A silence fell across the room as the anticipation grew, and the two power station stacks lit up a big screen.
More than 200 former workers and family members with ties to the Liddell power station packed the event room at the Muswellbrook RSL to farewell a place many of them met and spent their careers keeping the light of the Hunter on.
A countdown ended in silence, then laughter as a false alarm added five minutes to their wait.
When the time came the lights dimmed a second time, an almost-solemn hush spreading across the room.
A sequence of booms sounded through the speakers and the two stacks came down, crossing in an X pattern and sending dust into the air.
A moment's more silence eventually gave way to a reserved applause. Glasses clinked, and a chapter was closed.
Oto Naulu said the moment the stacks fell was the end of an era.
Mr Naulu, who was sat next to his good friend and former colleague Gordon Townsend, worked for 43 years at the power station.
He said the falling of the stacks was the loss of a symbol that represented every character he met at the plant.
"Every person you met there brought their own character, their own lifestyle, and their own knowledge," he said.
"It paints a picture of the life you share with others and the towers would bring back those memories when you travelled past.
"Now that is gone, but it still remains in our memory.
"Everyone you see here contributed to that memory and who you are as a person built over 40 years.
"It is the conclusion to a chapter that has made you who you are. That is what i take away from those towers coming down."
Mr Townsend, who worked at Liddell for 14 years, said it was the people and community that made Liddell special.
"Even if you stuffed up, you'd get a hard time but it was never done in bad faith," he said.
"It was about learning from each other and teaching the next people that came through after you."
Muswellbrook councillor and 43-year Liddell employee Graeme McNeill said watching the towers come down was like lowering a casket.
"There are a lot of memories and it is a bit emotional," he said.
"The station has been a core part of the community for so long."
Mr McNeill remembered the feeling when he stepped into the station for work the first time in 1982.
"It was overwhelming, but in a good way.
"It was just so immense but every person their had their role and they all came together with the one goal of keeping the lights on."
He remembered many old pranks, shenanigans and jokes with his colleagues.
"One Christmas we were preparing to head off for the break and we went to the top of the boiler," he said.
"We took a set of the paper overalls and filled it with hydrogen balloons and released this man from the top.
"He floated over the station and towards the highway and we were beside ourselves laughing but also scared we were going to get into trouble."
He recalled the moment everyone was told the station would be decommissioned and closed down in 2023.
"The CEO told us it was about letting her go with dignity and everyone just knew it was time.
"We all worked together to keep the old girl going as long as we did, much longer than her lifespan."
Working at the site wasn't without its dangers, with Mr McNeill badly burned after a transformer exploded.
He said it was the community that got him through.
"There were times in the hospital where i was in so much pain and couldn't sleep but i just had all these messages from everyone who were coming together to support me," he said.
"It was that community and those friends that kept me there for so long."
Grant Hunter said working as an operator was "99 per cent boredom and one per cent terror".
"We would have our jokes and friendships but when something happened it was all hand on deck," he said.
"When I began there it was so big, vast and overwhelming but you slowly learn to focus on your part in the machine and you learn how each person fits.
Mr Hunter said it was "her time to go".
"There is a lot of sadness but she was at the end of her life when they closed the station," he said.
"There is no turning back now."
He said that the station not only gave him a career but also kickstarted the career of his son.
"I lined him up with some of the contractors that worked in Liddell and he learnt more and more and eventually ened up working at Bayswater."
Mr Hunter said he had lifelong friends who have shared their careers together.
"One of my good mates, we went to the same school together, did our apprenticeships around the same time and then both worked at Liddell together."
Brian Horsepool travelled from Bathurst to attend the reunion and stack demolition.
"It was a big thing for the Hunter and contributed so much to the wider community," he said.
He remembered how Muswellbrook and the Hunter Valley were abuzz with action and growth when the station was built.
"it was hard to get accommodation with the station coming online and the mines all growing," he said.
"I spent a lot of time couch surfing."
Mr Horsepool said he only worked at Liddell for a few years before moving to another station.
He said each station had a life of its own and brought so much to the community.
He said he remembered one especially unique experience.
"It was a noisy place to work but every now and then we would hear this massive roar over our heads," he said.
"It turns out the jets from the RAAF base in Williamtown would fly low through the valley and use our stacks for a pole turn before returning to base."
Mr Naulu summed up his time at Liddell with one message.
"Life is short, things are here one day and gone the next, the fall of the chimneys is symbolic of that," he said.
"But we don't lose those memories and how they shaped us."
.png?w=600)
