Busbys Bore Fountain

The Busby’s Bore Fountain commemorates the Busby Bore, a tunnel built to bring water from the Lachlan Swamp (now Centennial Park) to Hyde Park. John Busby, a mineral surveyor and civil engineer identified the Lachlan Swamp as a potential source of water for the city after completing a survey of existing and potential sources of water in 1825.

Busby described the water as ‘perfectly transparent and colourless, free from every taste and smell, and so soft as to be fit for washing and every other domestic purpose’. At that time, Sydney’s water supply was at best uncertain and the town had experienced a series of crises in its water supply due, in part, to drought.

Busby’s scheme to tap the Lachlan waters was adopted late in 1827. It was built by convicts and took some 10 years to complete. From 1830 the work, though unfinished, fortuitously provided significant quantities of water for public use as ground water filtered into the tunnel and seepage springs were tapped. The bore was Sydney’s sole source of water until 1859.

 

Source: City of Sydney.