Crown Street Reservoir

Severe drought in 1849 highlighted the limitations of Sydney’s drinking water supply, sourced from the Lachlan Swamps and delivered to Hyde Park by Busby’s Bore. A new source was proposed further downstream, known as the Botany Swamps, close to Botany Bay. Six dams were constructed on the Botany Swamps to store water.

A plan was hatched in the 1850s to transfer water from these ponds to Sydney. Such a scheme would require water to be pumped >7km, but there was no capacity to build a suitable engine in the colony.

A steam engine designed for pumping water was commissioned to be constructed by iron founders Thomas Perry & Son of Bilston, England. To house the machinery, the Botany Water Works were constructed on the northern bank of the Botany Swamps ponds during 1858. The Water Works included co-joined stone boiler and engine houses, and a 43m chimney.

There were three engines, which could be worked either separate or connected. Considerable controversy surrounded their design, but they were finally installed in 1858. Each pump was nominally 75 horsepower but said to operate at up to 100 hp (about 75 kW each).

To convey the water to Sydney, 2200 30-inch diameter iron pipes were shipped from England, laid end-to-end along a route from the Botany Water Works to Surry Hills. These were then joined and buried to form Sydney’s first pressurised rising main (shown in yellow).

The 30-inch rising main delivered water to a new covered reservoir at Surry Hills. The Crown Street Reservoir was built to service the Botany Swamps Scheme and completed in 1859. The roof was overlaid with topsoil to grow grass.

Crown Street Reservoir is still in operation and still plays an important role in supplying water to the City of Sydney (though that water comes from more recently developed sources). It occupies most of the block bound by Crown, Campbell, Riley & Reservoir Streets, Surry Hills.

Crown Street Reservoir was built partially in excavated rock sealed with bitumen, and finished with 300,000 waterproof glazed bricks, specially imported from England. The roof was built on cast iron girders supported on 170 ironbark columns.

From 1859 Crown Street Reservoir gravity-fed water to lower parts of the city, but in 1879 a second pumping station was completed on the Crown Street site to push water to newer reservoirs at higher elevations, supplying Paddington, Woollahra and Waverley Reservoirs.

The whole site is surrounded by the original 1850s sandstone and iron fence and the gate posts to the pumping station are easily discernible. From the back of the fancy café within, you can spot some old cast iron valves. Do they look 30-inch?