Yan Yean Reservoir is the oldest water supply for the city of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. At the time of its completion in 1857 it was the largest artificial

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

in the world. It is north of the city within the eponymous locality of Yan Yean, and is built on the

Plenty River The Plenty River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the north-eastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian state of Victoria. Course and features The Plenty River rises in the forested slopes of Mount Disapp ...

, a tributary of the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stre ...

. An

embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railwa ...

high holds back of water. The reservoir is managed by

Melbourne Water Melbourne Water is a Victorian Government-owned statutory authority that controls and manages much of the water bodies and supplies in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, including the reservoirs, lakes, wetlands, canals and urban cree ...

as part of the water supply system for Melbourne.

History

The name Yan Yean refers to the Aboriginal leader who signed the

Batman's Treaty Batman's Treaty was an agreement between John Batman, an Australian grazier, businessman and coloniser, and a group of Wurundjeri elders, for the purchase of land around Port Phillip, near the present site of Melbourne. The document came to ...

in 1835 with the name "Yan Yan" ("young male").Jamie First
The A-Z story of Melbourne's suburbs
''Heraldsun.com.au'', 7 January 2014 (accessed on 11 September 2019) Work commenced on 20 December 1853 when Governor

Charles La Trobe Charles la Trobe, CB (20 March 18014 December 1875), commonly Latrobe, was appointed in 1839 superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and, after the establishment in 1851 of the colony of Victoria (now a state of Australi ...

turned the first

sod Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

. Construction took place at the height of the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

employing a tent city of 1,000 workers returning from the goldfields. The Board of Commissionaires of Sewers and Water Supply was formed that same year in response to the demand for a reliable water supply system.History of our water supply system
''Melbournewater.com.au'' (accessed on 11 September 2019) The reservoir took four years to construct at a cost of £750,000. Other sources estimate the cost of the project to be £1,017,087. Most of the pipes were imported from London.1853 - 2007 - Flow of History - Yan Yean Reservoir
''Onlymelbourne.com.ca'' (accessed on 11 September 2019) It was designed by James Blackburn, an English

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and former London sanitary inspector who was transported to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

as a

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

following charges of embezzlement. After being pardoned he came to Melbourne in 1849. The water was originally supplied by the Plenty River; however, the water quality was poor due to

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

crossings and pollution from rural towns. The problem was solved by bypassing the Plenty River and diverting water from Wallaby Creek and Silver Creek, both originating in the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

feeding the

Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...

. This mountain water was captured in the

Toorourrong Reservoir Toorourrong Reservoir is a small water supply reservoir located on the southern slopes of the Great Dividing Range approximately north of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The reservoir is formed by the Toorourrong Dam across the Plenty River, and ...

system, constructed in 1883–1885, and supplies water to Yan Yean via an aqueduct to this day. During its construction, the nearby neighbourhood

Mernda Mernda is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 28 km north-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Whittlesea local government area. Mernda recorded a population of 23,369 at the 2021 census. Hi ...

was created and grew rapidly. Morang became South Yan Yean, and later Mernda. At the time of its completion in 1857, it was the largest artificial reservoir in the world. Photographer

Fred Kruger Fred Kruger (born Johan Friedrich Carl Kruger, 18 April 1831 – 15 February 1888) was a German-born photographer noted for his early photography of landscape and indigenous peoples in Victoria, Australia. Migration to Australia from Germany ...

was commissioned by the government to provide images of the extensive works for display at the

Colonial and Indian Exhibition The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was held in South Kensington in London with the objective to (in the words of the then Prince of Wales) "stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majes ...

of 1886. By 1857, the city of Melbourne had grown to a population of 100,000. The reservoir was inaugurated in the city in 1857's new year's eve. The region was frequently hit by floods. The reservoir resisted a flood that hit Melbourne in 1923, and became the city's main water emergency resource after the incident. In 1871–72, it is an arid season that led to low water levels in the reservoir and a failure to distribute water throughout the city. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the catchment area was closed for security reasons.

Description

The site of the reservoir is 183 metres in altitude, allowing sufficient

hydraulic head Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of liquid pressure above a vertical datum., 410 pages. See pp. 43–44., 650 pages. See p. 22. It is usually measured as a liquid surface elevation, expressed in units of length, ...

for the water to be piped throughout the city under gravity. The dam is 963 metres long. The reservoir has a capacity of 30 gigalitres. The catchment covers 2,250 hectares.

Wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adap ...

sea eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s and

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

inhabit the area.

Recreational facilities

Yan Yean Reservoir Park offers picnic areas, barbecue facilities, walking tracks and views of the reservoir and surrounding mountains. The wetlands are used by

birdwatcher Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

s. Species include

musk duck The musk duck (''Biziura lobata'') is a highly aquatic, stiff-tailed duck native to southern Australia. It is the only living member of the genus '' Biziura''. An extinct relative, the New Zealand musk duck or de Lautour's duck (''B. delauto ...

, Australasian grebe,

great crested grebe The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display. Taxonomy The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in t ...

white-faced heron The white-faced heron (''Egretta novaehollandiae'') also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Ind ...

dusky moorhen The dusky moorhen (''Gallinula tenebrosa'') is a bird species in the rail family and is one of the eight extant species in the moorhen genus. It occurs in India, Australia, New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia. It is often confused with the purple s ...

Eurasian coot The Eurasian coot (''Fulica atra''), also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa. It has a slaty-bla ...

Latham's snipe Latham's snipe (''Gallinago hardwickii''), also known as the Japanese snipe, is a medium-sized, long-billed, migratory snipe of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Description The snipe is 29–33 cm long, with a wingspan of 50–54 ...

musk lorikeet The musk lorikeet (''Glossopsitta concinna'') is a lorikeet, now the only species in the genus ''Glossopsitta''. It inhabits south-central/eastern Australia. The little lorikeet and the purple-crowned lorikeet were previously included in the ge ...

eastern rosella The eastern rosella (''Platycercus eximius'') is a rosella native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania. It has been introduced to New Zealand where feral populations are found in the North Island (notably in the northern half of the island, Ta ...

superb fairywren The superb fairywren (''Malurus cyaneus'') is a passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae, and is common and familiar across south-eastern Australia. It is a sedentary and territorial species, also exhibiting a high degree of se ...

Red Wattlebird The red wattlebird (''Anthochaera carunculata'') is a passerine bird native to southern Australia. At in length, it is the second largest species of Australian honeyeater. It has mainly grey-brown plumage, with red eyes, distinctive pinkish-re ...

, grey butcherbird and grey fantail.

References

Bibliography

* Jones, Michael ''Nature's Plenty: a history of the City of Whittlesea'', Sydney, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 1992 * Tony Dingle, Helen Doyle, ''Yan Yean: A History of Melbourne's Early Water Supply'', 2003, Monash University {{Authority control Reservoirs in Victoria (Australia) 1857 establishments in Australia City of Whittlesea