Gaslight was first introduced to Sydney in the 1820s and to Melbourne in the 1840s by various individuals who set up small plants which could supply a single establishment. The more complex problem of manufacturing gas and distributing it throughout a whole town, however, was first addressed by the Australian Gas Light Company, which was formed in 1837 to light the streets of Sydney. With a part-convict population of less than 30,000 Sydney lacked a municipal council when this Company first lighted its lamps. Thus on 24 May 1841, the first night of reticulated gas supply in Australia, of the 181 lamps lighted only 22 were street lights. Formed in 1842, Sydney's Corporation began systematic lighting of the city four years later.

In Melbourne, the City of Melbourne Gas Coke Company was formed in 1850, but the Company's affairs were disrupted by the onset of the Victorian gold rush in 1851. Consequently, gas supply was not begun until 1 January 1856. Hobart was the next of the colonial capital cities to enjoy gas lighting (1857) followed by Adelaide (1863), Brisbane (1865) and Perth (1885).

Regarded as a mark of civilisation and prosperity gaslight was soon in demand in the provincial centres of Australia. Foremost in this rush for modernity were the Victorian towns of Kyneton, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Talbot, Bendigo and Geelong. Each of these towns enjoyed the benefits of gaslighting by 1860 and most had to cart the necessary coal in by road -for in the gold towns, the gasworks preceded the railway, that other important measure of municipal progress.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering