Towering above the skyline, the smoke stack at Port Kembla was opened in 1965. Measuring 200m in height and weighing 14,000 tons, it is part of the bigger side of our city being celebrated in the Wollongong City Library Living Large exhibition.

Constructed by the Electrolytic Refining & Smelting Company, the chimney was designed to send emissions from the refinery higher up in the atmosphere where winds could disperse pollutants over a wider area.

The company began operations in 1907 and as early as 1945 locals were expressing concerns about the damaging effects that fumes and dust from the smelter were having on their health. This culminated in a two-year health study in 1959 that reported an unusually high incidence of mild bronchitis in the sample group from Port Kembla.

Several projects were undertaken by ER&S to address these concerns, the largest being the smoke stack. Used until the smelter closed in 2003, its fate was sealed when concrete cancer was discovered in the structure. The stack was demolished on 20 February 2014.

You can view the Living Large exhibition in person at Wollongong City Library or online. Or, for a bit of fun try one of the online jigsaw puzzles that have been created from the collection.