15,000 GALLON LOSS

Grey River Argus, 20 January 1943, Page 3

15,000 GALLON LOSS

Australian Petrol Line Tapped SYDNEY, Jan., 11 A man who taliped the petroi pipeline which runs 30 miles from the Glen Davis shale oil works to Newnes, west of Sydnev. was either injured or badly scared off by the 40ft., jet of petrol which soared from the hole. In his hurried departure he loft seven empty drums, a plug and a petrolsodden shirt. Pressure in the six-inch pipeline is 6001 b. to the square inch, and a jet escaping at this pressure, it is said, can cut through flesh like a knife.. Police stated that if the thief had been struck by the jet of petroi from the tin., hole he had bored in the line ( he would have been killed or blinded. 1 The discovery of the leak v,&s made when the gauges showed that the pressure in the pipe had dropped to zero. A patrolman inspected the fine, and found the leak where the line runs through country that is rugged, but easily accessible from a road three miles from Newnes. A b out 15,000 gallons of netrol had run to waste. Surrounding trees were stained to a height of 40ft... and the ground was soaked with petrol. This was the third atempt to tamper with the pipeline. ■