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Abstract

In Australia there is only one electricity supply
authority that carries out all eight facets of public
electricity supply throughout a whole state. Tasmania's Hydro-
Electric Commission (H.E.C.) investigates, designs, arranges
finance, constructs, generates, transmits, distributes and
regulates. To the public the H.E.C. must look like a
monolithic technological bureaucracy; purposeful, effective
and reaching out into every corner of the state. To anyone
under 30 this has always seemed the case. However, it is
merely the present form of an industry that has changed and
continues to change.
There have been five phases in the organisation
of electricity supply in Tasmania. The H.E.C. and its
predecessor the Hydro-Electric Department (H.E.D.) have been
involved in four of them and have modified their policies
and organisation to fit the needs of the times. This
dissertation traces the evolution of one of Australia's better
known quangos, (1) documents its unplanned emergence from a
failed commercial venture and the fundamental events that
shaped the organisation of electricity supply in Tasmania
and eventually produced the H.E.C.
The overriding conclusion is that technology has
shaped the organisation. Not just the technology of
electricity supply, but the supporting technologies,
particularly communications and electro-metallurgy. There
are, however, other influences; personal, economic, social
and political, that have shaped various phases of the
organisation's evolution and remain in its present structure.

Item Type:	Thesis - Unspecified
Authors/Creators:	Read, Peter Charles
Keywords:	Tasmania. Hydro-Electric Commission, Electric utilities, Hydroelectric power plants
Copyright Holders:	The Author
Additional Information:	Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Tasmania, 1986. Bibliography: leaves 124-129
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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