Lost Landscapes: Victoria's Flumings

 

Kirks Reservoir, Ballarat

It hardly needs to be said that the 19th century Victorian landscape was radically different to our 21st century landscape. Of note however were two types of wooden structures which dominated the skyline. In the days, when gold mining was a dominant industry, the sight of poppet heads, especially in Central Victoria, would hardly have been cause for comment. Similarly, the wooden bridges which carried water across gullies, depressions or over ground not suitable for excavation, would have been well known to Victorian residents. These water bridges were known as 'flumes' or 'fluming' and have all but disappeared from our contemporary environment.

    Many of these flumes were quite photogenic, especially the larger and more elaborate of them. The above photo is of the fluming which once bordered Kirk's reservoir in Ballarat. This handsome structure was built in 1876 when Gong Gong Reservoir was constructed to augment Ballarat's water supply. Incoming water from the higher Beale's Reservoir and Pincott's Reservoir was channelled into this spectacular 300m flume and then directed either to Kirk's reservoir or to the new reservoir under construction on the other side of the Ballarat Daylesford Road.

    Along the Coliban Main Channel near Castlemaine there were many large wooden flumes. Probably the most spectacular was Byron's or Byrnes Flume which straddled a deep ravine on the eastern side of Mt Alexander but my favourite is the long flume which bridged Myrtle Creek not far from McKittericks Lane, Faraday. It's quite remarkable how much the countryside has changed here in 150 years. To the far left a bridge can be seen across Myrtle Creek. No sign of the bridge or road leading to it can be seen today. 

    One of the longest fluming structures in Victoria was in the Grampians near Stawell. Here's an 1881 engraving depicting various aspects of the Stawell Waterworks which brought water to that town from water storages in The Grampians.

        Here's another photo of the scheme below Barbican Rocks, once a favoured rock climbing site.

Photo: George Rose (ca. 1890 - ca. 1900)

    Further to the east, near Sea Lake, the Burra flume, straddling the lake bed, must have been visible for kilometres. (Photo SRWC 1952-55)

One of the highest flumes in Victoria was this one in the Upper Buckland area in the north east of the state. The sun appears to be illuminating the metal flume in this photo.

   

    Here's an earlier view of the Upper Buckland flume or perhaps a different flume in the same area. It may well have been rebuilt at some stage (bushfires regularly destroyed the old wooden flumes). 

Photo: Frederick Cornell (ca. 1866 - ca. 1890)

        Hundreds of flumes were constructed throughout Victoria to convey precious water to towns and mining sites but few compare with this giant flume built in Sydney. Owing to some very dry years and the incomplete nature of the Upper Nepean Water Scheme, the Potts Head flume was built in 1896 (as part of the Hudson Brothers Emergency Scheme). It was designed to carry water from Pipe Head to Botany Swamps which by then had only ten days supply remaining. The concrete pipeline shown here was doubled and still serves the residents of Sydney. The flume was dismantled in 1888

    Over time the old wooden flumes were replaced by concrete aqueducts and siphons (much like the pipeline shown above). In more recent times buried large diameter plastic polymer pipes have replaced open aqueducts and channels and, sadly, the remnants of the old gravity fed surface systems are gradually disappearing from view.