Purifier Shed Roof

The roof of the purifier shed at the Bathurst Gasworks is failing in a slow, regular way. The roof material is asbestos cement sheet, original to the building. Sections have failed across the upper slope and torn at the laps, revealing the timber framework underneath. The framing is heavy sawn timber, laid out as principal rafters and purlins in a pattern typical of late-Victorian and mid-twentieth-century industrial sheds. Sheets have come away entirely in several places, leaving gaps where light enters and falls across the cavernous interior. Where the asbestos is still in place, the surface has weathered to a uniform grey.

Buildings disused since 1987 begin to fail at the roof first. The purifier shed at the Bathurst Gasworks housed the gas purification plant, where impurities were scrubbed from the crude coal gas before it entered the distribution mains. Council coal-gas production ended in 1979, AGL ceased LPG reforming in 1987, and nothing has happened to the shed since beyond weather and intermittent vandalism. The asbestos sheeting is one of the contamination concerns the site carries: in November 2023 the New South Wales EPA detected raised asbestos fibre concentrations during air monitoring at the gasworks, and daily monitoring was required for six months. The site is held under lease by Jemena, who took on a twenty-year tenancy in 2008 and have made no operational use of it. Crown Lands NSW has been investigating contamination and structural condition since 2022.