Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- Public Water Supply, Sale, Victoria
- In
- Engineering Heritage Victoria, Speakers Programme
- Imprint
- 17 August 2017
- Url
- https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/Event/public-water-supply-sale-victoria
- Abstract
Notable engineer-architect John Grainger designed and built Sale's first reticulated water supply in 1887/1888. Only the handsome brick water tower remains.
In 2016 a community movement began to restore this exceptional building as a water museum and visitor lookout.
With guidance from a Conservation Management Plan, the restoration and internal fittings should be complete by 2017, the centenary of the death of the tower's designer.
Apart from its important Grainger connection, water supply in Sale has been at the forefront of engineering endeavour, from the use of McComas lifts to assist watermen, to the use of artesian water as a source of supply, to the application of flexible membranes for storage.
The Sale Council was the first municipality in Australia to trial artesian water as a public water supply. Its artesian well of 1880, when water rose as high as 43 feet above the surface, caused much excitement and many inquiries from water authorities Australia-wide.