BURNIE MILL (1956)

[@gregorysagegreene]

Dad worked on the No.3 machine there at APPM and Mum sorted paper with rubber stops on her fingertips to prevent cuts in the 70's. I ran in the soft sand at 12 year old right in front of the acrid white smokestacks for my swimming endurance training. Grandfather had a house up on the hillside and sat on a stool at the shipsdeck kitchen window puffing on his pipe and watching the vessels come in far out in the bay. By the late 70's Dad saw the writing on the wall and we left Burnie and moved to lease the shop over at Turner's Beach. By the early '80's I joined the brain-drain and took my Stanza on the Bass Strait ferry to Melbourne overnight for a computer course. Nothing is the same.

[@margaretbird5310]

at 18 mins 10 sec you will see my new huband Allan, hard at work re-winding a special electric motor in the small 2 man motor rewinding workshop at APPM in 1956 :)

[@sancity4159]

00:18

[@paulillichmann2552]

The easterly wind made a mess of our washing

[@20centurymodern]

This is fascinating, thank you for uploading, literally writing a story on the mill and this video is great timing!

[@billypoppins9138]

When I was a kid in Burnie.. The stink was associated with my asthma

[@billypoppins9138]

The smoke was so thick that my grandmother would smoke the fish from the creek

[@Heath-Gallagher]

im all for manufacturing in this country because we are currently living a false dangerous life,only being propped up by imports from china....however the stink from this mill and the titanium oxide mill around the corner was repugnant and caused many health problems.

[@alanwalker359]

Saintburnieburg... All that mercury was dumped out in Emu bay correct ??

[@petermadden444]

When the Mercury Cell Plant was replaced with the Membrane Plant in 1988 the mercury was sold(expensive material). The mercury contaminated plant was encased in concrete and covered with soil. Was removed in recent years. There was always mercury losses into Emu Bay and the shell fish and seaweed were tested routinely and around 1990 the levels of mercury had dropped to background levels.