Thankyou, My grandfather was an industrial chemist there. I remember him talking about the retorts. I still have his PhD Thesis on sulphur content of the shale oil.
Thanks again Graeme, a well run tour and fascinating site. A few people out there interested in the site and tour, I told them to head over to glendavis.com.au and get in touch with you.
Very informative, well done. Beautiful rugged country out there and not hard to see how attractive it would have been for the bushrangers out that way. The shale oil industry was certainly big in the day. Visitors to Katoomba's Scenic Railway often don't realise it was originally bulit to move coal and shale out of the Valley.
Great video! Brings back memories of my few trips in the late 90s to bushwalk the pipeline track from newnes to glen davis. Great canp sites and just so peaceful. Walking around the town in the late afternoon sun was spectacular. A bit creepy looking some of the manequins in the abandoned shop windows, brought back memories of some abandoned nuclear test area i recalled at the time. Thanks for showing this place so i can vicariously enjoy it again. 😊
Visited this site in 1968 with the 1st Naremburn Scout Group on a long weekend, the campsite had a shop, the one you showed earlier you could buy pies, drinks and sweets. The campsite was full of people many dozens, we went in cars to the shale works, the buildings were in a much better state than they are now we were free to roam around in them.
Sounds like it remained an interesting place to visit for some time, surprised the shop was still in operation 10 + years later. I imagine nature will continue to take back the works, even today some of buildings aren't faring the best. Hopefully some basic restoration/preservation can be done to keep it around a while longer. Thanks for watching and sharing!
I Don,t know if the the tour guide told you but the retorts used at Glen Davis were the retorts used at Newnes, they were dismantled and transported to Glen Davis by road, some of the buildings used in the town were also brought over from Newnes I know was the jail, cheers
Interesting to know cheers, he might have mentioned it but there was alot to take in on the day. Still crazy to think there was so much going on around that area back in the day. Planning to check out Newnes soon as well...
You’re right, trouble was, that same equipment was outdated by the time they moved it which contributed to the mine closing. In 1972 a group of us went down the mine at the top of the hill on the right at the end of the cement road. Pretty scary but at 18 years of age we were not to bright either 😂
We used to take our trail bikes up here to Glen Davis and camp of a weekend in the early 70s and ride through the valley to the Newnes Hotel along the fire trails. One Saturday, these two blokes rocked up in two Landrovers with boats on their roofs. We gave them a hand to put them in the Capertee River and they said they were going down the Colo River to Windsor. We thought they were a pair of wankers as it was so far. We had no idea who they were until six months later a doco was on the tele called “The Leyland Brothers journey down the Colo River by Mike and Mal Leyland”. LOL. 😂
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial I've been trying to find the show but so far no luck The had outboard motors but seemed to spend a lot of time dragging their boats over shallows and logs for memory when it was on TV.
Very well put together video. A visit to Newnes nearby is also worth it, at least it was in the 1960s. I had a schoolteacher in the 1950s who spoke of visiting Newnes township and works soon after it was closed in 1928 (it was re-opened in WW2). The workers and townspeople had just walked away when the plant shut, offices with ledgers open at the last entry, homes still half furnished almost with the last meal on the table. Strange the talk in acres, a hectare is 100 metres square, acres are hard to envisage, and not an SI unit.
Newnes is on the list, will try and do a video when I make it there. It's been a few years since then, I believe most of it is incomplete buildings now, hectares do seem logical but alot of rural properties still get referenced in acres, not sure why. Cheers for watching 👍
I'll watch this later with the missus. We've been to the public area before. Might go back if the tour still runs. Mums relative owned a horse property here somewhere. Dunno where though.
Very close, planning to go back soon. Will hopefully have a look around Glen Alice, and check out the Woolshed Ruins and Genowlan Point. It's another full video in itself right there.
There is an early 70s or 80s Australian movie called The Chain Reaction that was filmed here at Glen Davis staring Steve Bisley. Great car chase scene to.
Hey mate will I need a 49ers to get here? I’ve only got a creator but I push it to its limits, the road you drove in on looks bumpy but doable… just wondering if tour guide has any rules
Hey, you don't need a 4WD to access. The road beyond the gate is a couple of hundred metres and doable in a normal car. The drive into Glen Davis is sealed road + a little bit of good condition dirt road in the town. Worth doing the tour 🤙
There is a booklet that used to be able to purchase giving a rough history of the site when it was operating there was another refinery not to far away but that is gone. The retorts were round vessels the furnces shown would heat air which was pumped thru the retort to vapourize the shale oil.
I think the book is still available to purchase online, you might be thinking of Newnes which is towards Lithgow. Hoping to make my way there eventually and hopefully put a video up, thanks for watching 🤙
No both refineries Glen Davis was built after Newnes a lot of equipment was bought from Newnes. Most of the usable plant at Glen Davis was moved up tp Matraville for BORAL in 1947 they were all cheap skates in those days. The BORAL Refinery operated from 1947 in various names up until 1984. When I got retrenched allong most of the staff.
Fascinating video. Thanks heaps for putting it all together! No offence. But the background music is a tad to high and some extra narration about what is being shown, wouldn’t hurt. The pop up info screens, disrupts the “story Some more “live” sound ,would also be a treat. 👍🏽
Thanks for watching, no worries. All good, I've had similar feedback and working on getting the sound balance right. I definitely think there's a difference on which device it's watched on. TV vs Phone/Laptop and headphones etc. Will hopefully have more live shots and sound in upcoming videos 🤙.
The Glen Davis Camping Area is a donation (Goes towards keeping it clean/maintaining the toilet block), otherwise 5 minutes down the road is Coorongooba Campground in Wollemi NP which is $6 a night.
In the 50/60,s a lot of test wells where sunk around Australia then capped off with the drill crews being put under non disclosure agreements and the results, maps and geo tech data disappeared, we are sitting not just on the great artisan basin but more crude than even the Saudis has. Just a thought good people, thanks for listen the artists and music.
Not just here, all over Australia, IT was seen as un economical ie we couldn't compete vs overseas oil at the time, so they capped them and either treated them as "strategic reserves" or just make money when the price is high enough wells. Problem with the bs strategic reserve rubbish is that we shut all the refineries. So now we are building huge tanks up northern aus but get this, Not for us, For the bloody yanks. So if they start ww3 with god knows who they choose, we wont have oil, but the bloody yanks will thanks to us.
My nephew was working at Moree and he was staying in the motel there while setting up a retail store. While sitting in the restaurant waiting for his meal to arrive he struck up a conversation with some drillers at the next table. Jokingly the nephew said to the drillers "Found any oil yet"? the reply was "Well we capped every one we dug"!
Jesus christ....no. I work in oil and gas and we cap ( P&A) any well that isn't up to scratch. This endless rumour about seas of oil under Australia are BS. The reason any crew would be made to shut up about it would be for investor relations, companies drilling dry holes or wet holes do not want anyone to know until they are ready.
I believe a husband and wife own the works as part of a bigger 200 acre lot, they run a B&B and graze cattle on the other sections. It's currently on realestate.com.au for sale.
The mountains are definitely something else, my understanding is it's part of the bigger Sydney basin and the cliffs were formed by water erosion millions of years ago. The shale is the result of mud and organic material being compressed over time at the bottom the ocean.
If you would like to know the history of the geology at Glen Davis I would recommend you get the DVD called "Australia The Time Travellers Guide:. It is a fascinating video and talks about a miriad of things but especially the building up of the Eastern Australian Seaboard from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. Prior to that Lake Eyre was ocean. I think that was around 400 million years ago. PS. I lived at Glen Davis for a few years back in the late 60s to early seventies. Back in those days the Web Family owned the old works. I doubt the retorts were transported from Newnes as there was a brick works at Glen Davis and the time taken to dismantle and clean the old bricks would have been prohibitive. Perhaps the steel liners could have been relocated. My great uncle was an engineer there for some years between the wars.
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial True about the shale. I'm on the Illawarra Escarpment area not tht ar from where Captain Cook noted the coal protruding from cliffs when he sailed by. Have often smelt shale oil when digging in shaley ground...it is usually indicative of the presence of coal nearby.
The area was built up by techtonics and vulcanism. All of the eastern seaboard is ancient sea bed heaved up to create the Great Dividing Range. The sandstone is ancient sea floor and the limestone comes from ancient coral reefs etc.. I have recently returned from a holiday out around Gunnedah and Siding Springs. I went for a tour through the Anglo Australian Telescope out there and had an opportunity to view the surrounding area from the catwalk on top of the base of the Telescope. Now there is some really fascinating geology and an astounding view as well. I can highly recommend that one.
Thankyou, My grandfather was an industrial chemist there. I remember him talking about the retorts. I still have his PhD Thesis on sulphur content of the shale oil.
Thank you for summarizing the tour I conducted of the Glen Davis Shale Works Ruins.
Thanks again Graeme, a well run tour and fascinating site. A few people out there interested in the site and tour, I told them to head over to glendavis.com.au and get in touch with you.
I lived down at Glen Alice in the early 60 I love the valley
It's a top spot, will hopefully be back to explore Glen Alice soon...
Very informative, well done. Beautiful rugged country out there and not hard to see how attractive it would have been for the bushrangers out that way.
The shale oil industry was certainly big in the day. Visitors to Katoomba's Scenic Railway often don't realise it was originally bulit to move coal and shale out of the Valley.
Thanks for watching, definitely alot more industry around the area back then!
Great video! Brings back memories of my few trips in the late 90s to bushwalk the pipeline track from newnes to glen davis. Great canp sites and just so peaceful. Walking around the town in the late afternoon sun was spectacular. A bit creepy looking some of the manequins in the abandoned shop windows, brought back memories of some abandoned nuclear test area i recalled at the time. Thanks for showing this place so i can vicariously enjoy it again. 😊
It's a top spot for camping, thanks for watching 🤙
Visited this site in 1968 with the 1st Naremburn Scout Group on a long weekend, the campsite had a shop, the one you showed earlier you could buy pies, drinks and sweets.
The campsite was full of people many dozens, we went in cars to the shale works, the buildings were in a much better state than they are now we were free to roam around in them.
Sounds like it remained an interesting place to visit for some time, surprised the shop was still in operation 10 + years later. I imagine nature will continue to take back the works, even today some of buildings aren't faring the best.
Hopefully some basic restoration/preservation can be done to keep it around a while longer.
Thanks for watching and sharing!
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial The camp ground was very busy may have only operated weekends, no really sure.
Great video. there was a tour you could do of the abandoned shale mine in Joadja NSW that was good too!
Thanks for watching, yeah I've heard it's a good tour as well. Haven't done much exploring down that way yet.
Really scenic and great documentary.
It's a top spot, thanks for watching 🤙
I Don,t know if the the tour guide told you but the retorts used at Glen Davis were the retorts used at Newnes, they were dismantled and transported to Glen Davis by road, some of the buildings used in the town were also brought over from Newnes I know was the jail, cheers
Interesting to know cheers, he might have mentioned it but there was alot to take in on the day. Still crazy to think there was so much going on around that area back in the day. Planning to check out Newnes soon as well...
You’re right, trouble was, that same equipment was outdated by the time they moved it which contributed to the mine closing. In 1972 a group of us went down the mine at the top of the hill on the right at the end of the cement road. Pretty scary but at 18 years of age we were not to bright either 😂
Incredible video, We absolutely loved it, we subscribed #174 looking forward to seeing more, watching 👀 from Cradle Mountain🏔 Tasmania Australia🇦🇺🇦🇺 Cheers 🍻 KC 🇦🇺🦘🪃🏔🤗
Thanks for watching and subscribing, hoping to make it to Tasmania at some point 🤙
@OverlandDownUnderOfficial you're welcome and awesome looking forward to it 🍻🇦🇺🦘👍🏔
A nicely made, fascinating vid. Well done mate.
Cheers, thanks for watching
Thanks for posting 👍
No worries, thanks for watching/stopping by!
Fascinating property - thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching 🤙
Awesome video thankyou 👍
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!
We used to take our trail bikes up here to Glen Davis and camp of a weekend in the early 70s and ride through the valley to the Newnes Hotel along the fire trails. One Saturday, these two blokes rocked up in two Landrovers with boats on their roofs. We gave them a hand to put them in the Capertee River and they said they were going down the Colo River to Windsor. We thought they were a pair of wankers as it was so far. We had no idea who they were until six months later a doco was on the tele called “The Leyland Brothers journey down the Colo River by Mike and Mal Leyland”. LOL. 😂
Now that's an epic paddle, you're giving me ideas now. Will look into how far it is/what's involved. 🤙
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial I've been trying to find the show but so far no luck The had outboard motors but seemed to spend a lot of time dragging their boats over shallows and logs for memory when it was on TV.
I've been to Glen Davis but never got to the buildings a beautiful area
Very well put together video. A visit to Newnes nearby is also worth it, at least it was in the 1960s. I had a schoolteacher in the 1950s who spoke of visiting Newnes township and works soon after it was closed in 1928 (it was re-opened in WW2). The workers and townspeople had just walked away when the plant shut, offices with ledgers open at the last entry, homes still half furnished almost with the last meal on the table. Strange the talk in acres, a hectare is 100 metres square, acres are hard to envisage, and not an SI unit.
Newnes is on the list, will try and do a video when I make it there. It's been a few years since then, I believe most of it is incomplete buildings now, hectares do seem logical but alot of rural properties still get referenced in acres, not sure why. Cheers for watching 👍
I'll watch this later with the missus.
We've been to the public area before.
Might go back if the tour still runs.
Mums relative owned a horse property here somewhere.
Dunno where though.
My aunt is a Davis. They are the family that started Davis gelatine. They also built those works.
Interesting, have you had the chance to visit?
And you were so close to its sister town, Glen Alice. Next time you’re in the area, check it out. 🙏
Very close, planning to go back soon. Will hopefully have a look around Glen Alice, and check out the Woolshed Ruins and Genowlan Point. It's another full video in itself right there.
I visited the site for the auctions,I think in 1954 with my Dad.
Would have looked alot different back then, did you end up taking anything away?
@ I can’t recall.
There is an early 70s or 80s Australian movie called The Chain Reaction that was filmed here at Glen Davis staring Steve Bisley. Great car chase scene to.
Thanks for your video. I had only got to the gate before. Sorry the music was way too loud and the commentary way too soft.
Sorry about that, the sound should get better in the end. I'll make the commentary a bit louder on the next video, cheers for the feedback 👍
Agreed
Hey mate will I need a 49ers to get here?
I’ve only got a creator but I push it to its limits, the road you drove in on looks bumpy but doable… just wondering if tour guide has any rules
Hey, you don't need a 4WD to access. The road beyond the gate is a couple of hundred metres and doable in a normal car. The drive into Glen Davis is sealed road + a little bit of good condition dirt road in the town.
Worth doing the tour 🤙
How does one organise to do the tour? I love abandoned places and once visited Wittenoom in WA.
They run Saturdays from 5pm, visit glendavis.com.au. It's best to contact Graeme in advance 🤙
There is a booklet that used to be able to purchase giving a rough history of the site when it was operating there was another refinery not to far away but that is gone. The retorts were round vessels the furnces shown would heat air which was pumped thru the retort to vapourize the shale oil.
I think the book is still available to purchase online, you might be thinking of Newnes which is towards Lithgow. Hoping to make my way there eventually and hopefully put a video up, thanks for watching 🤙
No both refineries Glen Davis was built after Newnes a lot of equipment was bought from Newnes. Most of the usable plant at Glen Davis was moved up tp Matraville for BORAL in 1947 they were all cheap skates in those days. The BORAL Refinery operated from 1947 in various names up until 1984. When I got retrenched allong most of the staff.
Fascinating video. Thanks heaps for putting it all together!
No offence. But the background music is a tad to high and some extra narration about what is being shown, wouldn’t hurt. The pop up info screens, disrupts the “story
Some more “live” sound ,would also be a treat. 👍🏽
Thanks for watching, no worries.
All good, I've had similar feedback and working on getting the sound balance right. I definitely think there's a difference on which device it's watched on. TV vs Phone/Laptop and headphones etc.
Will hopefully have more live shots and sound in upcoming videos 🤙.
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial 👍🏽
Is it free camping or is there a charge, a big plus having a toilet/shower block, cheers.
The Glen Davis Camping Area is a donation (Goes towards keeping it clean/maintaining the toilet block), otherwise 5 minutes down the road is Coorongooba Campground in Wollemi NP which is $6 a night.
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial Cheers mate.
The road is now sealed. How civilised. It was dirt. A few fires have taken their toll.
In the 50/60,s a lot of test wells where sunk around Australia then capped off with the drill crews being put under non disclosure agreements and the results, maps and geo tech data disappeared, we are sitting not just on the great artisan basin but more crude than even the Saudis has. Just a thought good people, thanks for listen the artists and music.
Not surprised Australia would have oil given all the other resources we have. No worries, cheers for watching 👍
Not just here, all over Australia, IT was seen as un economical ie we couldn't compete vs overseas oil at the time, so they capped them and either treated them as "strategic reserves" or just make money when the price is high enough wells. Problem with the bs strategic reserve rubbish is that we shut all the refineries. So now we are building huge tanks up northern aus but get this, Not for us, For the bloody yanks. So if they start ww3 with god knows who they choose, we wont have oil, but the bloody yanks will thanks to us.
My nephew was working at Moree and he was staying in the motel there while setting up a retail store. While sitting in the restaurant waiting for his meal to arrive he struck up a conversation with some drillers at the next table. Jokingly the nephew said to the drillers "Found any oil yet"? the reply was "Well we capped every one we dug"!
Jesus christ....no.
I work in oil and gas and we cap ( P&A) any well that isn't up to scratch.
This endless rumour about seas of oil under Australia are BS.
The reason any crew would be made to shut up about it would be for investor relations, companies drilling dry holes or wet holes do not want anyone to know until they are ready.
Who owns the old building's now
I believe a husband and wife own the works as part of a bigger 200 acre lot, they run a B&B and graze cattle on the other sections. It's currently on realestate.com.au for sale.
wow look at those mountains, would love to know the geology of the area.
The mountains are definitely something else, my understanding is it's part of the bigger Sydney basin and the cliffs were formed by water erosion millions of years ago. The shale is the result of mud and organic material being compressed over time at the bottom the ocean.
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial thankyou for that . i looked at google maps and even from above its awesome.
If you would like to know the history of the geology at Glen Davis I would recommend you get the DVD called "Australia The Time Travellers Guide:. It is a fascinating video and talks about a miriad of things but especially the building up of the Eastern Australian Seaboard from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. Prior to that Lake Eyre was ocean. I think that was around 400 million years ago.
PS. I lived at Glen Davis for a few years back in the late 60s to early seventies. Back in those days the Web Family owned the old works. I doubt the retorts were transported from Newnes as there was a brick works at Glen Davis and the time taken to dismantle and clean the old bricks would have been prohibitive. Perhaps the steel liners could have been relocated. My great uncle was an engineer there for some years between the wars.
@@brucecliffe6213 yes will do and thankyou
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial True about the shale. I'm on the Illawarra Escarpment area not tht ar from where Captain Cook noted the coal protruding from cliffs when he sailed by. Have often smelt shale oil when digging in shaley ground...it is usually indicative of the presence of coal nearby.
ITs in a beautiful bloody spot isnt it, Thats be prime real estate there.
I thought the Bylong Valley was the oldest
Not sure about Bylong Valley, Capertee is wider but possibly not as old. Given how close they are, I imagine they share some geology.
Lucky you locked the cars!
😂 It's a habit more than anything, definitely no one around to take anything.
@@OverlandDownUnderOfficial A good habit to have just the same.
Use in a 1980 flim The chain reaction.
That it was for one of the chase scenes, it was also used as location for the TV show S.A.S Australia.
Meteor strike or water event
The area was built up by techtonics and vulcanism. All of the eastern seaboard is ancient sea bed heaved up to create the Great Dividing Range. The sandstone is ancient sea floor and the limestone comes from ancient coral reefs etc.. I have recently returned from a holiday out around Gunnedah and Siding Springs. I went for a tour through the Anglo Australian Telescope out there and had an opportunity to view the surrounding area from the catwalk on top of the base of the Telescope. Now there is some really fascinating geology and an astounding view as well. I can highly recommend that one.
Great video except the loud shitty music.
Cheers, still working on getting the audio balance right.
Dude sounds like he's never drank a beer in his whole life.............jokes. Dude sounds like he's based his whole personality off beer 😂
😂 Bonus points if you guess which beer?