The return of gas-producing equipment after a 20-year absence is a major step forward for the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, organisers say.
Bob Bradshaw (75), a plant operator at the former Dunedin City Gasworks for more than 25 years, said the return this week had vindicated the long battle by museum volunteers and enthusiasts, including himself, to keep the museum alive.
"We're very, very pleased with the return of this equipment," Peter Petchey, a member of the museum's trust board, added.
Mr Petchey, who helped co-ordinate the return of the plant, said the Dunedin facility was now a "complete gasworks museum".
The museum was already "very, very important" in international terms because there were very few top gasworks museums in the Western world.
"It's definitely world class."
The return of the equipment increased that significance, he said.
After the gasworks closed in 1987, all gas production plant had been removed, and this had been the museum's main deficiency.
The equipment returned this week was mainly the second of three P3 oil reforming units.
Reflecting state-of-the-art technology when it was installed in Dunedin in 1964, the unit converted a light oil product into town supply gas.
After the gasworks had closed, the three oil reforming units had been bought and taken to Coal Creek, near Roxburgh, where they had been lying in a field for the past 20 years.
The museum trust was grateful Coal Creek businessman Ken Harliwich had agreed to sell one of the units back to the trust, enabling it to be returned, Mr Petchey said.
Board chairman Grant Craig said adding the gas-production plant would significantly enhance the experience of museum visitors.
