It was the end of an era at Armidale Hospital on Thursday morning as the old coal stacks were lifted away.
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The smokestacks, which were almost 30 years old, were demolished to make way for newer technology.
The hospital now has a desentralised heating system with gas, site manager Simon Williamson told The Express while the last stack was being removed on Thursday.
They were also the last of their kind to exist at a hospital in the entire Hunter New England Health district.
“There were four stacks on the existing structure,” Mr Williamson said.
“Two were for the previous oil-fire system and the other two were from the coal boil system.”
The entire smokestack structure weighed in at around 24 tonnes and the two boilers, removed and transported to Newcastle last week, weighed about 13.5 tonnes each.
The old coal system heated showers and hand basins throughout the hospital.
Mr Williamson said all of the steel and bricks from the site would be recycled.
