One Mile Creek Power Station | |
Coordinates: | -45.0364°N 168.6444°W |
Country: | New Zealand |
Location: | Queenstown |
Status: | Decommissioned |
Opening: | 18 September 1924 |
Dam Type: | Reinforced concrete arch |
Dam Height: | 12 m |
Plant Hydraulic Head: | 150 m |
Plant Turbines: | 1 x 60 kW |
One Mile Creek Power Station is a former hydro-electric generating station in Queenstown, New Zealand. The power station was commissioned in 1924 to provide electric power for lighting in Queenstown. A re-inforced concrete arch dam was constructed in One Mile Creek to divert water into a penstock that supplied a pelton wheel turbine in a powerhouse constructed near to the shore of Lake Wakatipu. The station was officially opened on 18 September 1924[1] and operated until 1966 when it was decommissioned. The headworks of the scheme were subsequently used by the Queenstown Borough Council for water supply purposes.[2]
A charitable trust was formed in 2002 to undertake restoration of the building and re-instatement of the generating equipment as a heritage project, and the work was completed in 2005.
The One Mile Creek Walk generally follows the steep route of the penstocks from the powerhouse up to the dam.[3] The walk passes through beech forest that is the closest area of native forest to Queenstown.[4]