James Hynds Gillies

Zinc extraction and hydro-electricity

Gillies was born at Millers Forest, New South Wales, son of Malcolm Gillies, farmer, and his wife Margaret, née McPherson, settlers from the Isle of Skye. After studying metallurgy, he took out patents to extract metallic zinc from mine tailings. In 1908 he floated his company, the Complex Ores Co. and planned to open a plant in Tasmania, using hydro-electric power from the waters of the Great Lake and the Ouse and Shannon rivers.

The Complex Ores Act of 1909 allocated Gillies a site at Electrona, a deep-water port on Tasmania's D'Entrecasteaux Channel for his refining plant. A subsidiary of Complex Ores - the Hydro-Electric Power and Metallurgical Co. Ltd - was formed in 1911 to help finance the hydro-electric development needed to power the plant. As added security for his shareholders, Gillies included a calcium carbide works as part of his organisation.

Construction of Gillies hydro-electric power station began in 1910 at Waddamana. However, by the end of 1912 the company was in serious financial difficulty and in May 1914 the incomplete works were sold to the newly formed Hydro-Electric Department. After the sale, Gillies abandoned his zinc extraction scheme and concentrated on his carbide enterprise at Electrona. In 1924, the company went into receivership and was taken over by the Hydro-Electric Department.

Gillies' Electrona Carbide Works remained a major employer in the Channel area of Tasmania until the 1980s. After many attempts to save it, it closed in 1984.

Later life

Gillies moved to Sydney where he took out patents for improved car lighting, soundproofing and refrigeration. By 1935 he was close to bankruptcy but was granted an annual pension of £350 by the Tasmanian government for services rendered to the State. Despite being one of the fathers of hydro-electric power in Tasmania, he died disillusioned at South Camberwell, Melbourne in 1942.