Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow!

As I was searching through TROVE hunting for maps suitable for my last blog post, I came across an interesting map which I had not seen before. It was dated 1st September, 1857 and showed the course of the Barwon including surrounding subdivisions and the holdings of major land owners/squatters in the area to a point several kilometres south of Winchelsea. This in itself was of interest, however, what caught my attention was the depiction of a "reservoir and aqueduct for supplying Geelong with water".
What had I found?
I should have remembered as I have read about it before, but had not seen it in map form.  This was one of several options put forward to supply the town of Geelong with a clean, reliable water supply - something which was desperately needed by the 1850s.
A full description of the woes of Geelong's early water supplies would require a significant amount of time and blog space and in any case, the whole story of Geelong's aqueous history is addressed in Leigh Edmonds' book Living by Water: a History of Barwon Water and its Predecessors, 2005 which can be downloaded from the above link. Here however, I will look briefly at not only what happened, but what might have happened.
As I have mentioned in the past, the first step in securing a water supply for Geelong was the breakwater built by Captain Foster Fyans with the aid of convict labour in 1841. This stopped the flow of salt water back upriver from Barwon Heads and dammed the flow of the river, resulting in higher water levels between Breakwater and Buckley Falls.
For several years, this was the extent of Geelong's water supply. The water from the river was either collected directly (free of charge) by the local citizens or was pumped from the river and distributed by private contractors. Joseph Griffen installed a pump near Moorabool St in 1841 and a little later, William Jewell erected a tank on the riverbank near Yarra St from where water-carriers could fill their casks.

William Jewell's pump by the Barwon River. Image taken from Sand, Fireworks
and Boxthorn: the History of Breakwater and Area (William Smith, )

In 1850, William Gray erected a reticulated system which pumped water from the river through metal pipes to the Market Square and to the Waterfront via a holding tank located near the north west corner of Moorabool and McKillop Streets. The system was not without its problems which were further complicated by wrangling with the council and a rapid population increase following the outbreak of the Victorian gold rush in 1851.
In 1852, the council established the Geelong Water Company whose brief was to secure a water supply for Geelong from some point above Buckley Falls. The engineer hired to undertake the study recommended a 4 foot high dam, located above the falls, however public subscription for the scheme was lacking and the company quietly folded.

Illustration of the Market Square by S.T. Gill (1857), clearly showing Gray's tank
and a water cart waiting to fill up. Image held by the State Library of Victoria

At about the same time, another public company - described in The Argus of 10th February, 1853 as the Geelong Junction Water Company - entered the arena. Backed by none other than William Gray, it was claimed that by October that year, the company would be ready to supply water from above Buckley Falls to the suburbs of Ashby, Kildare, Chilwell, Little Scotland and New Town (sic). The water, it was stated would be pumped from a reservoir on the hill "immediately over Levien's Punt", however by 1854 the scheme was still not up and running and council held concerns that the company would provide a virtual private monopoly over water supply in the town for Gray and a small number of associates. Once again, the plan was abandoned.
In 1852, the colonial government had allocated £800,000 for the construction of water supply schemes for Melbourne and Geelong. £600,000 was to be spent on a dam at Yan Yean to supply Melbourne, with the remainder to be spent on Geelong.  In 1855 it established the Geelong Water Commission to look into the state of the town's water and to recommend a more extensive supply scheme.
In his report submitted to the Commission in February, 1857, engineer Henry Millar came to the conclusion that water taken from below Inverleigh was unsuitable as sediment from mining activities along the Yarrowee/Leigh River near Ballarat had so polluted the water that it rendered the lower reaches of the Barwon unusable. Instead, his favoured option was the construction of a reservoir on Wormbete Creek - a tributary of the Barwon running through 'Wormbete Estate', established by Henry Hopkins in 1837. It was the map of this proposal which I had discovered on TROVE.

What could have been. An 1857 map showing a proposed reservoir located
on Wormbete Creek, designed to supply Geelong with water.
Image held by the National Library of Australia

This scheme which the Commission presented to the government was estimated to cost £362,430 and would run from the reservoir through pipes to Geelong, supplying a potential population of 50,000 with 190 (50 gallons) of water per day. The government however, immediately made it known that this expense was unacceptable and advised the Commission to consider a cheaper option. It was revealed not long after, that the £200,000 allocated for Geelong's water scheme had been spent instead on Yan Yean.
Reluctantly, the Commission suggested that water pumped from above Buckley Falls to a holding basin could be implemented for £64,848, but reinforced the unacceptable quality of the water. Next, claiming that the Commission had failed to act, the government appointed a select committee to again investigate Geelong's water woes. The Commissioners promptly resigned en masse.
In June, 1858, the select committee unsurprisingly recommended that a supply should be secured from above Buckley Falls, indicating that the Wormbete Creek option was too expensive. An alternative suggestion that Geelong be connected to the Yan Yean scheme was also rejected. And there things sat.
At the beginning of 1859 two government experts were sent to report on the findings of the Select Committee. Rather than support one of the existing alternatives however, they suggested a fourth option - a reservoir collecting water from the springs and creeks around Mt Buninyong and Mt Warrenheip, which would supply both Geelong and Ballarat. Water from the reservoir could be piped to Geelong along the same line as the Geelong-Ballarat Railway which was under construction at that time.
Again, nothing was done. As the colonial government floundered under pressure from the rapidly increasing population, Geelong council took matters into their own hands and established yet another committee to look into the water issue. In addition to considering the options recommended by the select committee and the government experts, they considered a fourth option; one which would see water collected, not from the Barwon catchment, but from the watershed above Stony Creek in the Brisbane Ranges - a tributary of the Little River.
The scheme would see a reservoir built north of Anakie which would store up to 1,000 million gallons (3,785 megalitres) behind an earthen wall. Water would then be carried via an open channel and a series of pipes to a reservoir at Anakie before being piped to a distribution reservoir at Lovely Banks from where it would be distributed to Geelong residents.

What might have been. An 1867 map outlining plans for the Stony Creek
reservoir, pipes and channel. Note also, the intended channel from Wallace's
Swamp as well as a proposal to divert water from the Werribee River into
the system and a proposed pipe to carry water to Steiglitz. Image held
by the National Library of Australia

Finally, after 14 years of wrangling, the £42,572 contract to build Geelong's water supply was signed in May, 1866 and work got under way. Before construction was even completed however, there were problems; first with money and then with design. Concerns that the capacity of the dam may not be adequate in 1870 saw work begin on a channel draining water from Wallace's Swamp north of the dam, however this work was later abandoned. Then, in 1871, the dam wall began to subside and it was discovered that the foundations upon which the wall had been built were unstable. Various measures were considered and it was decided to lower the dam wall and reinforce it.
This had the effect of reducing the capacity of the dam to a mere 168 million gallons. To compensate for this, a second reservoir was built further down the creek. The Lower Stony Creek Reservoir as it was known, was constructed in the space of 18 months between 1873 and 1874. This new reservoir had a capacity of 120 million gallons, however, with a larger catchment area, its annual capacity was estimated as closer to 232 million gallons. It cost £17,000 to build but because of differences in elevation, could not use the original channel and pipes. As a result, it therefore required a separate pipe costing a further £12,000 to carry its water to the basin at Anakie.

The dam wall of the Lower Stony Creek Reservoir, built 1873-1874 from a
combination of cement, sand and rock it was the first cement dam in Australia and
only the third of its type in the world

 Plagued by delays, cost blowouts and technical problems due to poor workmanship, corner cutting and the use of substandard materials, the system was not without its problems. In addition to the subsidence of the main dam wall, a tunnel under the embankment also leaked, there were fears that the spillway - built on soft clay - would erode as well as issues with leakage from the aqueduct and tunnels carrying water to Anakie which required remedial work. Then, as the system was at last ready to come on line and the service basin at Lovely Banks filled up, poor brickwork caused one of its embankments to develop leaks, requiring it to be drained in order to fix the problem.
Eventually however, despite all the setbacks and delays, on 11th September, 1873 the first water flowed to the Geelong Infirmary and Benevolent Society, with the rest of the town progressively coming on line in the following months. After more than twenty years of political wrangling, Geelong finally had its first reliable, reticulated water supply.
Today, the Stony Creek Reservoir - along with two additional reservoirs built in 1914 and 1918 - still form part of the Barwon Water supply system, also receiving water from the upper reaches of the East Moorabool River. The Lower Stony Creek Reservoir was decommissioned in 2001, with the water from the East Moorabool and the upper reservoirs instead channelled via a new pipe to the Sheoaks Diversion Weir.

Branching out - a diverting lesson

I recently had the opportunity to visit a part of the Moorabool River which I had not seen before with the Meredith History Interest Group who visited the Caroline Chisholm School Camp. The facility owned by the school, provides an outdoor education program for children in years 7 to 10 offering camping, archery, kayaking, rope courses and a variety of other nature-based learning experiences.

The Moorabool River looking south east from the school camp

Looking north west along the river at the camp

The camp is situated at the end of Pioneer Ridge Road between Steiglitz and Meredith on land which stretches down to a section of the Moorabool River where the students practise their raft-building and kayaking skills. The scenery is quite dramatic, with impressive granite outcrops towering over the river, giving students a chance to consider the geology of their surroundings.


Granite outcrop on the banks of the Moorabool River at the camp

Also located on this stretch of the river is the She Oaks Diversion Weir which lies about 25km downstream as the crow flies, from the larger Bungal Dam - or Lal Lal Reservoir as it is also known. The winding course of the river actually covers around twice this distance and it is through this section of the Moorabool that the portion of water from Bungal Dam which is allocated to Barwon Water flows to the She Oaks weir. From there it is pumped to the nearby Moorabool Water Treatment Plant where it is treated and combined with flow piped from the Stony Creek reservoirs at Durdidwarrah*.

Dam wall and pumping station of the She Oaks weir

The Moorabool River immediately downstream of the She Oaks weir

From the Moorabool treatment plant, the purified water is diverted via the She Oak-Montpellier pipeline to the Montpellier holding basins in Highton, Geelong. Water from the Montpellier basins is then combined with water from the West Barwon Dam and distributed for urban use - mostly across the western suburbs. A branch of this pipeline also supplies the townships of Bannockburn, Inverleigh and Teesdale, however in times of drought, water can also be back-fed from the Montpellier basins to these towns.
Previously, Meredith township was supplied by its own pumping station and treatment plant located upstream of She Oaks Weir, just over 3km north west of the town, however water quality issues during drought years has seen this plant decommissioned. According to Barwon Water, supply for Meredith is now also provided by the Moorabool treatment plant via a pumping station and rising main to a balancing tank at the old treatment site. Lethbridge likewise was reliant upon the decommissioned Meredith plant, so water for that town is now fed from the Meredith pipeline to a balancing tank between the two towns, enabling a gravity feed.
Work on the weir and connecting pipeline began in 1972 and required tonnes of concrete and other supplies which were carried in on trucks down the steep southern bank, crossing the river at a narrow ford about 300m downstream of the weir.

Ford across the Moorabool River

 To allow passage for the construction vehicles, the flow of the river was diverted under the ford through a pair of large concrete pipes. The ford and pipes remain in place today.


One of the concrete pipes carrying the flow of water under the ford

Nearby are the remains of a gravel pit, the contents of which were used during construction of the dam.

As works progressed on the weir, the pipeline to carry the water to the Montpellier basins was also built, with both completed late in 1973. The system came online in January, 1974 when water from the She Oaks-Montpellier pipeline began to flow into the Montpellier basins, thus completing - as the plaque below states - a scheme to bring water to Geelong which began a century earlier in 1874.


Plaque commemorating the formal opening and release of water from the She
Oaks-Montpellier pipeline

A more detailed description of the evolution of Geelong's water supply can be found in Leigh Edmond's Living By Water: a history of Barwon Water and its predecessors (available in print or online) including details of the construction of the She Oaks weir and pipeline.
*The water held at Stony Creek is taken from the Bostock Reservoir on the upper reaches of the East Moorabool River (flowing via the Bostock and Ballan Channels). It is then transferred from the Stony Creek Reservoirs to the Moorabool Water Treatment Plant by a pipe running under the Brisbane Ranges. This replaces an earlier open channel and pipe which carried the water through Anakie Gorge to holding basins at Lovely Banks which I discussed in my Turning on the waterworks post.

Turning on the waterworks

Our latest excursion to investigate the local waterways saw us head to Stony Creek in the Brisbane Ranges over the weekend. We started from the Stony Creek Picnic Ground - having previously walked most of the section of track from Anakie Gorge up Stony Creek - and followed the Ted Errey Nature Circuit. The late Ted Errey, I discover was the president of the Geelong Field Naturalists Club and a keen advocate of the national park.
We followed the path up a spur to the high points overlooking the gorge below and from various lookouts interspersed along the track, we could see Mt Anakie and away towards Corio Bay, extensive views of the Brisbane Ranges which are still recovering from the 2006 bushfires and the Lower Stony Creek Reservoir.

Ted Errey track showing regrowth after bushfire damage

This latter structure forms part of Geelong's water supply and is in part the reason I can justify including the Brisbane Ranges and Stony Creek in my Barwon Blog. Whilst the creek is not a tributary of the Moorabool River - it discharges into Little River - water from the east branch of the Moorabool River is diverted in to the Stony Creek Reservoirs for transfer to Geelong.
So, how does it all work?
In 1841, as I have blogged previously, Captain Foster Fyans had the breakwater constructed across the Barwon to improve Geelong's water supply, however by the 1860s the supply from the Barwon was both inadequate for the town's needs and was polluted by the local industry.

View across Brisbane Ranges with Lower Stony Creek
Reservoir in the middle distance

It was decided that a new, more reliable water source was required. So, to cut a long story slightly shorter, after the expected political wrangling and corner cutting, a dam was built across Stony Creek in the Brisbane Ranges. This initial earthen wall dam (Stony Creek Reservoir 1) was completed in 1873, but some subsidence in the dam wall meant it would have a smaller capacity than anticipated, so the Lower Stony Creek Reservoir was built further down the creek - with a concrete wall - between 1873 and 1874. From the upper reservoir, water was sent via an aqueduct to the Anakie Pipe Head Basin and from the lower reservoir via a pipe running beneath Anakie Gorge to a point below the basin. From here, the water was distributed to Geelong via storage basins at Lovely Banks and Montpellier.

Decommissioned waterpipe from the Lower Stony
Creek Reservoir, exiting a tunnel and crossing the creek.
The pipes were originally constructed from timber

By the turn of the 20th century however, even these measures were inadequate for Geelong's water needs, so a diversion weir - the Bolwarrah Weir I believe - was built on the East Moorabool River. The weir was designed to raise the water level of the river at this point allowing some of the flow to be diverted into a channel - the Ballan Channel - which then carried water to the Upper Stony Creek Reservoir.
As Geelong continued to grow, more water was needed and over the years, much of this continued to be drawn from the Moorabool River. Water first flowed into the Koorweingaboora Reservoir located upstream of Bolwarrah Weir near the headwaters of the Moorabool East Branch in 1911, then in 1914 and 1918 the Upper Stony Creek Reservoirs 2 and 3 respectively were completed.  In 1940, the capacity of the Ballan Channel was doubled to allow more water to be drawn from the upper reaches of the Moorabool East Branch and by 1954 the Bostock Reservoir, located on the Moorabool East Branch just outside Ballan and below the Bolwarrah Weir, came on line. It is also connected to the Ballan Channel via its own open channel - the Bostock Channel.
But that is not the end of the story. Along the west branch of the Moorabool River are two significant reservoirs. The Moorabool Reservoir was built near the headwaters of the Moorabool West Branch in 1915, then, in 1972 the Bungal Dam was built at Lal Lal. This latter reservoir at the time it was built was equivalent in volume to Geelong's total water storage.
Most recently in 1999, the pipes and the channel which for so many years carried water from the Stony Creek Reservoirs to the basin at Anakie were decommissioned and replaced by a pipe running along the Steiglitz-Durdidwarrah Road. In total about one third of the water taken from the Moorabool River system is available to Geelong with the remainder being used by Ballarat. This accounts for approximately one fifth of Geelong's water requirements. The remainder is supplied by the Barwon River system and in more recent years by borefields at Barwon Downs and Anglesea.
Phew! So, back to our walk. In some places the track was rocky and only vaguely defined, although the blue trail markers helped keep us on course. In other places we were walking along access tracks which were broad and reasonably level.

Rocky section of the Ted Errey Track

We reached the summit, took in the views, snapped some shots and continued on our way, however a little under half way in, we were informed that the Ted Errey Trail beyond Switch Road was closed. Being the intrepid adventurers we are - and having ignored such signs before with no noticeable ill effects - we decided to soldier on. All was well as we crested the rise and headed down the steep, rocky slope which took us back to the bottom of Anakie Gorge, to connect with the trail which ran along beside the creek. We were within 2km of reaching our goal when we came across our first obstacle. A small weir which I'm sure we walked across on a previous occasion, was now under a small amount of water.

The one flooded weir we didn't need to cross

Hmmm... never mind, we could remove our shoes and cross without too much trouble. This we did. Problem solved - until we came to the next point where the path crossed the creek. There was a bridge, but it was on its side, somewhere downstream of where it should have been. Again, the creek wasn't too deep or wide, but the thought of having to deal with the shoes again didn't appeal, so we resigned ourselves to getting wet feet and plunged across. Once again we all made the opposite bank without having to fish any children out from some point downstream.

Yet another creek crossing

Done! Now to finish our walk! That was, until we reached another point where the path crossed the creek - a second submerged weir - and another, and another and another. In all, we crossed the creek seven times. On six occasions we were confronted either with no bridge, a submerged weir or a missing bridge. I guess they meant it this time when they said the track was out of action! However, we did finally make it back to our starting point and within the specified time frame.
And so, we squelched our way to the car and headed for home.

Plaque at Montpellier Basin commemorating the centenary of
reticulated water in Geelong