BACKGROUND

In 1891, under Governor Latrobe, a reservoir was built in Kew, on what is now Studley Park Rd, (known at the time as the Johnston St Bridge Rd), at the high point locally known as Studley Hill (later known as Reservoir Hill). It was on land which became part of the Studley Park Golf Course in later years.

 

It supplied water under pressure to the Botanical Gardens and Albert Park Lake.  The adjacent Government-run Kew Fish Hatchery was opened in 1925 and was linked to the Reservoir for a supply of a constant flow of fresh water.

 

The water was pumped up from Dight’s Falls (Abbotsford) out of the Yarra River. Dight’s Falls is an artificial weir built on a natural rock bar across the Yarra. The weir was built in the 1840s to provide water to the 'Ceres' flour mill, one ofthe first in Victoria.

 

In 1876 William Guilfoyle, the second Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, oversaw the construction of a bluestone dam at the highest point (Domain Hill) in the Gardens. The dam was styled in the form of a volcanic crater to provide gravity-fed irrigation for the Gardens. This feature of the Botanical Gardens still exists today and was the terminus of the pipeline from Kew.

 

The Sudley Park Reservoir was supplied by a rising main through which the water was forced, constructed by Luglands Foundry Company at £3000.

 

Prior to 1890,  the pumping station at Princes Bridge was found quite sufficient to supply both the Botanical Gardens and the Albert Park Lake. But the removal of the falls at Queen's Bridge, and  the consequent incursion of the tide, so impregnated the Upper Yarra with salt and sewage that a change became absolutely necessary.

 

Not only were many of the valuable plants in the gardens destroyed, but the presence of foul silt in the Albert park lagoon began to make itself very unpleasantly felt.

 

Eventually, Mr M. Thwaites, Engineer of the Melbourne Water Supply, designed a scheme for tapping the waters of the Yarra above Dight's Falls, and the Government, with little delay was induced to sanction the necessary expenditure.

 

THE PUMPING STATION

In 1890, a pumping station was erected close to the Johnston Street bridge, and on Mr Thwaites's recommendation it was decided to employ the Worthington duplex pump, an American invention of 30 years standing, but which had beenconsiderably improved. It was thought at first that the whole of the plant would have to be imported, but the Austral Otis Engineering Company offered to manufacture it, and the consequence is that the pumps, and the the Babcock and Wilcox boiler, had been manufactured in the colony.

 

Space had been reserved for duplicating the plant at Dight's Falls, which would ensure a constant supply to all the public reserves and to the Hydraulic Company, with which the Public Works department had entered into a contract. When completed it was estimated that the Dight's water scheme provided an adjunct to the Yan Yean system. It was hoped that it would supply, for instance, all the water for street sprinkling - in fact,  the Yan Yean would be drawn upon for nothing outside domestic purposes to carry out this arrangement.

 

The water was pumped up from a well sunk several feet below summer level, and connected with the pumps by a tunnel opening just below the Falls, and several feet above the tidal influence.

 

The scheme was officially opened in 1891, at a ceremony with a large attendance at the new pumping station, where the first of the two Worthington duplex pumps had been installed. 

 

At the opening ceremony,  it was announced that in addition to being specially suitable for irrigation purposes, the water could be supplied at a quarter of the cost of the Yan Yean.

 

After 1923 the pumping station came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. In the 1950s the Botanic Gardens changed over to mains water supply.

 

In 1964, the Dight’s Falls Pumping Station, no longer required, was demolished

 

Its site can easily be located. It's immediately above the steeply sloping concrete wall and steps of the original installation on the Kew side of the Falls. It's reached by following the old maintenance road, now a gated walking track, which starts at Studley Park Rd, passing the viewing platform on the top of the bluestone pylon of the old bridge. The ends of the inlet pipes may be seen near the wall.

 

THE RESERVOIR

The Reservoir was a circular concrete basin 220 feet in diameter and 12 feet in depth with a capacity of 2,880,000 gallons. It was 60 feet above the highest point of Domain Hill, so once the water was pumped up into it, gravity sufficed  for conducting water by an 18 inch main over a specially constructed bridge at Walmer St via Richmond to the Botanic Gardens and the Albert Park Lake. En route it passed Studley, Richmond, Flinders, Fawkner and Yarra Parks and the Carlton, Fitzroy and Treasury gardens

 

A TRAGEDY

In October 1917 a boy of nine years was drowned in the Reservoir, due to the gates having been inadvertently left open. At the inquest it was announced that in future the reservoir enclosure would be securely locked, and notices posted, warning people of the danger of trespassing. 

 

CLOSURE

The Reservoir was decommissioned in the 1960s, and no physical trace remains. The Sir Arthur Rylah Oval now occupies the site, adjacent to the Boulevard Function Centre/Restaurant/Golf Course in Walmer St.

 

The Bridge over Walmer St is now a shared pedestrian/cycling bridge, which joins Victoria St, and is a link to the Main Yarra Trail.