Report of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales.

  • New South Wales. Department of Public Health.
Date:
[1958]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    89/160 (page 89)
    Monitoring Stations Deposit Gauges The results of the dust-fall measurements carried out in Sydney and Newcastle during 1958 are shown in Tables 2.1 and 2.2. Owing to staff difficulties it was not possible to resume measurements in the Port Kembla-Wollongong area until very late in the year and no useful results, other than those obtained in 1954-1955, are yet available. However, it is anticipated that the survey in that area will be re-established on a somewhat larger scale than previously in the early part of 1959. At several points in Sydney and Newcastle deposit gauge measurements have been in progress since the latter part of 1953 and in some cases upward or downward trends are evident. Figure 2.1 shows the mean dust-fall (water insoluble solids) values for Sydney and Newcastle during the five year period from the beginning of 1954 to the end of 1958. The Sydney values are calculated from all stations, which have been continuously monitored, within two miles radius of the city’s central area. Newcastle represents the six points where continuous results are available, namely, Civic, Mayfield, Tighes Hill, Stockton, Broadmeadow and Kotara. There has been an apparent overall reduction in the Sydney area, though the trend is not uniform. Only at Martin Place, Potts Point, Pyrmont and Rozelle have statistically significant reductions occurred. At Waterloo, Darlington and Darling Point the average readings in 1958 were lower than 1954 but the values did not meet the usual tests of statistical significance. The results in the Central Railway area were unchanged while George Street North and Paddington both showed some increase in dust-fall. At Newcastle, as the figure shows, the trend has been upward with the exception of the 1957 to 1958 period. Statistically significant increases have occurred at the Newcastle stations other than Stockton and Kotara, where in both cases the results are unchanged. Sydney’s reduction in grit and dust-fall is probably partly attributable to the lessening in production from the older electric power stations particularly White Bay and Pyrmont. The latter has virtually ceased to operate in recent years. It is more difficult to determine the reason for the increase in deposited pollution in Newcastle other than the possible effects of increased industrial production. There is a possibility that the fall which took place between 1957 and 1958 may have resulted from the installation of grit collecting equipment in the Broken Hill Proprietary Limited steelworks. The seasonal results for the five year period for Sydney are shown in Table 2.3 and for Newcastle in 2.4. In the table the winter results include only June, July and August and the summer represents January, February and December. The most apparent seasonal factor is wind direction, which along the New South Wales coast is predominantly north-east in summer and west in winter. In Sydney the major centre of pollution is the Pyrmont-Ultimo area where there is no definite seasonal variation but most of the other stations vary between summer and winter depending upon their directional relation to that section. Generally, all positions east of Pyrmont-Ultimo are higher in winter and the reverse applies to those west of the area. Fig. 2.1 — Deposited Pollution in Sydney and Newcastle