Water pump

This pump, erected in 1868, was preserved by the Municipal Council Paddington as an interesting relic of the district’s early water supply.

To it came many of the residents with buckets. Carts distributed water from it to the outlying parts of the district.

Excavations for the well were carried out by Mr W.J. Martin and the pump was supplied by the engineering firm of P.N. Russell.

Peter Nicol Russell worked at iron foundries owned by his family in Scotland and Tasmania before starting a foundry and engineering works with his brothers in Sydney on the banks of the Tank Stream in 1838. Four years later, Russell split from his brothers' business and founded his own operations where he remained for the next 13 years. In 1855 he reunited with his brothers, forming P. N. Russell & Company, which became the largest steelworks in Australia at the time.

Russell retired with significant wealth and gifted A£100,000 to the University of Sydney, where the Peter Nicol Russell School of Engineering was named in his honour.