The Spotswood sewer tunnel is a

sanitary sewer A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

in Melbourne, Victoria. It was constructed in to take sewerage under 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 s ...

to the

Spotswood Pumping Station Scienceworks is a science museum in Melbourne, Australia. It is a venue of Museums Victoria which administers the cultural and scientific collections of the State of Victoria. It is located in the suburb of Spotswood. Opened on 28 March 199 ...

, where it was pumped to the Werribee Sewage Farm.Werribee Sewage Farm Victorian Heritage Database, Heritage Victoria
/ref> The

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1992, the MMBW was merged with a number of s ...

(MMBW) was created in 1892 and appointed eminent British engineer James Mansergh to advise on a suitable system. However, local engineer

William Thwaites General Sir William Thwaites, (9 June 1868 – 22 June 1947) was a British Army officer who served as commander of the British Army of the Rhine. Early life and education Thwaites was born in Kensington, the son of William Thwaites of Durham V ...

was responsible for the design and construction. The system included sewer mains from the

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...

and south-eastern suburbs, extending across

Fishermans Bend Fishermans Bend (formerly Fishermen's Bend) is a precinct within the City of Port Phillip and the City of Melbourne. It is located on the south of the Yarra River in the suburb of Port Melbourne and opposite Coode Island, close to the Melbourne ...

to a point opposite the pumping station. A tunnelling apparatus was imported from Britain, designed by British engineer James Henry Greathead. It consisted of a cylindrical shield, in diameter, made of cast iron and steel plate, which was driven into the soft

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...

clays by hydraulic rams. Air pressure inside the shield was maintained at two or three times atmospheric pressure to inhibit groundwater inflow, with an airlock to allow tunnellers to enter and exit. Cast-iron ring segments were bolted behind the shield as it advanced, and then the tunnel was lined with of concrete. On the night of 12 April 1895 (Good Friday), the shield failed, and the river flooded into the tunnel, drowning a young engineer and five workers. Three other men were waiting to enter through the air lock, and saw the incident through a small thick glass window, but were unable to do anything. Thousands of tons of clay were dumped in the riverbed to seal the hole and the tunnel pumped out. The bodies were recovered and work resumed under a new contractor, and the tunnel was completed 12 months later.'Tunnelling Triumph' Spotswood Pumping Station, Museum Victoria
/ref> A memorial for the six who died is located at the West Gate Bridge Memorial Park off Hyde Street.

References

External images

Segments of tunnel at Spotswood Pumping Station (Engineers Australia) on Flickr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spotswood sewer tunnel Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Sewerage infrastructure in Victoria (Australia) Tunnels in Victoria (Australia) Buildings and structures in the City of Hobsons Bay Yarra River 1895 establishments in Australia Infrastructure completed in 1895