Blast Furnace Park - Lithgow NSW

21 Aug 2018

Exeloo – Architecture Meets Archaeology

The City of Lithgow is a historic area in NSW taking in some of Australia’s greatest natural wonders including the Blue Mountains.  Named after William Lithgow the first Auditor General of NSW Lithgow also harbours a hidden jewel of the industrial age.  Blast Furnace Park has recently been activated as a cultural heritage destination and venue for events, performance and exhibitions.  Built in 1886 the blast furnace was originally established to produce pig iron.  As a leading industrial archaeological site in NSW the City of Lithgow decided to upgrade the environment and re-purposed the site as a cultural and arts area.

Exeloo Design

Exeloo was engaged to provide an attractive, modern and accessible public toilet with an exterior in keeping with the heritage of the site.  Working closely with the Lithgow project team our designers created a visual marriage of new technology to the past.  Our low impact prefabricated buildings ensures that installation is quick and easy and the small footprint means units can be installed where space is at a premium to minimise public disruption.  The prefabricated design means the buildings can also be relocated if usage changes eliminating the need to demolish and rebuild, saving the city money and preserving the original asset investment.

The Exeloo Jupiter

The City of Lithgow selected a fully automated Jupiter unit that is programmed to automatically open and close each day eliminating the need for separate security visits.  The opening and closing times can also be adjusted remotely using the Exeloo Web Based Monitoring system ExeWeb.  At an events park being able to make changes to operation time without visiting the site saves money. 

 “The amazing LithGlow Light and Heritage Festival event on 12 May 2018 showed what a fantastic place Lithgow Blast Furnace is, and how much the local community loves it. Several thousand locals and visitors enjoyed a wonderful night of music, entertainment, light and sound,” said Lithgow City Council Mayor Stephen Lesslie.

The accessible design of the Exeloo Jupiter twin public toilet system was chosen as Mayor Lesslie observes. “There were quite a number of people in wheelchairs at the LithGlow event, able to move around the site and through the ruins along accessible platforms and pathways, something that simply wasn’t possible before. The installation of accessible toilets now makes the site even more accessible and open to a greater range of visitors. It also increases its capacity to hold future events.” 

Free Design Service

Capturing period settings can often create a powerful sense of community belonging.  The Exeloo design service is offered free of charge and our ability to transform utilitarian structures into design icons for local communities is fast becoming a standard.  We have a huge array of design options to ensure your next heritage project will stand out and create community pride.