Living By Water

465 Pages·2005·6.4 MB·English

For almost a hundred years Barwon Water and its
predecessors have supplied Geelong and the Barwon
region with their most important services; a safe water
supply and a sewerage system. Without these services the
modern city and region could not have developed as it
did. Water is vital to life and our modern community,
without it public health would be poor and industry Living
could not flourish.
By
Living By Water
Living By Water tells the story of how these vital
services were provided. It tells of the conditions out of Water
which Barwon Water emerged, of the people who played
a major role in its work and the effect it had on the
community. It is a story about what happened in the past
and it gives us the perspective to glimpse what may come A history of A history of Barwon Water
and what we should do in the future. Most importantly, Barwon Water
it highlights the environmental awareness the authority and its
has always had and its growth into a modern predecessors and its predecessors
environmental business serving its community.
Leigh Edmonds Leigh Edmonds
ISBN 0-9594919-4-5
www.barwonwater.vic.gov.au
BACK COVER IMAGE
FRONT COVER IMAGE West Barwon Reservoir (1965)
Lower Stony Creek Reservoir (1873)
Remember, our world is a globe suspended in space. A self-
contained world where all the forces of nature are intertwined.
Think of it as Gaia, an ancient symbol for all these intertwined
forces.
Seen from space, ours is basically a blue planet overlaid with
great swirls of white. It is a world of water. Vast blue oceans
cover most of its surface and the white clouds are water floating
in the air, part of the great cycle on which the entire
environment of our world depends. The power of the sun
evaporates countless billion tonnes of water daily, purifying it,
lifting it into the air and dropping some of it on our land as
Leigh Edmonds rain. All life on our land depends on water from that rain.
Without it, life shrivels and dies.
Leigh Edmonds is a practising consulting
historian of many years experience. He has studied, The water we use is harvested from that land by organisations
like Barwon Water, just as everything we eat is harvested. Since
taught and written in a wide range of historical areas
the inception of its predecessor almost a century ago, Barwon
including Australian, European. technological,
Water has known about the link between how we treat our
transport, communications and local history. He has
sources of water, the natural environment and our health and
been an International Scholar of the Society for the daily lives. Throughout, it has been committed to protecting
History of Technology. His particular interest is in how that link.
the development of modern technologies, industry,
business and politics has shaped our world. This is his Today we all understand what Barwon Water has known; Gaia -
the intertwined forces of nature - has to be preserved. We have
first major work in Victoria after having lived in Western
to think again about how we treat our environment, particularly
Australia for many years.
water that is fundamental to our daily lives. Each of us, from the
smallest child to the largest industry, has to treat water with
respect if our great and wonderful blue planet is to survive.
Remember, we hold its future in our hands.
GAIA
The Australian Oxford Dictionary(1999)
1. Gk Mythol. the earth personified as a goddess….
2. the earth viewed as a vast living organism.
Living By Water
Living By Water
A history of Barwon Water
and its predecessors
Leigh Edmonds
iv
First published 2005
© Barwon Region Water Authority
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be
reproduced by any process without written permission.
Edited by Graeme Vincent
Published and printed by Sands Print Group.
Hard Cover Edition - ISBN 0-9594919-5-3
Paperback Edition - ISBN 0-9594919-4-5
1. Victoria, Barwon Region Water Authority - History.
2. Water supply - History.
3. Sewerage - History.
4. Victoria, Geelong - History.
Barwon Region Water Authority
61-67 Ryrie Street, Geelong, Victoria
www.barwonwater.vic.gov.au
v
1921
Salus populi suprema lex esto
(Motto of the Geelong Waterworks and Sewerage Trust)
2003
‘Through excellence in customer service, environmental care and business
efficiency, we will be a leading provider of sustainable water and sewerage services.’
(Vision of the Barwon Region Water Authority)
vii
FOREWORD
Several months ago, the Victorian Government launched the Our Water Our
Future strategy that will revolutionise water use in Victoria. It sets out what we must
do to ensure our valuable water resources are protected. I believe it is a necessary
change and the key to a sustainable water future for us all.
How fortuitous then that Barwon Water has commissioned a history that looks
back over more than a century and a half of water use in Victoria. While it focuses
on developments in the Barwon region, it also says much about water use across the
entire state and explains the historical background to our new water policy.
I am not surprised Barwon Water commissioned this comprehensive history
because the authority has long been at the forefront of innovation in Victoria’s
water industry. Living By Water helps us understand how and why events unfolded
in the past and shows the environmental perspective that has always been present
in the water industry. It also reminds us that the water services we take for granted
are provided by people, many of whom have dedicated their lives to serving us. It
tells of their efforts and achievements against the background of wider political,
social, economic and environmental change over more than a century.
This history also reminds us of the power of symbols. In the past, Barwon
Water used the symbols of Hygieia and Aquarius, the ancient Greek goddess of
health and the water carrier, to explain its role in the community. This history
concludes by invoking the powerful symbol of Gaia, the living earth, to explain the
vital necessity of ensuring a sustainable future for our water supply. Gaia is a large
concept and so is the challenge that lies ahead of us. Living By Water helps us look
back to understand the world in which we live. This history also reminds us we
must learn from the past rather than be bound by it, so it will help us face the
future with greater wisdom.
John Thwaites
Minister for Water
October, 2004.
ix
CONTENTS
FOREWORD vii
CONTENTS ix
PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1 Settling by the Water, to 1860 9
CHAPTER 2 Water for Geelong, 1860-1910 41
CHAPTER 3 Sewering Geelong, 1906-1917 75
CHAPTER 4 Great Works, 1917-1929 105
CHAPTER 5 Problems, 1930-1950 139
CHAPTER 6 Working Family, 1951-1967 175
CHAPTER 7 Interesting Times, 1967-1983 225
CHAPTER 8 Reform, 1984-1993 279
CHAPTER 9 Revolution, 1993-2003 329
CONCLUSION From Past to Future Tense 363
APPENDIX I Chronology 371
APPENDIX II Our People 403
APPENDIX III Conversion Tables 437
REFERENCES References, Bibliography and Photographic Sources 439
INDEX 443
xi
PREFACE
Writing the history of Barwon Water and its predecessors has been an extremely
interesting and challenging project. Through it I have learned much and met some
wonderful people. I hope this history goes some way toward repaying the help
everyone has given me while I’ve been working on it and meets some of the
expectations of those who entrusted me with the history of their authority.
There are many people who have been very helpful during my work on Living By
Water and it seems odious to have to select a few for special mention. Everyone I have
had contact with at Barwon Water has been unfailingly helpful and I thank each and
every one for their assistance and encouragement. Without that help this book
would not have been what it is.
There are, however, some people I would like to especially thank for their direct
involvement in this project. Without some of them, this book would have been
impossible to write; without the assistance of some others, it would be a different
and poorer work than it is.
First are Stephen Vaughan (Chairman of Barwon Water) and Dennis
Brockenshire (Chief Executive) who saw the need for this history and made it
possible. Both have been very supportive, encouraging and helpful and their direct
involvement toward the end of the writing helped make much of the text far more
interesting, lively and thoughtful than it otherwise would have been.
Mike McCoy (an ex-Executive Manager of Barwon Water) has been my Virgil at
Barwon Water (though the authority is far too pleasant for that analogy to work
well). He has been an inexhaustible source of information and ideas for this
history, has read all the drafts carefully and made a valuable contribution to the final
result. I really cannot thank him enough for his support in this project.
Joe Adamski, Rachel Olney and Pauline McPherson have provided endless
support in countless little ways, and some big ones. They have contributed a great
deal to the ease with which this project has been carried out. Thanks also goes to
Damian O’Doherty (the survivor of many amalgamations) who, although he has not
been directly involved, has passed on many encouraging comments and a wealth of
experience in the wider Victorian water industry. In fact, everyone on the fourth
floor has made me feel right at home and been encouraging and helpful.
Others who have made a valuable contribution are Margaret Jellett on the first
floor, Janice Dart, Robert Barber and everyone in Corporate Communications,
Michael Malecki and Jim Fogarty in Administrative Services, Mary Humphries, who
helped with photographs, and Karen Taylor of the Social Club. My reception at
South Geelong has been equally helpful and I’d particularly like to thank Peter
Ashton, Peter Burns, David Sutherland, Carl Bicknell and Andrew Edmiston.
My great thanks also goes to all those who allowed me to interview them for this
project. The range of memories, perspectives and ideas was fascinating and very
useful. In addition, there were others who helped me with a passing comment here
or there and on more than one occasion a casual comment from someone in a lift
or corridor sparked a whole line of inquiry.
I have enjoyed my year and a half in the company of the people at Barwon Water
and I wish them as much enjoyment, success and sense of achievement from their
work in the future as the organisation has provided its people in the past.
L.E.