LIKE many locals, John Mannile of Dora Creek reckoned Origin Energy scored a bargain earlier this year when it paid just $50 million for the state-owned Eraring power station.
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The full extent of the bang Origin got for its buck was underlined when Mr Mannile discovered some photographs he'd taken circa 1977.
The pictures show the construction of the Dora Creek tunnel which takes cooling water from Bonnells Bay into the power station.
"At the time, it was Australia's largest submerged tunnel," Mr Mannile said.
The work was carried out by John Holland for the then Electricity Commission, and was on a scale that left quite an impression.
"It was just mammoth," Mr Mannile said, as he pawed over the pictures with the Lakes Mail.
"Just concentrate on the scale of the thing. Look at the size of the cranes, and yet they're dwarfed."
Also included among the old photographs was an engineer's diagram showing the tunnel in cross section, and listing its dimensions.
The document shows the tunnel to be 261 metres long and 23 metres wide.
It stands 10 metres tall at the endshafts, and five metres tall at the centre.
Some 8200 cubic metres of concrete was involved in the 12-month construction.
Before the tunnel could be constructed and moved into position, sections of Dora Creek had to be pumped dry through the creation of a cofferdam.
Mr Mannile said that on every level - from the construction of the cofferdam to the shunting of the massive components into position - it was a remarkable engineering achievement.
"It certainly created a lot of curiosity because of the scale of the enterprise," Mr Mannile said.
It created some concern, too.
"People were concerned about the movement that the works were causing to their houses. But it never amounted to a big issue."
The first electricity generating unit went into service at the power station in 1982, the second and third units in 1983, and the fourth unit was commissioned in 1984.
