But it was hard to find anyone in the industrial suburb yesterday shedding a genuine tear over the plan.

"Let's get rid of it and start changing Port's image from the ground up," Wentworth St cafe owner Maria Michael said, echoing the sentiments of many business people.

For Angela Balfour of Cafe One, news of the planned toppling of the 198m chimney brought mixed feelings.

"This area will lose part of its industrial character because the first thing you see when entering Port Kembla is the stack.

"On the other hand, all the people who live and work here are trying hard to improve the image of a place," Ms Balfour said.

Port Kembla Primary School principal Kevin Tucker said the school song, which contains the phrase "and a stack out the back", would have to be changed.

"And, of course, there are plenty of photographs of the stack around the school to provide lasting memories," Mr Tucker said.

The original school was closed in 1999 after parents and teachers won a fight to move it from under the shadow of the smelter stack just 10m away.

The Stack Continental Deli, at the southern end of Wentworth St, has a large overhead hoarding carrying the picture of not one, but twin smelter stacks.

Yesterday, its doors were shut, but the deli's landlord and owner of the Galley Cafe next door Dave Williams said the sign would probably have to go.

"The sign's like the stack - it's past its use-by date.

"It would probably cost millions to keep the stack, but perhaps someone could turn it into a giant didgeridoo or something," he said.

Port Kembla resident Angelo Gaudiosi said he hoped the stack's demolition would mark a fresh start for the area.

"Cleaning up the entire smelter site is a good thing for the area and hopefully the first step in bringing Port Kembla back to life," he said.

Verica Sajdovska, who works in Port Kembla, said she would like to see the stack go, but believed its destruction would leave a hole in the historical fabric of the industrial area.

Bookshop owner George Berzin was a lone voice calling for the stack's preservation.

"Sure it's an eyesore, but in another way it is an attraction of sorts and if the money could be found it should be tarted up."