remembering the stack

given that the port kembla copper smelter has now been demolished, i might just like to express a bit of thoughts about it all...

i know some people i work with are amazed at my interest in what is (was) essentially just a big concrete stick (or a match stick as one colleague mentioned hehehe)

well, it was just one of those impressive sights.

a bit like my obsession with old train tunnels - it was something to be in awe of, you could stand at the base of the stack and look up and be utterly amazed at how small it made you feel by just the massiveness of it.

and having been born and raised in the town where it was located, it was one of those things that you knew about, just for the fact that it was there.

i guess that's my big disbelief about it now being gone - i never imagined in my wildest dreams that it would ever not be there anymore.

comparing it to something locally in the ballarat area - if you grew up with the memorial arch on sturt street, you wouldn't be that interested in it's everyday happenings, just cause it's there. but imagine for a moment if they found asbestos and other chemicals in the structure that they used back in the day to actually construct it. then they decide it's no longer safe for the community, and they demolish it - how would that make you feel to see it no longer there when you were driving towards alfredton?

i guess that's what the stack made me feel today - even watching it on a live online feed, it was just spine tingling for me, still in disbelief that what i was watching was actually real.

for something that stood so tall, one of the tallest structures for almost 100kms either side of it, to now be gone forever, and after all the history of it, the stories of those who worked to build it, even the sad stories of those who fell sick to it's deposits, it's just sad to know that it is no longer.

i guess i now have one of those stories to tell my sisters youngsters about the day a big 200 metre concrete stick known as the stack came down, signalling the end of an era in the city of wollongong.

farewell stack, it was nice knowing you, and will not be forgotten... thanks for making me feel very small, i really appreciated it. xo