(From Petra = rock and Oleum = Oil), also see Hartley Vale During the period when oil was being extracted from shale oil (torbanite) between 1865 to 1870 Hartley Vale was known as Petrolea Vale. Ref: Pells, Philip and Hammon,Philip. The Burning Mists of Time, 2009, p. 35. The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle 25th November 1865, p. 5. At Hartley Vale two companies were launched within months of each other in the second half of 1865, first the Hartley Kerosene Oil and Paraffine Co. Ltd., then the Western Kerosene Oil Co. The HKOPCL made the initial running, establishing the Petrolea Vale retorts and refinery in the valley and marketing Star brand kerosene. By 1868 the company had sixty employees mostly living in a sizeable private village and a new bench of retorts of a more advanced shape was installed. The Petrolea Vale retorts and refinery closed down in 1870. Ref:www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=1960033

• Hartley

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• Gardens of Stone - Book 7

• GOS7.14: Hartley Vale Mines