It is believed that the name was derived from the fact that a company making carbide, the first electrolytic industry in Tasmania, was on this site.

[3] Around 1908, James Gillies began negotiations with the state government to permit the construction of a Hydroelectric Power Scheme at Tasmania's Great Lake, for the purpose of providing power for his newly patented zinc smelting process and a calcium carbide factory.

Construction of the factory commenced in the vicinity of Snug, Tasmania in 1917, and shortly after the end of World War One the Electrona Carbide Works began production of "carbide" using lime (from limestone), coke and electric arc furnaces.

[5] However, Gillies was unable to obtain sufficient liquidity to finish all of his planned electrification projects and, on the verge of bankruptcy, he lost control of the hydroelectric scheme to the Hydro Electric Department, a state government department formed for the purpose of rescuing his scheme.

[6] (The zinc smelter project was abandoned but later taken up again by another company and is currently operated by Nyrstar at Lutana, Tasmania.)