means but be quick, there is not a lot of cover. There is 
security on site but it is fairly inactive. There was notification of an 
intruder alarm but it doesnt seem to be active in the bulk of the station.

Once inside, ascend the stairs to what used to be the generator floor. 
The six 150 Megawatt generators were similar to, but larger than, the 
green giants in the Melbourne station, but they have been removed. Old 
tanks, oxy-cut beams, concrete mountains which once cradled massive pumps 
and motors adorn the floor. The walls have rails for a 120-ton crane 
parked at the west end of the generator hall. All is quiet except for the 
occasional pigeon. The understory is dark and and also denuded of 
machinery. It's as if the Borg have come and scooped all the machine 
elements out of the guts of the building. Eerie that the place should 
seem so dead. The offices where the control systems were housed have also 
been cleaned out, only the lino remains. The most amazing visage exists 
where all the boilers and heat-exchangers have been removed, eight 
stories of girders and beams jut and grasp into empty space as if trying 
to avoid the rigor mortis which has already overtaken them; industrial 
death-throes frozen in time... and it's so VAST.
 
Tennyson has not been entirely gutted. Some small areas, clothed in 
additional layers of locks, fence mesh, ominous warning signs and coils 
of razor wire. remain connected to the grid, and highly energised with 
the squillions of kilovolts which run Brisbane. Tennyson is now merely a 
switchyard for the juice which comes from the rest of SEQEB's network. I 
assumed that any intruder detection system would be focussed on these 
spots, so I avoided them and headded up ladders towards the roof.
 
Three floors up, what appears to have been the administration area is 
locked off with shiny, newly installed steel-bar doors but there didn't 
appear to be much of interest beyond them. I lacked lock-picks or a 
hacksaw so I used more staircases and reached the lower roof. This level 
has amusing doors which, if you walk through them, permit you a six story 
plunge to your impact-related death below, but otherwise the entertainment
value is a bit thin. More stairs and ladders take you to the middle roof, 
which has the footings to long-removed smokestacks, and holes which look 
ten stories down to the sub-basement. From this level one can also access 
the elevator shaft motors and also the conveyor belts and hoppers for the 
coal loader system, which is now mainly a gigantic pigeon-shit collector.

Cages ladders lead to the topmost roofs, from where one can see the 
Brisbane CBD skyline. You can also see huge alien crop rectangles where 
the main smokestacks used to be and, if you're lucky, you can see the 
bloody enormous Rottweiler inside the fenced-off compound where the 
security guard lives in his caravan. If it isn't inside, be quick and 
careful when you leave.

I tagged-up discretely and left the plant by the same tight squeeze 
through which I had come in. Walking east takes you to the electric fence 
operated by the DPIE, and walking south along this fence takes you to a 
convenient hole where it meets the fence for the railway line. The rottie 
has about 500 metres to run from the security compound to this hole and 
it will leave you more than enough time to get off the substation campus 
before it arrives. There is probably plenty more to explore at this place 
before it gets converted to yuppie hi-rise. In all, it's a nice bit of 
real estate, well worth the effort of fighting with the Queensland Rail 
system to get to it.

Next issue I'll write about the disused power station at Kuranda. 
<predator> would like to thank Brisbane Cave Clan man Sheep Feet for his 
tip-off. In a business where everyone knows some secret hole in the 
ground, but can't tell you where it is, accurate intelligence is always 
welcome.

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<predator> Cave Clan Sydney : December 23 1999