Day 1: Lake Liddell

We drove off in the morning, and was pleasantly surprised that in the intervening years, the Hunter Expressway (the largest single road investment in the history of New South Wales) is finally finished (it opened in March 2014). This expressway is a 40 km dual carriageway connecting the F3 Freeway to the New England Highway west of Branxton.

We stopped by at Singleton for lunch at Hungry Jacks, and reached Muswellbrook earlier than expected in the afternoon. It was too early for dinner for we decided to stop by and visit the Liddell and Bayswater power stations.

Liddell Power Station is a coal-fired thermal power station that is expected to close sometime in 2023 [Update, decommissioned on 28 April 2023].

Liddell Power Station has had an interesting history. Built as part of a pair of power stations in the Musswellbrook region in New South Wales (the other being the Bayswater Power Station), Liddell Power Station Liddell was the most powerful generating station in Australia t the time of its completion in the early 1970s. Liddell was the first major power station in New South Wales to be built inland, using fresh water for cooling instead of the more abundant salt water used in coastal power stations.

It is currently owned by AGL Energy and has been estimated to emit 14.70 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning coal. In order to help combat climate change, AGL has announced it intends to close the station and replace it with a big battery and current plans are for this to happen by April 2023.

Lake Liddell is an artificial lake created to supply cooling water to the power station, and has been closed to the public because of brain eating amoeba.

I flirted with Russ, a local resident of the campground, who works as a miner. He tells me the Liddell power station is really pretty at night with the lights shining from across the lake.

When we were there, we also noticed a train carrying coal going across the tracks.

The nearby Bayswater Power Station is also a coal-powered thermal power station and is still operating.