Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria

The Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria was a government-owned monopoly supplier of household gas in Victoria, Australia.

The Corporation replaced the Melbourne Metropolitan Gas Company in 1951. In 1971 the Corporation acquired the Geelong Gas Company, one of only two remaining private gas companies in Victoria at the time.

One of the first tasks of the Corporation was the construction of a centralised brown coal fueled gasification plant at Morwell, to replace the number of smaller town gas producing gasworks scattered throughout Melbourne. The plant opened in 1956 and used the German Lurgi process to produce gas that was transferred to Melbourne via a high pressure gas pipeline. [ [http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/820.html Technology in Australia 1788-1988] ]

The production of gas was changed in the late 1950s when Syngas production was developed, a process that converted waste gases from oil refineries to a useful energy product. [ [http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/820.html Technology in Australia 1788-1988] ] Natural gas was discovered in Bass Strait in 1965, with the majority of Victoria changed over by the 1970s.

In July 1997 the Gas and Fuel Corporation was disaggregated into three divisions: gas distributor and retail companies, a gas transmission company and an independent Market Operator, VENCorp. The distribution, retail and transmission companies were subsequently privatised by the Kennett Government, along with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Victoria's main electricity utility.

The corporation's former headquarters, the Princes Gate Towers on Flinders Street, were then demolished to make way for the Federation Square development.

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