Ken Ainsworth has kept the boiler and steam engines going for 25 years at Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum with the help of volunteers but has had to step down suddenly due to health concerns. Photo: Leon Oberg.
Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum, which hosts the heritage city’s premier Steampunk Victoriana Fair, is scrambling to overcome two sudden setbacks.
Ken Ainsworth, who has two specialist tickets which qualify him to oversee operations of the waterworks’ two steam engines and boiler, has had to quit due to health issues.
As well, the circa 1960 boiler had a massive failure earlier this year requiring emergency work. Consequently, scheduled ‘steaming days’ in March, April and May were cancelled.
The council is now in negotiations with two prospective operators with the appropriate qualifications to continue the oversight needed to operate the machines for Steampunk Victoriana on 19 October.
Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Business Manager, Marketing, Events and Culture Sarah Ruberto, said hopefully a qualified operator would be engaged before the fair. The event would still proceed if they were not engaged. But if that were the case the famous 1883 Appleby Beam Engine and Hicks Hargreaves engines would not be running.
Ms Ruberto said Mr Ainsworth’s unexpected departure was a huge loss.
Mr Ainsworth said his 25 years doing the work alongside other volunteers was voluntary. “We used to run it as a community service through our company [Ainsworth Engineering],” he said. “We insured it while it was running, actually. We carried the insurance as well.”
Thousands of people from eastern Australia come to the Steampunk Victoriana Fair in Goulburn. Two rare operating steam engines are among the many attractions. Photo: Goulburn Mulwaree Council.
“I had a bit of a heart issue,” he said. “The trouble I had is one that can cause me problems if I have to deal with any sort of emergency. So I decided to pull out of it [the museum] before I had these problems.”
He expects it will be difficult to find a replacement. “People with the qualifications to run them (engines) now are very few and far between. You have to have two tickets, one for the boiler operation and another one to run the engine over – a reciprocating engine driver’s certificate.”
Ms Ruberto said the council had expected to continue with Mr Ainsworth for the next five years, until he was forced to step down in February.
She said he had given much to the museum. “He has a love for these old engines and the old boilers and has a way with them and with the staff and volunteers,” she said. “A lot of the volunteers have been helping Ken for those 25 years.”
In March the council discovered pressure and steam were leaking from the boiler and thought it had been subsequently repaired.
But testing indicated the leaking was still present. “More testing by Ainsworth Engineers discovered it was a much greater issue than we had expected,” she said.
“We had to get a significant amount of emergency work done on the boiler, getting a crane in, lifting it off its foundation, rotating it so they could access the part of the boiler that had failed,” she said.
The two qualified people now assessing the waterworks and deciding whether to provide the oversight needed for steaming days, do not live in Goulburn.
“It is a shifting of the goalposts moment for us,” Ms Ruberto said. “It’s a really important site, really important history and heritage that we want to keep going. The priority for us is to get it resolved.”
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