Eraring before the power plant arose

By Damon Cronshaw Updated February 28 2022

This aerial photo shows Eraring in May 1969, eight years before construction began on the coal-fired power plant. Doug Saxon, author of Eraring's History - Farming, Monkeys and Electricity - said it was a farming area before the power station arrived.

"The big issue now is, if the power station is going to close, are they going to develop the area there?" Doug said.

"A lot of the people who live at Eraring don't want to see intense development there."

He said the power station "took too much land from a viable farming area". "A lot of the people who had given their lives to farming had to leave." In his book, Doug wrote: "Farming at Eraring began in 1913 and lasted in various forms until land was resumed to build the Eraring power station in the early 1970s.

"In this time period, farming was impacted by the realities of pioneer farming, World War I, the Great Depression and World War II. For example, the Great Depression resulted in some Eraring residents having to forfeit their land when they were unable to meet the regular payments to their lender.

"Eraring's first settlers were mainly mixed farmers. Most people grew vegetables, raised poultry, had fruit trees, ran pigs and milked their own cows. Those without cows were usually assisted by those who did."

As for Eraring's monkeys, they involved the work of Dr Henry LeightonJones. The doctor performed transplants of sexual glands from monkeys to humans in the 1930s.

He retired to Eraring in 1928 and began to study endocrinology, a branch of medicine concerned with glands and hormones.

In the 1930s, he grafted glands of monkey testicles and ovaries onto the same body parts in humans. Some believe he was seeking ''the fountain of youth''.

Dr Jones was reported as saying that most patients underwent treatment in the hope of being mentally and physically rejuvenated. Some reported improved eyesight, relief from deafness and a stronger growth of hair. Monkeys were kept in a cage on the doctor's Eraring property and operations were done at a small hospital in Morisset.

He was considered to have discovered important principles of tissue typing, which involves transplant donors and recipients being tested for compatibility prior to surgery.