Yan Yean Water Supply System Conservation Management Plan Volume 3: Assessment of Significance

Home , Coliban Water, Mernda, Plenty River (Victoria), Toorourrong Reservoir, Watts River, Yan Yean Reservoir

Yan Yean Water Supply System Conservation Management Plan Volume 3: Assessment of significance

Final May 2007

Prepared for Melbourne Water

Project Team:

Context Pty Ltd - David Helms, Natica Schmeder,

Chris Johnston, Jackie Donkin & Fae Ingledew

Godden Mackay Logan – Tony Brassil

Historians – Lesley Alves & Helen Doyle

Context Pty Ltd 22 Merri Street, Brunswick 3056 Phone 03 9380 6933 Facsimile 03 9380 4066 Email [email protected]

CONTENTS

PREFACE V

1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Purpose 1 1.1.1 Yan Yean water supply system CMP 1 1.1.2 Volume 3 – assessment of significance 1 1.2 Study area 1 1.3 Approach and methodology 2 1.4 Existing heritage listings 2 1.4.1 Local planning schemes 2 1.5.2 Victorian Heritage Register & Victorian Heritage Inventory 2 1.5.3 National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register 3 1.5.4 Register of the National Estate 3 1.5.5 National Heritage List 4 2 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 5 2.1 Silver Creek to Toorourrong Reservoir 5 2.1.1 Silver Creek system 5 2.1.2 Wallaby Creek system 7 2.1.3 The Cascades 10 2.1.4 Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Diversion Channel 10 2.2 Toorourrong Reservoir 11 2.3 Clearwater Channel 13 2.3.1 Clearwater Channel 13 2.3.2 Plenty River Junction and Yan Yean inlet channel 15 2.4 Yan Yean Reservoir 16 2.5 Yan Yean pipe reserve - Yan Yean Reservoir to Morang 19 2.5.1 Aqueduct and pipe reserve 19 2.5.2 Pipehead reservoir 21 2.6 Yan Yean pipe reserve – Pipehead reservoir to Preston 22 2.6.1 Pipe mains 22 2.6.2 Other historic features 22 2.7 Preston Reservoir complex 24 2.8 Yan Yean pipe reserve – Preston Reservoir to Merri Creek 26 2.8.1 Pipe mains 27 2.8.2 St Georges Road valve houses 27 2.8.3 Merri Creek pipe bridge ruins 28 3 HERITAGE ASSESSMENT 29 3.1 Basis of assessment 29 3.2 Discussion of heritage values 29 3.2.1 Historic values 29

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3.2.2 Aesthetic values 30 3.2.3 Scientific (technical) values 31 3.2.4 Social values 32 3.3 Comparative analysis 32 3.3.1 Water supply systems 32 3.3.2 Melbourne sewerage system 35 3.3.3 Railways 35 3.4 Assessment against Heritage Council criteria 36 3.4.1 Criterion A 36 3.4.2 Criterion B 37 3.4.3 Criterion C 37 3.4.4 Criterion D 38 3.4.5 Criterion E 38 3.4.6 Criterion F 39 3.4.7 Criterion G 39 3.5 Statement of significance 39 What is significant? 40 How is it significant? 41 Why is it significant? 41 3.6 Levels of significance 43 3.6.1 Primary significance 43 3.6.2 Secondary significance 44 3.6.3 Limited significance 44 3.7 Recommendations 46 3.7.1 Statutory registers 46 3.7.2 Extent of registration 46 APPENDIX A 48 Heritage Council (Heritage Victoria) criteria 48 Australian Historical Council (RNE) criteria 48 APPENDIX B 50 Indigenous and natural heritage values 50 Indigenous heritage 50 Natural heritage 51

PREFACE This is Volume 3 of the Conservation Management Plan for the Yan Yean water supply system The Yan Yean system CMP comprises six volumes as follows:

Volume 1: Executive Summary Volume 1 provides a summary of the study methodology and the key findings and

recommendations. Volume 2: History Volume 2 provides an explanation of the historic development of the Yan Yean system within the context

of the historic development of Melbourne and its water supply. It takes a thematic approach, drawing on the key themes set out in existing histories of the Yan Yean system such as Yan Yean. A history of Melbourne’s early water supply and Vital Connections. Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891-1991, and also looks beyond Victoria to the development of water supply systems in other parts of Australia during the nineteenth century. Volume 3: Heritage assessment Volume 3 provides an assessment of the cultural significance of heritage places associated with the Yan

Yean system, and concludes with a statement of significance for the whole of the Yan Yean system. Volume 4: Conservation policy The history in Volume 2 and heritage assessment in Volume 3 provides the basis for the conservation

policies and management strategies in Volume 4, which includes recommendations to manage the heritage values of the Yan Yean system and implement the CMP. Volume 5: Heritage place and Volume 5 contains place records for all of the heritage precinct citations places associated with the Yan Yean system, which a detailed history, physical description, photographs and statement of significance. The place records are derived from the Melbourne Water Yan Yean system HERMES database. Volume 6: Appendices Volume 6 contains the following reports that provide background or additional information:

Yan Yean water supply system CMP & interpretation plan project management plan (March 2006) Context Pty Ltd Indigenous cultural heritage values of the Yan Yean system. Draft report for Context Pty Ltd (November 2005) Heritage Insight Yan Yean water supply system: A review of natural heritage values (December 2005) Ecology Australia Interpretation Plan M57 water main replacement project (2006) Context Pty Ltd.

Figure 1 The Yan Yean system (As reproduced in Dingle & Doyle 2003:34)

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Purpose

1.1.1 Yan Yean water supply system CMP This report is Volume 3 of the Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for the Yan Yean Water Supply System (hereafter referred to as the ‘Yan Yean system’). The purpose of the Yan Yean system CMP is to: • Prepare a historical and physical analysis of the Yan Yean system (based on the published history plus supplementary research). • Assess the natural, historic and Indigenous significance of the Yan Yean system and the relative contribution of its components to its significance. • Develop conservation policies and a management strategy to guide the future conservation, use and development of the Yan Yean system in a manner that minimises impact on its significance. • Prepare, as a priority, an Interpretation Plan to guide the fulfilment of the requirements of the Heritage Victoria consent. The CMP recognises that the Yan Yean system is an important and functioning element of the Melbourne Water network and that the conservation policies will need to carefully balance conserving significance against the need to ensure that the system continues to meet appropriate standards now and into the future. Or, in the words of the NSW Heritage Office: Retaining the value of a heritage asset presents certain constraints and opportunities on development but should not be seen as a block to future development. If heritage significance is fully understood, then works can be proposed that achieve the item’s continuing use, including new development. Adaptation and development may in fact be inspired by and enhance heritage significance, or at least minimise negative impacts.

1.1.2 Volume 3 – assessment of significance This report is one of two that addresses the first two tasks listed in section 1.1.1 and provides an assessment of the cultural (historic) heritage values of the Yan Yean system. It includes: • A summary of existing heritage listings for the system (Section 1.5). • A description of the existing physical condition and integrity of the system (Chapter 2). • An assessment of significance including a discussion of heritage values, comparative analysis and Heritage Council criteria assessment (Chapter 3). It concludes with a statement of significance for the Yan Yean system and recommendations for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register (Chapter 3). This volume should be read in conjunction with the Yan Yean Water Supply System History, which comprises Volume 2 of the CMP. The assessment of significance contained in this volume provides the basis for the conservation policies and management strategy (including an interpretation plan), which comprises Volume 4 of the CMP.

1.2 Study area For the purposes of this Study, the Yan Yean system is defined as that part of the water supply system extending from the Silver Creek and Wallaby Creek catchments in the

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north, through to the point where the system crosses Merri Creek in Northcote as shown in Figure 1.

1.3 Approach and methodology This assessment has been prepared in accordance with The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance (1999) and its guidelines. A detailed description of the methodology is provided in the Yan Yean water supply system CMP & interpretation plan project management plan in Volume 6 – Appendices. It is noted that: • The Heritage Council of Victoria criteria have been used in the assessment of significance. • In accordance with the Brief, the threshold of State significance has been used as the basis for assessing the significance of the Yan Yean system. • This assessment considers only the historic heritage values of the Yan Yean system. As part of the scoping phase of this project preliminary investigation was carried out into other heritage values associated with the system and overview statements in relation to potential values associated with Indigenous and natural heritage values are provided in Appendix B.

1.4 Existing heritage listings This section provides a summary about the existing heritage listings of the Yan Yean system and its components. Further information about each list and its statutory implication (e.g., permit requirements for future development) is provided in Volume 4.

1.4.1 Local planning schemes The following features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently included within the Heritage Overlay of local planning schemes:

Planning Scheme Item HO City of Whittlesea Bear’s Castle HO43 Yan Yean Reserve, Cades Lane, Yan Yean As above Yan Yean Reservoir Access Road HO48 Access road to Park & Caretaker’s Cottage As above Caretaker’s Cottage* HO46 Yan Yean Reserve Road, Yan Yean As above Yan Yean Valve house HO47 Yan Yean Reserve Road, Yan Yean As above Flume/Aqueduct on Plenty River* HO13 South of Bridge Inn Road, Mernda As above Bluestone Valve Building HO25 Rear Wright Court, Mill Park As above Bluestone Bridge over Darebin Creek HO3 Rear Bickley Avenue, Bundoora

1.5.2 Victorian Heritage Register & Victorian Heritage Inventory The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) provides a listing of Victoria’s most significant places, objects and historic shipwrecks. The Victorian Heritage Inventory (VHI) lists all known archaeological sites and relics. Places may be on one or both lists. All places on the

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VHR and the VHI are legally protected under the Heritage Act 1995. As previously noted, the requirements of this Act are described in Volume 4. The following features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently included on the VHR: • H1417 – Yan Yean Caretaker’s Cottage, 135 Reservoir Road, Yan Yean • H1418 – Flume over Plenty River on the Yan Yean pipe track at Mernda • H1420 – Bear’s Castle, Cades Lane, Plenty Catchment Park, Yan Yean reservoir • H1416 – Water Tank, Cocoroc Road, Melbourne Water Western Treatment Plant, Werribee. This tank was formerly located in East Melbourne and was used as a holding tank for Yan Yean water from 1857-92. In 1892 it was relocated to its present site at the Metropolitan Sewerage Farm. The following features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently included on the VHI: • H7922-0185 – Yan Yean Reservoir Valve House and Channel, 135 Reservoir Road, Yan Yean • H7922-0281 – Yan Yean Water Supply System – Pipe track, Whittlesea City • H7822-0281 – Yan Yean Pipe Track, McDonalds Road to Tunaley Parade, Yan Yean • H7922-0282 – Yan Yean Stone Culvert, off Arthurs Creek Road, Doreen • H7922-0203 – Yan Yean Water Supply, off McKimmies Road, Bundoora

1.5.3 National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register provides a list of places that are either listed or classified by the Trust. Classification or listing by the Trust does not impose any legal restrictions on private property owners or occupiers and the Trust does not have any statutory legal powers. The following features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently included on the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register: • Caretakers Cottage – Yan Yean reservoir (B3775) • Yan Yean Reservoir Park & water catchment (L10263) • Bear’s Castle (B1502) • River God Fountain – Fitzroy Gardens (B6777– note: this feature does not form part of the Yan Yean system, but has historical associations as it was erected c.1862 to celebrate the completion of the project)

1.5.4 Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate (RNE) is a national inventory of natural and cultural heritage places. It was compiled by the now defunct Australian Heritage Commission, and is currently kept by the Australian Heritage Council. Entry on the Register does not place any legal constraints on the actions of owners of private property. The following features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently found on the RNE. Only one of them has been registered on the RNE, while others are indicative places (i.e., nominated), and one was identified from the VHR: • Bears Castle, Cades Road, Yan Yean (ID: 5621) - Registered

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• Yan Yean Caretaker’s Quarters, Reservoir Road, Yan Yean (ID: 15099) – Identified through State processes • Yan Yean Dam (ID: 101504) – Indicative Place • Yan Yean Reservoir, Park & associated features (ID: 102615) – Indicative Place • Silver, Granite, Mud & Hellhole Weirs Aqueducts & Tunnels, Kinglake West (ID: 102611) – Indicative Place • Wallaby Creek Weir, Aqueduct & associated sites (ID: 102612) – Indicative Place • The Cascades, Kinglake West (ID: 102613) – Indicative Place • Toorourrong-Yan Yean Clear Water Channel & Plenty River Gates, Whittlesea (ID: 102614) – Indicative Place • Toorourrong Reservoir & Park, Jacks Creek Road, Whittlesea (ID: 102616) – Indicative Place

1.5.5 National Heritage List The National Heritage List comprises places of natural, historic and Indigenous places that are of outstanding national heritage value to the Australian nation. Each place in the List is assessed by the Australian Heritage Council as having national heritage values, which can be protected and managed under a range of Commonwealth powers. A place entered in the National Heritage List is a national heritage place. Places on the list are protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This requires that approval is obtained before any action takes place which has, will have, or is likely to have, a significant impact on the national heritage values of a listed place. Proposals for actions which could affect such values will be rigorously assessed. No features associated with the Yan Yean system are currently included on the National Heritage List.

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2 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Volume 2 of the Yan Yean system CMP provides a comprehensive account of the historical development of the system in the context of the development of Melbourne’s water supply. This chapter provides a summary of the key features associated with the historic development of the Yan Yean system from 1853 to c.1950. For further detail about each feature, please refer to the appropriate place record in Volume 5 of the CMP. As shown on Map 1 on the following page, the Yan Yean system extends from north of the Great Dividing Range to Merri Creek in Northcote, 5 kilometres north of the Melbourne Central Business District. For the purposes of this study, it has been broken up into the following components: • Silver Creek Weirs to Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Diversion Channel • Toorourrong Reservoir • Clearwater Channel • Yan Yean Reservoir complex • Pipe reserve – Yan Yean to South Morang (Pipehead Reservoir) • Pipe reserve – South Morang to Preston • Preston Reservoir complex • Pipe reserve – Preston to Merri Creek Map 1 shows the decade of construction for key features of the Yan Yean system.

2.1 Silver Creek to Toorourrong Reservoir The Yan Yean system begins on the northern side of the Great Dividing Range, in Kinglake West. This northernmost section of the system comprises the following key elements: • Silver Creek system • Wallaby Creek system • The Cascades • Jacks Creek & Jacks Creek diversion channel This part of the system has a high degree of integrity and is generally in good condition, as described below.

2.1.1 Silver Creek system The Silver Creek system, constructed in 1883-86 comprises a series of four weirs that diverts the flow of that creek and its tributaries into a granite-lined aqueduct that winds its way 12.8 km, through two tunnels, to the Wallaby Creek Weir. The largest of the four weirs, known as the Silver Creek Weir is of granite masonry construction, measuring 38.1 metres long and 1 metre high. The foundations are of concrete, kept in position by sheet piling. A stepped spillway is located in the centre wall, similar to that at Wallaby Creek Weir, and there is an inlet and outlet gate on either side of the wall, connecting the weir with the Silver Creek Aqueduct.

YAN YEAN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM CMP

The flow is supplemented by three smaller weirs known respectively as ‘Granite’ or ‘Stony’ (also known as No.1), ‘Mud’ (No. 2) and ‘Hellhole’ (No. 3). The three smaller weirs are connected by a series of channels that decrease in size according to the size of the tributary, with the smallest (from Hellhole Weir) measuring 1.5 metres across the top to 0.3 metres at the base of the channel (refer to Figure 3). The three tributary channels are flat bottomed, unlike the curved base of the main Silver Creek aqueduct. The Silver Creek aqueduct, like the main Wallaby Creek aqueduct, is lined with granite pitchers, but is smaller in section, measuring 7 feet 1 inch (2.1 metres) across at the top and tapers into the curved bottom of the channel. It has two tunnels along its course. Figure 2 Cross sections of aqueducts on the Yan Yean system (Gibbs, 1925:86)

2.1.2 Wallaby Creek system Wallaby Creek Weir The Wallaby Creek Weir, constructed in 1880-83, is built of granite masonry with a stepped granite spillway. There is a timber inlet gate connecting to the Silver Creek aqueduct and similar pair of outlet gates that lead to the Wallaby Creek aqueduct (refer to Figure 4). The Weir has a high degree of integrity with few modifications; In 2005-06 the timber gates were replaced using similar materials, and a steel platform was constructed in 2006 to facilitate maintenance. There are several mature exotic trees in the vicinity of Wallaby Weir including a Giant Redwood (Sequoia giganteum) and a Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). According to a sign on site, these were planted in the 1920s. Figure 3 Wallaby Creek Weir, at left, showing the timber outlet gates leading to the aqueduct, shown at right (Context Pty Ltd, 2006)

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Wallaby Creek Aqueduct The Wallaby Creek Aqueduct, constructed in 1880-83 is lined with granite blocks set in cement. It measures 3.7 metres across at the top, narrowing at the bottom. At regular intervals there are straight-sided sections, with lower pits apparently for collecting sediment. The granite pitchers were quarried from the nearby Nimmo Falls Quarry (see below). Soon after leaving Wallaby Weir, the aqueduct passes through a small tunnel lined with granite blocks. From here it hugs the northern spur of Mount Disappointment to a low saddle where it discharges into the Cascades. It is in good condition and has a high degree of integrity. However, there are problems with leakage and, as a result, repairs have been carried out at various points along the aqueduct. Wallaby Creek Quarters Just south of the Wallaby Creek Weir on the eastern side of the aqueduct is the Wallaby Creek Quarters; a group of buildings in landscaped grounds. The layout of the site is shown in Map 2. The earliest building, constructed c.1884, is the Caretaker’s residence, which is of drop-log construction. Other early buildings include the Single Men’s Quarters and the Stables, and the sleeping quarters, which were added in 1928, while the site was used as an MMBW lodge, and the present kitchen in 1930. There are a number of other, more recent buildings on the site. The buildings were not closely inspected, but appear to be in good condition. Nimmo Falls quarry site This quarry, established c.1880s, which provided the source of material for the weir and aqueduct, is situated on the south side of Wallaby Creek, a few hundred metres to the west of the Wallaby Creek Weir. Exotic tree plantations Mature stands of exotic trees including pines, redwoods and conifers planted in the 1920s and 30s are situated on either side of the aqueduct downstream from the Wallaby Creek Quarters. Figure 4 Wallaby Creek Quarters (Context Pty Ltd, 2006)

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2.1.3 The Cascades The Cascades, constructed in 1885, is a stepped water channel used to break the velocity of the Wallaby Creek Aqueduct and aerate the water as it enters Jacks Creek, falling into basins at the bottom. It is cut out of the soft local stone, a schist, and lined with granite blocks. The length of the incline is 228 metres and the total vertical drop is 37 metres. There are three sections, each of varying steepness. The Cascades appears to be in good condition with a high degree of integrity. There is a scour gate at the top of The Cascades to catch debris – originally of timber construction, this has been replaced in steel. A concrete by-pass drain was constructed adjacent to the scour gate in 2005. A staircase of granite pitchers runs parallel to The Cascades on the east side. It post-dates The Cascades, and was installed to provide access for day-trippers who had come to admire The Cascades and their surroundings. It is now in poor condition. Figure 5 The Cascades (Context Pty Ltd, 2006)

2.1.4 Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Diversion Channel This section of the Yan Yean system, generally extending from the base of The Cascades to the Toorourrong Reservoir contains the Jacks Creek Aqueduct and Jacks Creek Diversion Channel. It was constructed in 1883-85 as part of the Wallaby Creek additions. From the pool at the bottom of the Cascades, water flows into Jacks Creek. The natural course of the creek is protected by concrete walls and lengths of cut timber at the junction with The Cascades. Water then flows down the natural course of the creek until it reaches the Diversion Channel (or ‘Breakaway’), where the original course of Jacks Creek is diverted into the Jacks Creek Aqueduct. There is evidence of a ‘drop-gate’ at the junction. The Diversion Channel and Aqueduct are lined with mudstone. The Aqueduct runs about 5 km, and descends by a series of steps, about 2 metres wide on the steepest section and gradually increasing in width as the gradient gently decreases near the Toorourrong Reservoir.

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2.2 Toorourrong Reservoir As noted in Volume 2 Toorourrong Reservoir was built in 1883-85 as a settling basin for the fast-flowing waters of Wallaby Creek and Silver Creek and to provide additional storage capacity. As shown on Map 3 it covers 15 hectares and is formed by an embankment of 300 metres long across the valley of the Plenty River East branch just below the junction with Jacks Creek. The dam consists of an earthwork embankment with a puddled clay core wall and stone facing on the inner slope (shown in Figure 6 at left). There is a stone-lined spillway at the north end of the dam (Figure 6, centre), and an outlet into the Clearwater Channel aqueduct at the south end (Figure 6, right). Figure 6 Toorourrong Reservoir (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

On the west and south side of Toorourrong Reservoir is a landscaped park with mature native and exotic trees and picnic area surrounding a pond. The trees include many mature Monterey Pines (Pinus radiata) - particularly along the slopes to the south of the reservoir (refer to Figure 7, left) - as well as other species such as a Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis). There are also a number of Oaks including a Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) in the far south-west corner. There is a 1960s era toilet block and picnic furniture dating from the post-war era is dotted throughout the grounds. The entrance roads to the reservoir have bluestone kerbs and channels (Figure 7, right). Figure 7 Toorourrong Reservoir park (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

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The former Caretaker’s House (constructed 1928-29) is situated adjacent to the Clearwater Channel as shown at left in Figure 8. It is a brick bungalow with a hipped tile roof, which is in good condition and appears to be externally intact. This replaced an earlier building, now demolished, which was situated on a raised site closer to the dam wall - this is now marked by stone steps (Figure 8, centre) and some remnant ornamental trees such as the old ornamental peach (shown at right in Figure 8). Figure 8 Toorourrong Reservoir caretakers residence (existing and site of former) (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

2.3 Clearwater Channel

2.3.1 Clearwater Channel The Clearwater Channel, constructed in 1885, is an aqueduct that extends from Toorourrong Reservoir to Yan Yean Reservoir. It is in good condition and has a very high degree of integrity. Figure 9 The Clearwater Channel, southeast of Whittlesea (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

For most of its length, it is an open channel about 4 metres wide and 1.4m deep, constructed of bluestone and granite pitchers, with angled side walls. The banks on either side of the Channel are raised above the level of surrounding land. It is set within a 30m wide reservation that contains a mix of exotic, native and indigenous trees. The predominant species used is Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata), which form a distinctive element in the landscape that marks the path of the Channel. Many of the trees are up to

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100 years old and some are in decline. Melbourne Water has removed some trees in poor condition in the section that passes through Whittlesea township. It is not an aqueduct for the whole of its length; at a place adjacent to Wildwood Road between the Toorourrong Reservoir and Whittlesea it enters a pipe for a short length where it traverses a steep hillside. This feature is known as ‘Siphon Hill’. Further downstream the Channel is carried in a short wrought iron flume where it crosses Scrubby Creek on the west side of the Whittlesea Showgrounds. Other features include: • Drops and Scour Gates. Drops are features where the Channel abruptly changes level, while Scour Gates are features designed to catch debris – the latter features were originally constructed with timber slats, which have now been replaced with steel. Drops are found at regular intervals along the Channel, while there are Scour Gates at the top of Siphon Hill and just north of Cades Road, 7.3 km from Toorourrong Reservoir.

• Aqueduct covers. These are constructed of curved corrugated iron on wrought iron frames and are situated adjacent to public roads in three locations where the Channel passes through Whittlesea township. They are intended to prevent dust and pollutants from entering the channel.

• Bridges. These are situated along the length of the Channel on public roads, and to provide local access for abutting landowners and maintenance crews. Originally constructed of timber, many have been replaced in concrete and in 2005 only three timber bridges survive, all of which appear to date from the post-war period. The example shown is No. WBRG309.

• Catch drains. These are mostly earthen drains that run along the side of the Channel to prevent polluted water entering from adjoining land. In some instances close to the Channel they are lined with stone. The example shown is adjacent to Bridge No. WBRG310.

• Overtrains. These are pipes which collect and carry run-off from the catch drains across the Channel. The example shown in the illustration includes a pit and a timber lined underground drain that carries the run-off under the banks. The example shown is situated between WBRG309 and WBRG310, southeast of Whittlesea • Underdrains. These have a similar function to overtrains, but convey the water under the Channel.

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2.3.2 Plenty River Junction and Yan Yean inlet channel A major feature of the Clearwater Channel aqueduct is the Plenty River Junction, 7.6 km below Toorourrong Reservoir and 3.2 km north of Yan Yean Reservoir inlet. Here the aqueduct meets the original inlet from the Plenty River just north of the Yan Yean Reservoir. As noted in Volume 2, this water source became polluted by encroaching settlement and was closed off in 1884. Water from the Clearwater Channel leaves the aqueduct to run into a wider, rectangular passage preceding a short drop into a pool where it once met the Plenty River. On the west side of the pool, about 100 metres back, sluice gates on broad granite pillars blocks the original inlet from the Plenty River, leaving a dry bed between the gates and the junction. Figure 10 Plenty River Junction showing the Clearwater Channel inlet (foreground) and sluice gates at rear (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

The channel continues southward for 2.8 km, entering a 0.4 km inlet tunnel just west of Yan Yean Reservoir. This channel and inlet tunnel was constructed as part of the original Yan Yean system in the 1850s, and was linked to the Clearwater Channel when it came on line in 1884. The aqueduct is about 4 metres wide and 1.4 metres deep, and constructed of granite and bluestone pitchers. The inlet tunnel to Yan Yean is about 30 metres long and enters the reservoir via a bluestone-lined channel about 50 metres long. The entry to the tunnel is bluestone faced with a manually operated sluice gate.

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2.4 Yan Yean Reservoir As shown in Map 4 the Yan Yean Reservoir complex comprises a number of features associated with the original construction of the Yan Yean system in 1853-57. Major alterations were carried out to the dam wall in 1999 and some items have been decommissioned, but the complex as a whole retains a reasonably high level of integrity. The only historic feature not extant is the bluestone basin that was constructed c.1875 close to Arthurs Creek Road at the commencement to the aqueduct to South Morang – this is now the site of the Melbourne Water pumping station. The surviving historic features comprise: • Yan Yean Reservoir. This is an earth fill embankment with a ‘puddled clay’ core. The height of the wall is 9.6 metres and it is 963 metres in length. The volume of fill is 206,000 cubic metres. The reservoir volume is 30,085 ML and it covers an area of 560 hectares at full supply level. Within the dam is a bluestone outlet tower (shown at right - now decommissioned). The dam wall was reinforced in 1999-2000, necessitating the move (and reconstruction) of a bluestone former valve house and channel several metres to the west (see below).

• Valve house and channel. Below the bank are the bluestone octagonal valve house (constructed in 1853-57) and a short section of bluestone channel constructed when the pipe to South Morang was replaced with an aqueduct in 1874-75. Both structures were moved about 10 metres to the present location in 1999 to allow for strengthening of the dam wall. Samples of early cast iron pipes are also displayed.

• Inlet tunnel and channel. The inlet tunnel, constructed 1853-57, to the reservoir is about 30m long and enters the reservoir via a bluestone and granite-lined inlet channel about 50m long. The channel walls where it enters the reservoir are cracked as the result of subsidence.

• Bywash. Part of the original reservoir fabric dating from 1853-57, this is constructed of local, hand worked bluestone and measures about 12 metres wide. It is located next to the modern outlet tower and connects to a bluestone-lined channel that leads in a straight line direct to the Plenty River (shown at right), passing under Recreation Road. Originally designed to deliver overflow to the Plenty River, it rarely performs this function now. It is in good condition.

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• Caretaker’s house and garden. This is a Victorian- era residence, which as noted in Volume 1 was constructed in two stages. The first stage, dating from 1853-57, faces the reservoir and is of rendered stone with a low-pitched M-hipped roof clad in corrugated iron surrounded by a separate verandah. There are bluestone steps and sills. The 1860 addition comprises the weatherboard section at the rear (west) side. The house once had a well-tended garden, however, little of this survives today. The house now stands in open lawn with some remnant shrubs and mature trees including a three Bunya Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii) a Chusan (or Fan) Caretakers residence (above) and steps leading palm (Trachycarpus fortunei? or Livistonia sp.?), to boathouse (below) (Context Pty Ltd, 2007) Oaks (including a multi-trunked Holm Oak, Quercus ilex), a Stone Pine (Pinus pinea) and an Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). A stone edged gravel pathway and steps leads from the house down the hill toward the boatshed at the edge of the reservoir. According to the RNE place record, a wooden water tank is said to be located amongst the trees to the north of the residence about 50m above the reservoir. It is described as ‘a sturdy structure constructed of Oregon, which was tarred inside to provide water tightness’1. This tank was not located and it is not known if it survives. • Boathouse. The site of the boathouse is on the edge of the reservoir immediately below the caretaker’s house. The present boathouse is a colourbond clad shed of recent construction that apparently replaced an earlier structure, which is described in the RNE place record for this site2. The shed is surrounded by stone walls set into the bank and an iron slipway leads to the reservoir. The RNE place record also records the existence of a ‘bogie’ said to be located near the inlet tunnel. This is described as ‘a timber- framed structure mounted on two sets of iron bogie wheels, with old pieces of railway track used to strengthen the base’. This item was not seen and it is not known whether it has survived.

1 Register of the National Estate, Place ID: 102615, File No. 2/14/054/0023 2 ibid

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• MMBW depot. The MMBW depot behind the house comprises corrugated iron-clad gabled buildings surrounded by asphalt car parking areas.

• Parkland. The balance of the publicly accessible parts of the site is a public park that includes recent (post-Second World War) developments such as a car park, c.1970s toilet block and other accretions. This area contains many mature trees such as pines that may be remnants of the planting carried out from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, as well as some indigenous trees that may be remnants of the original landscape such as this old gum by the entrance shown at right.

The surrounding catchment area is planted with mix of native and exotic plants including Sugar Gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) and Monterey Pines (Pinus radiata) and other species. Located within the catchment is ‘Bear’s Castle’, an unusual building that pre-dates the establishment of the reservoir and is thought to be associated with the original pastoral occupation of this area. It is a small two-storey fortress style building constructed c.1847 of cob on a stone base, with corner turrets and lancet windows.

2.5 Yan Yean pipe reserve - Yan Yean Reservoir to Morang This is the section of the Yan Yean system that connects Yan Yean Reservoir to the (now decommissioned) Pipehead Reservoir adjacent to McDonalds Road in South Morang. As described in Volume 2, this section of the system was originally constructed as a pipe, and then converted to an open bluestone aqueduct in 1874-75 to increase the rate of flow to Melbourne. The walls of the aqueduct were raised in 1918-19 to again increase capacity. The system was converted to a pipe again in 1961, with the pipe inserted into the aqueduct and covered over.

2.5.1 Aqueduct and pipe reserve As described below, the character of this section of the pipe reserve changes over its journey from Yan Yean to South Morang. At the beginning, south of Arthurs Creek Road the pipe and former aqueduct are barely visible above ground and there is no evidence of dry stone walls, which do not appear until the pipe reserve passes Bridge Inn Road. As the pipe reserve continues southward, it begins to emerge from the ground so that by the time it reaches Gordons Road at South Morang it presents as an earth-covered mound approximately 1m above the height of the surrounding land. Parts of the bluestone and brick walls of the old aqueduct can be seen along the sides of the embankment.

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The surviving historic features within this section of the Yan Yean system include: • Pipe reserve – Yan Yean Reservoir to Bridge Inn Road. The pipe reserve begins its journey southward crossing Arthurs Creek Road parallel to Watts Road. In this location it is barely visible above the ground and dry stone walls do not appear to be a significant feature (although only the parts of the pipe reserve adjacent to public roads were inspected and so dry stone walls may exist in other locations). As with other parts of the pipe reserve, material from the former aqueduct such as bluestone blocks is randomly scattered along its length. An identified feature in this section (situated approximately 500m south of Arthurs Creek Road) is a dressed bluestone culvert with an associated stone-lined open drain and a large cast- iron pipe.

Pipe reserve – Bridge Inn Road to Plenty Road In this section, the pipe and former aqueduct start to become more visible. Dry stone walls, constructed of fieldstone or bluestone (mostly in ruinous condition), are found in this section and the bluestone capping of the aqueduct is still visible above ground in some places. The reserve contains a mix of indigenous and native trees including River Red Gums (E, camaldulensis) and Sugar Gums (E. cladocalyx). A key feature is the Plenty River Flume (see below). • Plenty River Flume. Situated at the Plenty River south of Bridge Inn Road, this was constructed in 1879 to carry the aqueduct over the Plenty and remained in service until 1960. The flume is of bolted wrought iron plate construction, about 1.5 x 1.2 metres and 70 metres long and is supported by three bluestone piers. It was covered with timber when in use, but is now open. Apart from this it appears to be intact and it is in excellent condition Pipes replacing the flume are visible next to it on the west side.

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• Pipe reserve - Plenty Road to McDonalds Road In this section, the former aqueduct and pipe becomes more prominent and appears as an earth covered mound approximately 1m above the level of surrounding ground as shown in the view at right, which is south of Gordons Road. However, the character of this section is being changed by encroaching urban development. In the area to the north of Gordons Road, the reserve passes throughout a housing estate and all traces of the aqueduct and dry stone walls have all but been obliterated by inappropriate landscaping. Similar development is now occurring to the south of Gordons Road, which involves at least one road crossing of the reserve (to be known as Vincent Drive). Dry stone walls continue and there is a very intact and well-constructed section near the intersection of Plenty Road and McArthurs Lane, South Morang shown at right.. Other features in this section include bluestone and brick drainage culverts south of Gordons Road (shown at right, below) and about 500 metres north of McDonalds Road, where the Whittlesea Railway line once crossed the pipeline.

This section contains the most extensive plantings of Sugar Gums as well as some remnant River Red Gums.

2.5.2 Pipehead reservoir The Pipehead Reservoir, constructed in 1873-75, is situated on the north side of McDonalds Road, South Morang and originally formed the southern terminus of the Morang Aqueduct. It was an open, square basin lined with bluestone and brick and had a capacity of 3 million gallons. It measured 14 feet in depth and was approximately 56 feet square. The Morang Aqueduct fed into the basin in the northeast corner, and the outlet pipe was on the east side. The reservoir was decommissioned in the early 1960s and filled in. Recent test excavations indicate that although there is damage to the top of the reservoir walls some of the structure appears to remain intact.

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2.6 Yan Yean pipe reserve – Pipehead reservoir to Preston This section of the pipe reserve varies between 40-60m in width and covers a distance of just over 10 km of which 9 km is within a separate pipe track reserve and 1 km within the Cheddar Road median strip. For much of this section, the pipe reserve is a featureless band of open space that runs through the middle of housing estates, across areas of open space and eventually, within the median strip of Cheddar Road. There is little vegetation, indigenous or exotic along this section of the pipe reserve (pines were once a feature of the Cheddar Road median, but these have been removed).

2.6.1 Pipe mains As noted in Volume 2, three mains (known as the No.1, No.3 and No.5 mains) were laid in this reserve between 1857 and 1887. The No.1 and No.3 mains remained in use for almost 150 years and were important secondary transfer mains covering the zone between Morang and Preston, supplying a number of residential and industrial customers. However, corrosion of the pipelines and additional pressure on the mains where road crossings had been constructed (which resulted in pipe bursts) required Melbourne Water to undertake works between 2003 and 2006 to upgrade the infrastructure. These works involved the removal of sections of each of the three mains and the construction of a new main generally in the place of the No.5 main. As a consequence of these works sections of each main were removed as described below: • The No.1 Main. This is the original main put into commission for the opening of the Yan Yean Water Supply in 1857. The No.1 main is a cast iron pipe with a 27 inch (675mm) nominal bore (NB). Small sections of the No.1 main were removed in the vicinity of seven key road crossings along the pipe reserve in 2003 and it was decommissioned (i.e. taken out of service) in 2006. • The No.3 Main. This was originally laid between Yan Yean and Morang and put into commission for the opening of the system in 1857. It comprises cast iron pipes with a 30 inch (750mm) NB. This pipe was lifted in the 1870s when the bluestone aqueduct was built between Yan Yean and Morang and re-laid alongside the No.1 Main between Morang and Preston using the original 1857 pipes. Approximately 35% of the No.3 main was removed between 2003-06 and it was decommissioned in 2006. • The No.5 Main. This was laid in 1887. The first half mile (0.8 km) south from Morang are cast iron 30 inch (750mm) pipes which in all probability were recycled from the main removed during the construction of the aqueduct (i.e., it is the same as the No.3 Main). For the remaining distance south to Preston, the No.5 Main is a wrought iron 30 inch (750mm) nominal bore pipe. This pipe was decommissioned some time ago. Approximately 60% of the No.5 main was removed between 2003-06.

2.6.2 Other historic features The above ground historic features along this section of the pipe reserve comprise: • Valve House, Wright Court, Mill Park. This small tower-like structure stands on the pipe reserve opposite the eastern end of Wright Court. It is built of finely executed bluestone, with an arched opening with a keystone and voussoirs, and a cornice at the top. The low-hipped metal roof is missing as is the door and the curved metal aqueduct cover at the back. The valve machinery has been removed. It is similar to the valve house at Preston Reservoir, which is more intact.

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• Pipe Bridges, Darebin Creek, Bundoora. There are two bridges in this location. The bridge on the north-west side (shown above) was built in 1853-7 as part of the original system to carry the No.1 main over Darebin Creek. It is constructed of rough- faced bluestone piers with ashlar capping. The main is carried on the piers, supported by an iron girder that spans the piers. The adjacent bridge on the south-east side (shown below) is of similar construction and was constructed c.1875-87. It supports the No.3 main (added in 1875) and once supported the No.5 main (added in 1887 and removed c.2005) as indicated by the curved bluestone ‘cradles’ in each pier wall. The space vacated by the No.5 main has now been filled by a new pipe constructed in 2006 as part of the pipe replacement works in this section of the pipe reserve (not shown).

• Junction Basin, Cheddar Road West. The Junction Basin, constructed in 1891, is where water from the former Maroondah Aqueduct was fed into the pipe mains of the Yan Yean system. Water from the Maroondah Aqueduct flowed into a set of concrete channels (shown above) and then was run though a set of removable screens (shown below) within discrete concrete chambers, to remove debris from the water. The filtered water was then directed into the pipelines leading to Preston. The Junction Basin channels and screens are no longer in use, and retain a high degree of integrity although the condition of some components (e.g. the timber screens) is deteriorating.

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2.7 Preston Reservoir complex As shown on Map 5 the Preston Reservoir complex comprises Preston Reservoir No.1 and associated buildings, structures and landscaping on the west side of High Street. Two further reservoirs (not shown) are situated on the east side of High Street. The oldest element is the bluestone Valve House, built as part of the original Yan Yean system in 1853-57 and identical to the one in Mill Park. The site contains a mixture of mature exotic, native and indigenous vegetation. A notable feature is the mature Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) windrows on either side of High Street. Pines (predominantly Monterey Pines – Pinus radiata, with some Stone Pines – Pinus pinea) are scattered throughout the site. Apart from the historic buildings and features listed below the site also contains a Melbourne Water office, which is a single storey post-war building situated at the end of the entrance driveway. The surviving historic features within this section of the Yan Yean system include: • Valve House. Built as part of the original system in 1853-7 of finely executed rough-faced bluestone, this small tower-like building held one of Jackson’s pressure-regulating valves. The building has an arched doorway with double timber doors, a low hipped iron roof above an ashlar cornice, and an arched corrugated galvanized iron cover over the outlet at the back. The valve machinery appears to be still intact. It is in good condition and has a high degree of integrity.

• Reservoir No.1. Built in 1864 by excavation and embankment, the reservoir floor is below ground level and lined with bluestone set in cement. There were originally two inlets on the north side – from the Yan Yean system and a pressure-relieving pipe – now joined by a third from the Sugarloaf Reservoir (1981). There is a bluestone bypass (overflow) channel on the north side of the reservoir. There are mature Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) windbreaks along the south and east sides. The original outlet tower is gone, replaced by a c.1950 concrete structure at the south end. The reservoir was taken out of commission in 1989, and now is only used occasionally for flushing out the system.

VOLUME 3: ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

• Caretaker’s Residence. This residence comprises the original 1865 hipped- roof brick dwelling with a skillion-roof return verandah and the later weatherboard additions to the rear. Evidence of extensive gardens, survive to the south and sides. Externally intact, the interiors and rear of the building appear to have been modified. It appears to be structurally sound; however, it is currently unoccupied and under threat due to lack of maintenance.

• MMBW Office. The Preston office of the MMBW was built next to the Caretaker’s Residence in 1900. It is a tiny brick structure with a gable terracotta-tiled roof and a small timber front porch. There is a red brick chimney at the south end and decorative timber brackets under the eaves at the corners. The windows are timber double hung sash with concrete lintels. It has a high degree of integrity and while structurally sound is under threat due to lack of maintenance. • Reservoir No.2. This reservoir was built in 1909 and is located on the east side of High Street, opposite the No 1 Reservoir. It was built of reinforced concrete to designs by John Monash’s Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co. It was originally an open basin but a cover has since been built over the top • Reservoir No.3. Also on the east side of High Street, No.3 was built in 1913 of mass concrete. It has also been covered over with a roof.

2.8 Yan Yean pipe reserve – Preston Reservoir to Merri Creek To the south of Preston Reservoir, the Yan Yean pipe reserve appears as linear open space, which is marked by a line of mature and semi-mature Canary Island Palms as far as Regent Street, which may be remnants of the landscaping carried out by Melbourne Water and Preston Council in the 1930s. For part of this length, it is partly underneath Robinson Road, and then follows and crosses the Epping (formerly Whittlesea) railway line before entering St Georges Road at Murray Road where it is contained within (and is the reason for) the wide reserve in the middle. The pipe reserve then follows St Georges Road all the way to Merri Creek. As noted in chapter 5 of Volume 2, St Georges Road was landscaped in the 1930s, however, no remnants of this survives today – the present landscaping is relatively recent and possibly replaced the earlier scheme.

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2.8.1 Pipe mains As noted in Volume 2, this section of the pipe reserve once contained the continuation of the No.1 cast iron main south from the Valve House at Preston. However, it is not known whether any of this main survives today3. Sections of later mains laid from 1869-86 survive as follows4: • No.2 main – cast iron pipe (600mm Nominal Bore) constructed in 1869. Sections replaced in the 1920s and 50s – around 3130m survives in situ. • No.3 main – cast iron pipe (600mm NB) constructed in 1877 - around 3375m survives in situ. • No.4 main – cast iron pipe (600mm NB) constructed in 1886 – around 4660m survives in situ. • No.5 main – cast iron pipe (400mm NB) constructed in 1886 – around 150m survives in situ.

2.8.2 St Georges Road valve houses St Georges Road contains a number of structures dating from the late 1920s: • Instrumentation Cubicles. Originally known as valve houses, these are tiny poured concrete structures on circular plan with fluted walls and a domed roof that were originally unpainted. They house valves for the pipe mains and were built in 1929. Four survive today - One is just south of Bell Street on the central reserve (unpainted), two are on the west side north of Oakover Street (painted), and one is in the central reserve at Sumner Street (painted).

• Egyptian Revival Valve House - This is an unusual reinforced flat-roofed concrete shelter which is located just south of Miller Street on the central reserve. It was built in 1928. The roof is supported by four piers, which appear to be concrete encased rolled steel joists and there are Egyptian Revival profiles on the roof and piers. It is open-sided with original chain-link fences securing the openings. There is a large, screw- operated valve mechanism inside, serving the pipe mains below ground level. While it was originally finished with a cement wash, it is now painted.

3 Context Pty Ltd, Yan Yean Pipe Replacement Works 2005-2006. Report to Heritage Victoria. M57 Morang-Preston Water main Renewal Stage 2, unpublished report prepared for Melbourne Water and Heritage Victoria, December 2006 (Melbourne Water records indicates that no sections are known to survive, however, further investigation would be desirable.) 4 ibid

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2.8.3 Merri Creek pipe bridge ruins This site contains four low bluestone piers, two on each side of the creek, below the present St Georges Road bridge, which are the remains of a tubular girder bridge constructed in 1853-57 that carried the Yan Yean main over the Merri Creek. Each low pier comprises a single block of bluestone with a circular indentation surrounded by bolt holes on the top face. There is some bluestone ashlar blocks scattered around the piers, which may be related material from the bridge. Figure 11 Merri Creek pipe bridge ruins (Context Pty Ltd, 2007)

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3 HERITAGE ASSESSMENT This section provides an assessment of the cultural heritage significance of the Yan Yean water supply system. Previous heritage assessments including local or municipal heritage studies and those undertaken for elements of the system already included in the Victorian Heritage Register or Victorian Heritage Inventory have indicated that the whole of the system is potentially significant at a State level. Accordingly, the focus of this assessment is to establish the significance of the Yan Yean system at a State level in order to support a potential nomination for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register. This analysis may in turn provide the basis for a future assessment of the values of the Yan Yean system at a National or World level, but that is outside the scope of this project.

3.1 Basis of assessment The Burra Charter defines ‘cultural significance’ as: aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations The Burra Charter further clarifies that: Cultural significance is embodied in the place itself, its fabric, setting, use, associations, meanings, records, related places and related objects. Places may have a range of values for different individual or groups This section includes a discussion using the four heritage value categories established by the Burra Charter and a comparative analysis that examines other water supply systems in Victoria and Australia, as well as other nineteenth century infrastructure projects with similar characteristics to the Yan Yean system in terms of their scale and engineering innovation. On this basis, it provides an assessment using the Heritage Council of Victoria criteria and concludes with a statement of cultural heritage significance for the whole of the system.

3.2 Discussion of heritage values

3.2.1 Historic values The Yan Yean system was the first engineered water supply system to be constructed in Victoria and one of the first in Australia. The creation of the system has significant historic associations with the development of Melbourne as a modern city and the creation of the State of Victoria. Two crucial events occurred in July 1851: the separation of Victoria from New South Wales and the discovery of gold at Warrandyte near Melbourne. The first enabled the new Government of Victoria to directly borrow money for public works, and the second led to a large increase in the population of Melbourne, and consequently, Victoria. The construction of the Yan Yean system was critical to the development of Melbourne (and hence Victoria) during its development boom in the wake of the gold rush. The scheme was designed to serve a city of 200,000 and by its completion in 1857 the population of Melbourne had already grown to 110,000. As such, it was an extraordinary feat of forward planning, and one that has had few parallels then or since. The fact that it was built to serve a population far in advance of that existing at the time it was completed demonstrates the entrepreneurial intentions associated with Melbourne’s foundation and settlement. The experience and knowledge gained through the construction of the Yan Yean system was used in the development of water supply systems in the towns that emerged as a result of the gold rush such as Bendigo and Ballarat. The Yan Yean system provides evidence of the existing expectations of further extensive European settlement prevailing at the time that the system was designed in the early 1850s.

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In this regard, it places the development of Melbourne into the context of world emigration patterns in the nineteenth century by demonstrating that the colonial authorities were aware of these trends and consciously planned to accommodate them. The development of the Yan Yean system also demonstrates the strong response by a new colonial government to the threat faced by the development of large cities to overcome problems associated with polluted water supplies, which led to outbreaks of disease, notably typhoid or ‘Colonial fever’. The Yan Yean system has strong associations with individuals and organisations who played important roles in the early development of Melbourne and Victoria. It is associated with James Blackburn, a former convict engineer-architect who came to Melbourne in 1849 from Tasmania, where he contributed to the Department of Public Works. As City Surveyor in 1851, he proposed the scheme that formed the basis of the Yan Yean system. When the Government took over the project, he was appointed as a consultant in 1853 before construction commenced. The Yan Yean system also has associations with Clement Hodgkinson, who is credited with implementing Blackburn’s scheme, and with Matthew B Jackson, the chief engineer in its construction. James Brady who also worked on the scheme went on to design water supply schemes for other cities including Bendigo and Brisbane. The Yan Yean system also has associations with Sir John Monash, engineer, and his Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co., which built Reservoir No 2 at Preston. Other notable people associated with its development include Ferdinand von Mueller, who recommended some of the original planting schemes, and Governors La Trobe and Barkly, who presided at the beginning and completion of the project, respectively. The construction of the Yan Yean system has important associations with the development of state-owned infrastructure authorities in Victoria and provides evidence of the beginning of public ownership of major infrastructure assets in the mid to late nineteenth century. The need for improved management of the system led to the creation of the first State authority responsible for water supply. The Yan Yean system also has long-standing associations with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, which controlled the Yan Yean system from 1891 to 1991. Although the Board was constituted some years after the system was created it nonetheless regarded the Yan Yean system as a record of its past achievements and viewed it as an important part of its sense of history. The Yan Yean system is the oldest engineered water supply system in Victoria and contains many features and design aspects that are rare or unique. Of particular significance is that fact that it still in use and operates largely according to its original design and remains an important component of the city water supply. As such, it provides extensive evidence of the evolution of engineering practices and techniques in the mid to late nineteenth century; for example, from the original use of cast-iron pipes, through wrought-iron to steel, then reinforced concrete pipes; or, from the original use of general river water to the specific exclusion of all river water except that from a protected catchment. The Yan Yean system also incorporates early technical elements not required in other systems, such as in-line pressure reducing valves and engineered cascades to aerate incoming water, and also provides detailed and varied evidence of engineering construction techniques prior to the revolution brought by concrete construction, which was used extensively in water supply systems built later in the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. The technical innovation of the system is a key component of its significance as discussed in Section 3.2.3.

3.2.2 Aesthetic values The Yan Yean system is a symbol of the period when infrastructure projects were a matter of considerable State investment and community pride and this is expressed in the architecture of its visible components. The Yan Yean system demonstrates some fine

30 YAN YEAN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM CMP examples of craftsmanship and skill evident in those structures, most of which are still operating effectively today. The buildings and structures associated with the early development of the Yan Yean system demonstrate a deliberately monumental architectural stylisation, which contrasts with the modern, functionalist approach to such structures adopted in later years. The early landscaping around Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs (thought to use planting schemes suggested by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Victoria’s first Government Botanist and former Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens) and along the aqueducts and pipe reserves illustrate the influences of nineteenth century notions of the ‘picturesque’ and were designed to enhance the landscape as well as provide practical benefits such as protection of water quality and improving run-off from the catchments. Today, most the features associated with the system are still intact and many of these including the Clearwater Channel aqueduct, the Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs and early infrastructure such as the valve house at Mill Park and the pipe bridge over Darebin Creek at Northcote are accessible to the public. The built structures of the Yan Yean system and the associated landscaping and related elements such as dry stone walls are now a distinctive element in the cultural landscape along the length of the system from Whittlesea to Northcote.

3.2.3 Scientific (technical) values The Yan Yean system introduced a number of innovations in its design and construction and what is most extraordinary about the system is that much of the original infrastructure is still in use and has been little modified since it was first constructed. The most significant innovation was the major advance in water supply technology from depending on local water sources to harvesting water in remote catchment areas, storing it in dams and transporting it to the city by means of aqueducts and pipelines utilising gravity rather than machinery. The successful use of gravity descent to deliver water to a site over fifty kilometres (direct) away under all conditions represents a significant technical accomplishment as a feat of land surveying utilising the relatively simple optical instruments of the era. Another unusual feature of the system is how the Yan Yean reservoir was designed as an ‘off-stream’ dam with a controlled supply from the Plenty River. As the first ‘remote’ water supply system for a major urban centre in Victoria (and one of the first two in Australia – see the discussion of the almost contemporary but much smaller Launceston system in the following section) the Yan Yean system essentially served as a prototype for later systems that followed in Victoria such as at Bendigo and Ballarat, and in Australia such as the Upper Nepean Scheme at Sydney. Lessons learnt at Yan Yean were used to make improvements that benefited these later systems. The Yan Yean system introduced British dam construction technologies to Australia and applied them to Australian conditions. Designer of the Yan Yean dam, Matthew B Jackson, adapted a type of dam structure much used in Britain – ‘puddle clay’ core – to local conditions, in particular to the available clay material and using an inexperienced workforce. This technique was also used at Toorourrong Reservoir. The Reservoir No 2 at Preston, constructed in 1909, is an early example of the use of reinforced concrete for a large water storage reservoir, a material that became largely standard for this use in subsequent years. It was the first reservoir constructed for the MMBW with this method. Situated nearby the original bluestone-lined reservoir, it illustrates the advances in construction technology from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The Yan Yean system also contains a significant amount of archaeological material across many sites that provide further evidence about the development of water supply technology since its inception. Of particular interest is the range of pipe technologies.

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3.2.4 Social values The construction of the Yan Yean system was a great source of pride for Melbourne and Victoria and it became an early symbol of the development of Melbourne into a modern city in the Victorian age. The landscape around the Yan Yean reservoir, acclaimed as one of the largest in the world, attracted writers and artists who marvelled at its technical and engineering accomplishments and eulogised the picturesque setting. The Yan Yean system was also associated with the early development of tourism in Victoria and for many years until they were closed to the public, the forested catchments around the reservoirs were a well-known and popular spot for day-trippers from the city. While the catchment areas are now closed to the public, the parks at Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs remain popular places of recreation to this day.5

3.3 Comparative analysis The Yan Yean system is one of the oldest continuously operating urban water supply systems in Australia and has few direct comparisons in terms of its age, scale and integrity. For the purposes of this comparative analysis, the focus is upon similar places within Victoria as a basis for establishing the significance at a State level. However, the analysis also considers inter-State examples, notably the Upper Nepean Scheme in Sydney. While the most direct and obvious comparison can be made with other water supply systems, this analysis also considers other major government infrastructure systems of the nineteenth century that are ‘linear’ in nature such as railway lines as well as the development of the Melbourne sewerage system.

3.3.1 Water supply systems Coliban water supply system (Bendigo)6 Within Victoria, the early Bendigo water supply, which includes the Coliban water supply system, is one example of an early water supply system with some similarities to Yan Yean. It too is a vast, gravity operated water supply system, using open water channels. It supplied water not only for domestic consumption, but also for irrigation purposes and is still essentially operating in the manner that was first proposed by Joseph Brady in 1862. It is the only Victorian water supply system included on the Victorian Heritage Register. The first stage of the Bendigo water supply system, comprising a reservoir, sand filter beds to treat water and an underground cistern was constructed in 1858-60. It marked the beginning of a permanent water supply for the Bendigo goldfields – both to provide potable water for domestic use and to facilitate mining operations. With the rapid increase in population brought about by the gold rush the water supply was not sufficient and this led to the construction of the Coliban water system from 1873-77. While the 1858-60 components have been decommissioned, much of the later Coliban system remains in use. Both stages of the system were designed by Joseph Brady, who was appointed as engineer. As we have seen in Volume 1, Brady had previously worked on the Yan Yean system and he went on to design and supervise the construction of this and other reservoirs, as well as railway bridges and harbours throughout Australia. He was also a prolific architect and designed many notable buildings in Bendigo. How much his design for the Bendigo system was influenced by his work on the Yan Yean system is not known, but it is certainly probable that he used his experience on that project in developing the design for Bendigo.

5 Further investigation of social and spiritual values of the Yan Yean system (for example, how it is perceived and valued by local communities) was not possible within the scope of this project. 6 Information about the Coliban water supply is drawn from Heritage Victoria (File No. 605361) and the Register of the National Estate (ID: 18893 & 18894)

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Like the Yan Yean system, the Coliban system is important for the role that it has played firstly in maintaining Bendigo as a major mining centre, and then in ensuring its future as a major regional centre. While perhaps less sophisticated than Yan Yean in terms of design and execution, it demonstrates some fine examples of craftsmanship and skill evident in those structures that are still operating effectively today including the Malmsbury reservoir embankment and outlet tunnel, the inlet and outlet structures of the back creek siphon, the five large tunnels, the Expedition Pass reservoir embankment, the Barkers Creek reservoir embankment and outlet tower, and the aqueduct system. Gong Gong system – Ballarat7 At Ballarat the first water supply systems were constructed for the sole benefit of mining uses rather than for domestic consumption. In November, 1857 a consortium led by John Kirk, an American tailor by trade, set up a water supply system for the gold workings at Pennyweight and Poverty Point. It included a 3m high dam and water races and was not intended for domestic use. By December 1858 piped water was available from Yuilles Swamp (via small dam on Gnarr Creek where it left the swamp) for domestic purposes in township of Ballarat. However, the ‘dam’ was not a real reservoir and there was no proper provision for water storage. The development of Ballarat and rivalry between the two municipalities of East and West Ballarat led in January 1861 to the Victorian Colonial Government purchasing Kirk’s dam for £3,300. Supply came on in December 1862. Over the next two decades the supply was developed further. Beales Reservoir was brought on line upstream from Kirk’s dam in 1863, and connected by a channel. By the end of 1864 the wall of Kirk’s dam raised and 18-inch cast-iron pipe laid to Ballarat. This was followed by Pincotts Reservoir in 1867, upstream from Beales. In the same year Kirk’s dam wall raised again. These improvements led the following claim in the Ballarat Courier on 5 November 1867: Kirk’s Reservoir is ‘the nucleus of the Ballarat water supply system, the germ of which will not only transcend Yan Yean in Magnitude but prove commercially far more profitable. The final stage in this initial scheme was the Lower Gong Reservoir, situated below Kirk’s and much larger. Construction commenced in 1869, was abandoned for a short time after 1873 then completed in 1877. Now called the Gong Gong Reservoir (or The Gong) it is supplied by its own catchment as well as from Kirk’s catchment via a granite-lined channel from a diversion weir above Kirk’s Reservoir. The system was augmented in the twentieth century by new dams at Moorabool (1915) and White Swan (1952), while Yuilles Swamp (now Lake Wendouree) was taken out of service in 1869. Like Yan Yean, the Gong reservoir formed part of a gravity fed system and still functions as part of the Ballarat system today with some of the original infrastructure such as 1870s valves still in use. However, compared to Yan Yean (and indeed to Bendigo) it is a simpler system and does not exhibit the range of engineering technology (aqueducts, tunnels etc.) in evidence at both of the other systems. Upper Nepean Scheme – Sydney Perhaps the most important comparisons can be made to the water supply system established for Sydney in the late nineteenth century. Sydney still utilises the Upper Nepean Scheme, augmented by additional supplies from the Woronora and Warragamba systems, and this scheme has many similarities to the Yan Yean system. These include the use of gravity-flow in open channels forming long canals leading from the hills above the city to a large storage reservoir on the outskirts of the city, then through further canals and

7 Information about the Gong Gong system comes from Martin Zweep, Early Water Supply in Ballarat, 2006 (paper written for Monash University course HYM4560).

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pipelines to a final screening facility and a set of service reservoirs that stand at the head of the reticulation network. The similarities between the design of the Yan Yean system and the Upper Nepean Scheme suggest that it provided a fundamental model for the design of the later system. Certainly, some of the lessons learnt through the development and management of the Yan Yean system (the need, for example, to immediately reserve the surrounding catchment to prevent pollution) would appear to have informed the management of the Upper Nepean Scheme, where the catchment was reserved immediately. The Upper Nepean Scheme was constructed from 1880-88, some thirty years after the Yan Yean system, and benefited from the emergence of new construction technologies (chiefly, the use of concrete). Its design was also influenced by the different topography – the broken and undulating terrain of the Upper Nepean and Sydney Basin contrasts with the predominantly flat plains traversed by the Yan Yean system over much of its journey. Consequently, there is a greater use of tunnels, bridges and syphons to maintain the flow in the Upper Nepean Scheme. Comparison between the two systems indicates that the Yan Yean system has the following features of note: • The Yan Yean system is an older and longer established water supply system than the Upper Nepean Scheme and it retains much of its early works still in use in their original, unmodified form. As noted below, a large part of the Upper Nepean Scheme has now been de-commissioned. • The Yan Yean system provided an obvious model for the design and construction of the Upper Nepean Scheme some two decades later. The Yan Yean system and the Upper Nepean Scheme have the same basic functional characteristics of mountain catchments feeding canals/aqueducts that carry water into a storage reservoir, then through the outer urban areas to a set of distribution reservoirs, passing through a screening and treatment facility at the point where it transfers from generally above-ground canals to pipelines, either above or below ground. • The characteristic use of stone pitching as a construction material in the Yan Yean system illustrates its construction prior to the introduction of concrete (which is the standard material of the Upper Nepean Scheme) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. • The Yan Yean system relies upon the continuing flow of several watercourses feeding small weirs to provide the basic water supply in the storage reservoir. The Upper Nepean Scheme also commenced utilising small weirs but, owing to the more intermittent nature of the rainfall into these watercourses, the system has been supplemented by the construction of several large dams to provide additional storage capacity. The Yan Yean system has not been augmented to the same degree, as Melbourne’s water supply has diversified to take supply from several different catchment areas. Finally, while both systems continue to be part of the overall water supply systems for each city, a large part of the Upper Nepean system has now been bypassed as a result of the development of the Warragamba supply scheme and the urbanisation of the city encroaching upon the Upper Nepean’s reserved lands. Other systems8 Another State capital to retain part of their early water supply system is Brisbane. The Enoggera Dam, situated in the Brisbane suburb of the same name was the first of three

8 Information about the Brisbane and Hobart water systems is drawn from the Register of the National Estate (ID: 101930 & 15996)

34 YAN YEAN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM CMP that were built over the period 1864-1916 to serve the city’s growing water supply needs. Prior to this the city relied upon a heavily polluted small dam across Wheat Creek, which flowed through the heart of the town. Enoggera Dam was Brisbane’s principal source of water from 1866 to 1892 when the population of Brisbane grew from 10,000 to 70,000. It continued to supply water until 2002 when it was decommissioned. Like Yan Yean reservoir, Enoggera reservoir was also used as a place of recreation as a picnicking and boating venue until 1903 when a report stopped these activities because of pollution concerns. Of particular interest is that Charles Oldham, the engineer who was employed to review Blackburn’s Yan Yean scheme, was engaged to prepare the study for the Enoggera dam. A further connection to the Yan Yean system is provided by Joseph Brady who was engaged to supervise the contract construction of the dam and credited with pushing the completion of the dam through in only two years from 1864 to 1866, thus leading to unrealistic expectations about the completion time for the next water supply dam. As discussed earlier in this section, Brady was also responsible for the design of the Coliban water supply system at Bendigo.

3.3.2 Melbourne sewerage system Although they were constructed forty years apart there are many parallels between Yan Yean system and the Melbourne sewerage system. Both arose as a result of public health crisis – somewhat ironically, while Yan Yean resolved the issue of an increasingly polluted water supply, it contributed to the significant increase in wastewater and sewage that gave impetus to the need for a proper sewerage system. Both were designed to serve populations far in advance of that existing at the time they were conceived and executed and both involved significant feats of engineering during construction. Just as the Yan Yean system was innovative in the use of a remote gravity fed supply, the sewerage system was notable for treatment of the waste water by broad irrigation at a time when most cities dumped their untreated wastes directly in rivers and the sea. Together, the two systems are an important illustration of the process of development of Melbourne into a modern metropolis during the nineteenth century.

3.3.3 Railways9 While the Yan Yean water supply project was by far the largest project then undertaken in the Colony of Victoria, it was soon to be matched by the various railway projects that would be undertaken in the decade after it was completed. In particular, the Melbourne- Ballarat (via Geelong) railway, constructed from 1858-62 and the Melbourne-Bendigo railway (1859-62) are directly comparable with the Yan Yean system in terms of their scale and engineering achievement. Once again, the gold rush era of the early 1850s provided the impetus for these projects; the colony was flush with new-found wealth and the population of Melbourne and major inland centres was rapidly expanding. Within three months of the first gold discoveries in 1851, a public meeting was called in Melbourne to discuss a proposal to build a railway from the beach at Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) to the city. Within two years no less than eight private companies were being promoted with plans to build over 500 miles (800 km) of railways in Melbourne and beyond. In February 1853, three of the private railway proposals gained parliamentary consent and substantial crown land grants: the Melbourne & Hobsons Bay Railway, the Geelong & Melbourne Railway and the Melbourne, Mount Alexander & Murray River Railway (Melbourne to Echuca via Bendigo). However, raising sufficient funds to build the

9 Information about the development of railways in Victoria is drawn from the Museum Victoria website celebrating 150 years of Victorian Railways www.museum.vic.gov.au/railways

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railways proved more difficult in period of high inflation and acute labour shortages and only two of the railways were completed without direct government assistance and only one ever made a profit. Direct government involvement in the construction and operation of Victoria’s railways came about almost by default with the failure of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander & Murray River Railway Company and other early private railway enterprises. The parliamentary Act authorising formation of the Victorian Railways Department was passed on 19 March 1856 with £125,085 being paid for the partially completed construction work on the Williamstown line undertaken by the Mount Alexander Co. G.C. Darbyshire was appointed shortly afterwards as Engineer-in-Chief and by November 1856 contracts had been let for the major construction works on the lines to Williamstown and Bendigo. The first official Government train services commenced on 13 January 1859 running from the Spencer Street terminus in Melbourne to Williamstown and Sunbury on the Bendigo line. Meanwhile, the Government had purchased the Geelong & Melbourne Railway in 1860 and commenced construction of a line from Geelong to Ballarat to complete the railway links with Victoria’s key mining centres. The initial period of government railway development in Victoria concluded with the opening of an extension of the Bendigo line to Echuca on the Murray River in 1864. There was to be a seven-year lull before railway expansion resumed. Just as the Yan Yean system had adopted British engineering standards, the railway construction during this early period was also characterised by works designed to the best British mainline standards incorporating evenly graded double track lines with substantial earthworks, grand bridges built of iron, stone and brick and solid bluestone station buildings. Like the Yan Yean system, the initial high standard of construction means that much of the early infrastructure such as bridges, station buildings, tunnels and the like remains in use today.

3.4 Assessment against Heritage Council criteria This section provides an assessment using the criteria for the assessment of cultural heritage significance adopted by the Heritage Council of Victoria in 1997. The equivalent Register of the National Estate (RNE) criteria, where relevant, is also cited for future reference and comparison (A full list of both sets of criteria is provided in Appendix A),

3.4.1 Criterion A HC criterion A The historical importance, association with or relationship to Victoria's history of the place or object. RNE criterion A.4 Importance for association with events, developments or cultural phases which have had a significant role in the human occupation and evolution of the nation, State, region or community. RNE criterion H.1 Importance for close associations with individuals whose activities have been significant within the history of the nation, State, or region. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion A as it is the oldest surviving water supply system in Victoria and still forms part of Melbourne’s water supply today. It pre- dates the Coliban system at Bendigo by 5 years and probably influenced its design as well as those of later systems such as Ballarat. The continuous use of the system for its original purpose is an important part of its significance. It was the first of the major infrastructure projects that later included the development of railways and the Melbourne Sewerage Scheme that were of critical importance in the development of Melbourne (and Victoria) in the wake of the gold rush. For over 30 years it remained the major source of water supply to Melbourne.

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The Yan Yean system also has strong associations with people who were influential in the historic development of Melbourne and Victoria in the nineteenth century including Clement Hodgkinson, Matthew B Jackson, James Brady and Ferdinand Von Mueller. The Yan Yean system also has associations with Sir John Monash, engineer, and his Reinforced Concrete & Monier Pipe Construction Co., which built Reservoir No 2 at Preston. Finally, the Yan Yean system led to the creation of the Water Supply Branch of the Public Works Department, which was the first State authority to control the planning, development and management of water supplies in Victoria. It also has strong associations with the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works, which managed the system from 1891-1991.

3.4.2 Criterion B HC criterion B The importance of a place or object in demonstrating rarity or uniqueness. RNE criterion B.2 Importance in demonstrating a distinct way of life, land use, function or design no longer practised, in danger of being lost, or of exceptional interest. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion B as a rare example of an early continually-operating, water supply system serving a major urban centre that still operates largely according to its original design and remains a small but nonetheless important component of the city water supply. It provides increasingly rare evidence of the evolution of engineering practices and techniques in the mid to late nineteenth century, and incorporates early technical elements such as in-line pressure reducing valves and engineered cascades to aerate incoming water that are not found in other systems in Victoria or Australia. The Yan Yean system also provides detailed and varied evidence of engineering construction techniques prior to the revolution brought by concrete construction, which was used extensively in water supply systems built later in the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century.

3.4.3 Criterion C HC criterion C The place or object's potential to educate, illustrate or provide further scientific investigation in relation to Victoria's cultural heritage. RNE criterion C.2 Importance for information contributing to a wider understanding of the history of human occupation of Australia. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion C as it remains, 150 years after it was completed, a working system where the function and use of many of the original features can still be understood and interpreted. Another notable feature of the Yan Yean system is the extent of archaeological remains, which includes decommissioned pipes, reservoirs, aqueducts and other infrastructure that has the potential to provide further evidence about the system and how it was constructed and operated. For example, the recent replacement of early cast and wrought iron pipe mains in the pipe reserve between South Morang and Preston has yielded valuable information about nineteenth century construction techniques including the method of manufacture and installation and repairs and improvements that were made.

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3.4.4 Criterion D HC criterion D The importance of a place or object in exhibiting the principal characteristics or the representative nature of a place or object as part of a class or type of places or objects. RNE criterion D.2 Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the range of human activities in the Australian environment (including way of life, custom, process, land-use, function, design or technique). The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion D as it contains representative examples of most (if not all) of the features associated with nineteenth and early-twentieth century water supply systems including storage and service reservoirs, weirs, pipe mains and reserves, aqueducts, siphons, tunnels and, as such, is one of the best representative examples of a such a system not only in Victoria, but also Australia. As previously noted, it includes features that are rare or possibly unique such as the valve houses and The Cascades. A notable feature is that much of the original infrastructure remains intact and still in use and therefore the way that the system was used and operated can still be understood and interpreted relatively easily. While essentially intact, it has been modified and adapted to improve water supply and quality and to meet changing technical requirements and standards and this provides a fascinating illustration of the evolution of water supply technology over a 150-year period.

3.4.5 Criterion E HC criterion E The importance of the place or object in exhibiting good design or aesthetic characteristics and/or in exhibiting a richness, diversity or unusual integration of features. RNE criterion A.3 Importance in exhibiting unusual richness or diversity of flora, fauna, landscapes or cultural features. RNE criterion F.1 Importance for its technical, creative, design or artistic excellence, innovation or achievement. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion E as most the components of the system were designed and constructed to a high standard that is comparable to other nineteenth century projects such as the railways and the Melbourne sewerage system. As such, it is a symbol of the period when infrastructure projects were a matter of considerable State investment and community pride and this is expressed in the architecture of its visible components. Like the Coliban system, the Yan Yean system is notable for the diversity of features that include weirs, aqueducts, siphons, flumes, bridges, etc. Notable and unique features of Yan Yean include the valve houses and The Cascades. Yan Yean is also notable for the remnants of the early landscaping schemes around Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs (thought to use planting schemes suggested by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Victoria’s first Government Botanist and former Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens) and along the aqueducts and pipe reserves, which illustrate the influences of nineteenth century notions of the ‘picturesque’.

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3.4.6 Criterion F HC criterion F The importance of the place or object in demonstrating or being associated with scientific or technical innovations or achievements. RNE criterion F.1 Importance for its technical, creative, design or artistic excellence, innovation or achievement. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion F as it was the first large scale engineered water supply in Victoria and introduced a number of engineering innovations that were to be influential in the design and construction of later systems in Victoria and Australia. Chief amongst these was the concept based on a remote supply fed by gravity rather than machinery to the city and the successful application of British dam construction technologies to Australian conditions. Lessons learnt at Yan Yean were used to make improvements that benefited these later systems. As previously noted, what is notable about the system is that much of the original infrastructure is still in use and has been little modified since it was first constructed.

3.4.7 Criterion G HC criterion G The importance of the place or object in demonstrating social or cultural associations. The Yan Yean system is considered to meet Criterion G as the construction of the system was a great source of pride for Melbourne and Victoria in the nineteenth century and it became an early symbol of the development of Melbourne into a modern city in the Victorian age. The landscape around the Yan Yean reservoir, acclaimed as one of the largest in the world, attracted writers and artists who marvelled at its technical and engineering accomplishments and eulogised the picturesque setting. The Yan Yean system was also associated with the early development of tourism in Victoria and for many years until they were closed to the public, the forested catchments around the reservoirs were a well-known and popular spot for day-trippers from the city. While the catchment areas are now closed to the public, the parks at Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs remain popular to this day.

3.5 Statement of significance The following statement of significance is for the Yan Yean system as a whole. Individual elements within the system have their own statement of significance, which are included on the appropriate place record contained in Volume 5. The statement of significance provides a description of: • What is significant (in terms of the features that demonstrate the historic development of the Yan Yean system); • How it is significant (in terms of its historic, aesthetic, technical, scientific or social values); and • Why it is significant (in terms of what the Yan Yean system demonstrates or reveals about the historical development of Melbourne and the State of Victoria) The statement of significance is based upon the detailed history found in Volume 2, and the assessment and comparative analysis contained in this chapter. It briefly and clearly states the principal basis for the significance of the place or object. It is intended to be: ... a brief, pithy but comprehensive statement of all the ways in which the place is significant. It should not just be a list of every conceivable reason for significance that the assessor can think up, however, it must state clearly and unequivocally the major reasons why the place is important. It must be supported by the presentation of sufficient evidence to justify the assessment judgement. (Pearson & Sullivan 1995:176)

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What is significant? The Yan Yean Water Supply system was constructed from 1853-91 and comprises a range of different components and sections, including (from north to south): Silver Creek and Wallaby Creek weirs and aqueducts, The Cascades, Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Deviation Channel, Toorourrong Reservoir, Clearwater Channel aqueduct, Yan Yean Reservoir, Pipe reserve (Yan Yean to Morang), Pipehead Reservoir, Pipe reserve track (South Morang to Preston Reservoir), Preston Reservoir complex, and Pipe reserve (Preston Reservoir to Merri Creek). After the establishment of Melbourne in 1835, there were increasing problems with the quality of the water supply as the population increased and two events that occurred in July 1851 greatly affected the future development of Melbourne and its water supply. They were the separation of Victoria from New South Wales and the discovery of gold at Warrandyte near Melbourne. The first enabled the new Government of Victoria to directly borrow money for public works, and the second led to a large increase in the population of Melbourne, and consequently, Victoria. Two schemes were considered: one by James Blackburn proposed a gravity-fed water supply drawn from a reservoir to be constructed near Whittlesea, while another by King proposed a more conventional mechanical pumping station supplying a reservoir near Dight’s Falls closer to the city. After assessment by Clement Hodgkinson and later by Matthew Jackson (appointed as engineer in charge of establishing water supply) Blackburn’s scheme was recommended with some changes, which included increasing capacity of the reservoir to serve a city of 200,000. The first sod for the Yan Yean reservoir was turned by Governor La Trobe in December 1853 and the system was completed four years later in 1857. The system then comprised the reservoir and caretaker’s residence at Yan Yean and a pipe track to the city that followed road reservations along Nicholson Street, St George’s Road and Plenty Road. Valve houses were constructed at two locations to reduce the build up of pressure in the pipes. From the time of separation (in 1851) to the completion of the system in 1857, the population of Melbourne had already grown from 23,000 to 110,000 and although the better quality of the water supplied reduced the incidence of ‘colonial fever’ or typhoid in the first two decades of its operations the Yan Yean system was plagued with problems of water quality and quantity. To overcome this, refinements were made to the system during the latter decades of the nineteenth century. In 1864 a holding reservoir was constructed at Preston to regulate supply pressure of water to the city and prevent stagnation in the pipes overnight, and in 1875 the pipe from the reservoir to Morang was replaced with an open aqueduct that fed to a small holding reservoir. The removed pipe was used to duplicate the pipeline between Morang and Preston. Perhaps the most significant additions to the system came in the 1880s when a weir was built on Wallaby Creek, which fed water via an aqueduct system to the Yan Yean reservoir via Jack’s Creek. This included the construction of Clearwater Channel aqueduct to avoid the polluted section of the Plenty River near Whittlesea. In 1886 a second reservoir known as Toorourrrong was constructed below the Jack’s Creek junction to allow sediment to settle before water entered the Clearwater Channel aqueduct and a further weir was constructed at Silver Creek, which was linked to the Wallaby Weir via an aqueduct. By the 1890s Melbourne’s population had grown significantly and the system had reached its limit. To augment the Yan Yean system a new separate water supply system was established with the construction of a weir at the Watts River near Healesville. Water was brought by the Maroondah Aqueduct, which joined the Yan Yean pipe track at the Junction Basin by 1891. This signalled the end of the Yan Yean system as Melbourne’s sole source of water. In the twentieth century a series of new and much larger reservoirs at increasing distances from Melbourne would be built to serve the city’s increasing water supply needs.

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The Yan Yean system has been continually in use since it was established and much of the infrastructure constructed in the nineteenth century remains in use today. However, as a result of the addition of new systems in the twentieth century it now supplies only 3% of Melbourne’s water.

How is it significant? The Yan Yean system is of historic, technical, aesthetic, and archaeological significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant? The Yan Yean system is historically significant because of the vital role it played at a critical time in the development of Melbourne and the then Colony of Victoria. Built to serve a population far in advance of that existing at the time it was completed, it demonstrates the entrepreneurial intentions associated with Melbourne’s foundation and settlement and the water-supply capacity installed supported the rapid development of Melbourne in the wake of the gold rush. The construction of the system was a great source of pride for Melbourne and Victoria in the nineteenth century and it became an early symbol of the development of Melbourne into a modern city in the Victorian age. As such it was an extraordinary feat of forward planning - one that has had few parallels then or since - and provides evidence of the existing expectations of further extensive European settlement prevailing at the time that the system was designed. In this regard, it places the development of Melbourne into the context of world emigration patterns in the nineteenth century by demonstrating that the colonial authorities were aware of these trends and consciously planned to accommodate them. The Yan Yean system is also significant as the oldest continually-operating, engineered water supply system in Victoria (and one of the first in Australia). Notably it is still part of Melbourne’s water supply and provides important evidence (including archaeological remains) of how the supply has been developed and augmented over a 150-year period. Much of the original fabric remains and is still in use and, apart from some upgrading, has changed little in its basic principles since the day it was completed. The Yan Yean system is also historically significant for the strong associations with people and organisations who were important in the development of Melbourne and Victoria, and in the provision of water supply systems throughout Australia. These include James Blackburn who designed the original scheme, Clement Hodgkinson, who recommended it and Matthew Jackson who it implemented it. Others associated with the construction of the system included Charles Oldham and Joseph Brady, both of whom went to design and supervise other water supply systems in Australia. It also has important associations with the development of State authorities to control the planning, development and management of water supplies in Victoria, including the Water Supply Branch of the Public Works Department and, later, the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works.

The Yan Yean system is also significant for its technical innovation. Most notably, it illustrates the major advance in water supply technology from depending on local water sources to harvesting water in remote catchment areas, storing it in dams and transporting it to the city by means of aqueducts and pipelines utilising gravity rather than machinery. The successful use of gravity descent to deliver water to a site over fifty kilometres (direct) away under all conditions represents a significant technical accomplishment as a feat of land surveying utilising the relatively simple optical instruments of the era. As the first ‘remote’ water supply system for a major urban centre in Australia it essentially served as a prototype for later systems in Victoria such as at Bendigo and Ballarat and in Australia such as the Upper Nepean Scheme at Sydney. Lessons learnt through the development of the Yan Yean system were used to make improvements that benefited these later systems.

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One example is the change from the original use of general river water to the specific exclusion of all river water except that from a protected catchment. The technical significance of the Yan Yean system is also derived from the extensive evidence it provides of the evolution of engineering practices and techniques in the mid to late nineteenth century. This includes the advances in pipe technology (from the original use of cast-iron pipes, through wrought-iron to steel, then reinforced concrete pipes), as well as detailed and varied evidence of engineering construction techniques prior to the revolution inspired by concrete construction, which was used extensively in water supply systems built later in the century. This is illustrated at Preston where the original bluestone-lined Reservoir No. 1 is situated near to the later Reservoir No, which is an early example of the use of reinforced concrete for a large water storage reservoir, a material that became largely standard for this use in subsequent years. The Yan Yean system also incorporates rare or unique examples of early technical elements not required in other systems, such as in-line pressure reducing valves and engineered cascades to aerate incoming water.

The Yan Yean system has aesthetic and architectural significance for the skill and craftsmanship evident in the design and execution of the buildings and structures, all of which were constructed to a high standard. The buildings and structures associated with the early development of the Yan Yean system demonstrate a deliberately monumental architectural stylisation, which contrasts with the modern, functionalist approach to such structures adopted in later years. As such, the Yan Yean system is a symbol of the period when infrastructure projects were a matter of considerable State investment and community pride and this is expressed in the architecture of its visible components. The Yan Yean system as a whole including both built and natural elements is also aesthetically significant as a distinctive and valued element in the cultural landscape extending from Whittlesea to Northcote. The landscape around the Yan Yean reservoir, acclaimed as one of the largest in the world in the nineteenth century, attracted writers and artists who marvelled at its technical and engineering accomplishments and eulogised the picturesque setting.

The Yan Yean system is archaeologically significant because it contains a range of known or potential archaeological deposits associated with the construction, development and use of the system over the past 100 years. This ranges from workers camp associated with the construction of the system to decommissioned equipment such as early cast-iron pipe technology and the former Morang Aqueduct and former Pipehead Reservoir. These archaeological sites have the potential to provide valuable information particularly in relation to early engineering construction techniques and provide a greater understanding of how a project of this magnitude was undertaken. They also can provide insight into the lives of the people involved in construction.

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3.6 Levels of significance

3.6.1 Primary significance These are features and attributes that are integral to the significance of the place. They include elements that provide important evidence of its historical development and are directly associated with the key historic period of development and use from the commencement of construction in 1853 until 1891, which is the date that the first stage of the Maroondah system came on line and was connected with the Yan Yean system at the Junction Basin. It includes features that are still in use as well as decommissioned items and archaeological sites. The elements of primary significance are those that are associated with: • The initial construction of the Yan Yean system from 1853 to 1857. ¾ Yan Yean Reservoir, including inlet channel, dam wall to the extent of the 1850s fabric (not the reinforcement of 1999), Valve House, Outlet Tower (bluestone), by-wash (Spillway), the site of the basin, Caretaker’s house and garden remnants, and site of boat shed including stone walls. ¾ The route of the pipe reserve between Yan Yean Reservoir and Merri Creek including the remnants of the No. 1 and No. 3 cast iron mains, which remain in situ between McDonalds Road and Preston Reservoir, and any remnants of the No. 1 cast iron main that may exist between Preston Reservoir and Merri Creek. ¾ Valve Houses at Mill Park and Preston Reservoir ¾ Darebin Creek pipe bridge (No. 1 main). ¾ Merri Creek pipe bridge ruins. ¾ Water tank from Eastern Hill, now at Werribee Sewerage Farm. ¾ Associated archaeological sites such as quarries and work camps. • The additions and alterations that were made to the Yan Yean system up to 1891, which illustrate refinements to the system’s operating performance and water quality, rather than expansions of capacity. ¾ Preston Reservoir No 1 (1864) and Caretaker’s Residence and garden (1865). ¾ Remnants of cast iron mains between Preston Reservoir and Merri Creek including No. 2 (1869), No. 3 (1877), No. 4 (1886) and No. 5 (1886). ¾ Morang Aqueduct (1875-6) and associated features (dry stone walls and brick & bluestone culverts) ¾ Pipehead Reservoir at McDonalds Road, South Morang (1873-5). ¾ Plenty River flume (rebuilt 1879). ¾ Clearwater Channel aqueduct (1885-6) and remnant early trees. ¾ Toorourrong Reservoir to the extent of the fabric dating from 1883-5 including the dam, by-wash, and connection to Clearwater Channel aqueduct, and the site of the first caretaker’s residence. ¾ Jacks Creek and Diversion Channel (1880s). ¾ Silver Creek (1886) and Wallaby Creek (1885) systems (including the Wallaby Creek Quarters, The Cascades and associated quarries). ¾ Darebin Creek pipe bridge No. 3 and No. 5 mains (c.1875-87).

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¾ Remnants of No. 5 wrought iron main (1887). ¾ Junction Basin (1891).

3.6.2 Secondary significance These are features and attributes that are important as evidence of the development of the Yan Yean system after 1891 when the Maroondah system came on-stream and prior to 1949 when the development of the Upper Yarra system began. These elements are of secondary significance in the context of the development of the original Yan Yean system from 1853-1891, but may be significant for other reasons. The elements of secondary significance include: • Mature trees surrounding Yan Yean reservoir and Toorourrong Reservoir and the Wallaby Creek aqueduct planted from the late nineteenth to early-mid twentieth century. • MMBW Rates office (1900) and Preston Reservoir No 2 (1909) and Preston Reservoir No 3 (1913). • Egyptian Revival Valve House and instrumentation cubicle valve houses, St Georges Road (1928-9). • Pipes installed from 1892 to c.1950 including duplication of the pipeline between McArthurs Road and Williamsons Road in South Morang (1892 & 1929). • MMBW depot at Yan Yean Reservoir behind Caretaker’s House (c.1920s). • Caretaker’s Residence (1928-9), timber boat house (c.1940s), and pre-World War Two soft and built landscape elements at Toorourrong Reservoir. • Trees (Sugar Gums and River Red Gums) along the pipe reserve between Yan Yean and South Morang. • Timber bridges across the Clearwater Channel aqueduct (c.1930s-40s).

3.6.3 Limited significance The elements of limited significance, but are of some interest in demonstrating the continuing development of the Yan Yean system in the twentieth century are those that date from after c.1950. This includes infrastructure (such as the pipe main placed within the aqueduct from Yan Yean to Morang in 1960), buildings (such as the complex on or near the site of the bluestone outlet basin at the south end of the Yan Yean reservoir) and landscaping (such as the post-war picnic shelters, toilets and seating in the parks surrounding Yan Yean and Toorourrong reservoirs).

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3.7 Recommendations

3.7.1 Statutory registers It is recommended that the Yan Yean system be nominated for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register. The proposed extent of registration is described below, and the proposed permit exemption policy is set out in Chapter 3 of Volume 4 – Conservation policy. If the Yan Yean system is added to the VHR then consideration may be given to nominating the system for inclusion on the National Heritage List.

3.7.2 Extent of registration The extent of registration should encompass the significant land and features as set out in the following table. In general, non-registered features include any feature (building, vegetation or structure) that dates from after c.1949. Feature Includes Silver Creek Weirs to Jacks Creek To the extent of the four weirs and associated Diversion Channel channels, aqueducts and tunnel, The Cascades, Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Diversion channel and land within 5m of these features. Also including the land associated with the Wallaby Creek Resort/Quarters as generally shown on Map 2. Registered features include: The three Silver Creek weirs and associated channels. The Silver Creek aqueduct and tunnels The Wallaby Creek Weir and aqueduct Nimmo Falls Quarry The Wallaby Creek caretaker’s residence, quarters and any other pre-WWII buildings and mature exotic vegetation The Cascades and associated steps Jacks Creek and Jacks Creek Diversion Channel. Toorourrong Reservoir To the extent of the land and features within the Reserve as generally shown on Map 3 - Toorourrong Reservoir incorporating the following registered features: Toorourrong Reservoir dam wall and associated infrastructure including the bluestone by-wash. Clearwater Channel aqueduct Caretaker’s residence Boatshed (not shown on Map) Mature exotic vegetation.

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Feature Includes Clearwater Channel aqueduct To the extent of all land within the aqueduct reserve incorporating the following registered features: The aqueduct and associated structures including Siphon Hill, catchdrains, overdrains, underdrains, timber bridges WBRG309 and WBGR 311, and aqueduct covers. Mature pine trees within the reservation. The Plenty River Gates and channel. Yan Yean Reservoir complex To the extent of the features and surrounding land within the Reserve as generally shown on Map 4 Yan Yean Reservoir incorporating the following registered features: Outlet tower Dam wall, by-wash and Plenty River channel Valve house and channel. Caretaker’s residence and garden remnants. Site of boathouse MMBW depot Mature exotic vegetation Pipe reserve – Yan Yean to To the extent of all the land within the pipe reserve Pipehead Reservoir incorporating the following registered features: The aqueduct remains including drainage culverts and associated features Drystone walls Mature vegetation including Sugar Gums and River Red Gums Plenty River flume Pipehead reservoir Pipe reserve – South Morang to To the extent of the land within the pipe reserve Preston incorporating the following registered features: Former Valve House, Wright Court, Mill Park Pipe bridges over Darebin Creek, Bundoora Junction Basin, Cheddar Road, Reservoir Remnants of No.1, No.3 & No.5 mains Preston Reservoir complex To the extent of all of the land on the west side of High Street incorporating the following registered features: The former Caretaker’s residence The former MMBW Rates Office The former Valve House Preston Reservoir No. 1 and Monterey Cypress windrow on east and south sides. Site of second caretaker’s residence. Pipe reserve – Preston to Merri To extent of all the land within the pipe reserve Creek incorporating the following registered features: Mature Canary Island Palms Four instrumentation cubicles in St Georges Road – at Bell Street on the central reserve, two on the west side north of Oakover Street, and one in the central reserve at Sumner Street, Valve house in St Georges Road just south of Miller Street. Merri Creek pipe bridge ruins

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APPENDIX A

Heritage Council (Heritage Victoria) criteria CRITERION A. The historical importance, association with or relationship to Victoria's history of the place or object. CRITERION B. The importance of a place or object in demonstrating rarity or uniqueness. CRITERION C. The place or object's potential to educate, illustrate or provide further scientific investigation in relation to Victoria's cultural heritage. CRITERION D. The importance of a place or object in exhibiting the principal characteristics or the representative nature of a place or object as part of a class or type of places or objects. CRITERION E. The importance of the place or object in exhibiting good design or aesthetic characteristics and/or in exhibiting a richness, diversity or unusual integration of features. CRITERION F. The importance of the place or object in demonstrating or being associated with scientific or technical innovations or achievements. CRITERION G. The importance of the place or object in demonstrating social or cultural associations. CRITERION H. Any other matter which the Council considers relevant to the determination of cultural heritage significance.

Australian Historical Council (RNE) criteria

CRITERION A: ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE COURSE, OR PATTERN, OF AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL HISTORY A.1 Importance in the evolution of Australian flora, fauna, landscapes or climate. A.2 Importance in maintaining existing processes or natural systems at the regional or national scale. A.3 Importance in exhibiting unusual richness or diversity of flora, fauna, landscapes or cultural features. A.4 Importance for association with events, developments or cultural phases which have had a significant role in the human occupation and evolution of the nation, State, region or community. CRITERION B: ITS POSSESSION OF UNCOMMON, RARE OR ENDANGERED ASPECTS OF AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL HISTORY B.1 Importance for rare, endangered or uncommon flora, fauna, communities, ecosystems, natural landscapes or phenomena, or as a wilderness. B.2 Importance in demonstrating a distinctive way of life, custom, process, land-use, function or design no longer practised, in danger of being lost, or of exceptional interest

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CRITERION C: ITS POTENTIAL TO YIELD INFORMATION THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL HISTORY C.1 Importance for information contributing to a wider understanding of Australian natural history, by virtue of its use as a research site, teaching site, type locality, reference or benchmark site. C.2 Importance for information contributing to a wider understanding of the history of human occupation of Australia. CRITERION D: ITS IMPORTANCE IN DEMONSTRATING THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF: (I) A CLASS OF AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL PLACES; OR (II) A CLASS OF AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS D.1 Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the range of landscapes, environments or ecosystems, the attributes of which identify them as being characteristic of their class. D.2 Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the range of human activities in the Australian environment (including way of life, philosophy, custom, process, land use, function, design or technique). CRITERION E: ITS IMPORTANCE IN EXHIBITING PARTICULAR AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS VALUED BY A COMMUNITY OR CULTURAL GROUP E.1 Importance for a community for aesthetic characteristics held in high esteem or otherwise valued by the community. CRITERION F: ITS IMPORTANCE IN DEMONSTRATING A HIGH DEGREE OF CREATIVE OR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AT A PARTICULAR PERIOD F.1 Importance for its technical, creative, design or artistic excellence, innovation or achievement. CRITERION G: ITS STRONG OR SPECIAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH A PARTICULAR COMMUNITY OR CULTURAL GROUP FOR SOCIAL, CULTURAL OR SPIRITUAL REASONS G.1 Importance as a place highly valued by a community for reasons of religious, spiritual, symbolic, cultural, educational, or social associations. CRITERION H: ITS SPECIAL ASSOCIATION WITH THE LIFE OR WORKS OF A PERSON, OR GROUP OF PERSONS, OF IMPORTANCE IN AUSTRALIA'S NATURAL OR CULTURAL HISTORY H.1 Importance for close associations with individuals whose activities have been significant within the history of the nation, State or region.

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APPENDIX B

Indigenous and natural heritage values

Indigenous heritage A preliminary assessment of the Indigenous heritage values of the Yan Yean water supply system was undertaken by Heritage Insight to identify the known heritage values and identify opportunities for further research and consultation. A copy of this report is provided in Volume 6 - Appendices and the following comments provide a summary of the findings. Indigenous communities The Yan Yean system currently falls within the boundaries of two Indigenous communities specified in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Commonwealth). These are the Coranderrk Aboriginal Housing Co-operative and the Wurundjeri Tribe Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council. The Taungurong Clans Aboriginal Corporation represent traditional owners in the study area and most also be consulted in regard to cultural heritage. It should be noted that the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (Victoria) is expected to replace the Commonwealth Act in 2007, which may see changes in the bodies responsible for Aboriginal cultural heritage. Known Indigenous archaeological sites Previous research has identified 7 Indigenous archaeological sites associated with the Yan Yean system. These include three scarred trees, two isolated artefacts and two artefact scatters. One of the artefact scatters (a substantial site on the floodplain of the Darebin Creek in Bundoora) was collected by the Wurundjeri community prior to its disturbance as a result of water main replacement works. The scarred trees are considered to be of high archaeological significance. All Indigenous archaeological sites are located on the pipe reserve north of the Western Ring Road in Bundoora. Additional research required Further research, including field survey, will be required to develop a more complete understanding of the heritage values of the area. The survey would include areas with intact landforms and vegetation and areas where ground surface visibility permits the identification of archaeological sites (tracks, post-fire environments etc). It is anticipated that the most likely sites would be artefact scatters in areas with previous ground disturbance (ie: areas with good surface visibility) near waterways. Mature River Red Gums may display evidence of cultural scarring. It is also anticipated that archaeological sites are likely to be identified in heavily forested areas of the study area and the survey strategy would need to determine ways of surveying such areas. Further work including more detailed ethnographic research, involvement of Indigenous people in survey and site identification and possibly the collection of oral histories would develop a much more complete picture of the areas Indigenous heritage values associated with the Yan Yean system.

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Natural heritage A preliminary assessment of the natural heritage values of the Yan Yean water supply system was undertaken by Ecology Australia to identify the known heritage values and identify opportunities for further research and consultation. This has involved a ‘desktop’ review of existing information on flora, fauna and habitat and the initial fieldwork carried out during the scoping stage of the study. A copy of the natural heritage values report is provided in Volume 6 - Appendices and the following comments provide a summary of the findings. Flora The Yan Yean system links the vegetation and habitats of three bioregions: the ‘Highland - - Northern Fall’, ‘Highlands – Southern Fall’ and the ‘Victorian Volcanic Plain’. The recent Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC) mapping suggests around eight EVCs for the Yan Yean system including the iconic old growth wet forests of the Hume Plateau and the Grassy Woodlands of Yan Yean. The Yan Yean system includes a number of EVCs that are considered threatened including the Endangered Plains Grassy Woodland EVC, and the Cool Temperate Rainforest. The key values of the Wallaby Creek catchment centre on the old growth Mountain Ash forest (Wet Forest EVC). The Yan Yean system also includes several plant species listed under the Federal EPBC Act 1999 and the State Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. On this basis, the historical scientific significance of the Yan Yean system for flora values is likely to the important at a National level. Fauna The Yan Yean system, but particularly that part around Yan Yean Reservoir and within the Wallaby Creek catchment is characterised by: • Relatively high indigenous faunal diversity (relatively high species diversity for a near metropolitan area). • Representative of rare and threatened species. • High quality and diverse faunal habitats. On this basis despite the incomplete and partial fauna data extant for the Yan Yean system as a whole, and for its component, the report concludes that the Yan Yean system is of National significance for its fauna values. Landscape The Victorian National Parks Act identifies Wallaby Creek as a ‘Designated Water Supply Catchment Area’ within Kinglake National Park. The Kinglake National Park is assigned the IUCN Category II (National Parks) of the United Nations’ List of National Parks and Protected Areas. Category II areas are managed primarily for ecosystem conservation and appropriate recreation. The Stony Creek, Disappointment, Joey Creek, Yan Yean North and Yan Yean South Reference Areas are assigned the IUCN Category Ia (Strict Nature Reserve) and are managed mainly for scientific purposes (Parks Victoria 1996, 2000). Reference Areas proclaimed under the Victorian Reference Areas Act 1978 are areas of particular ecological and scientific interest that can serve as a reference for comparative assessment of impacts on land uses elsewhere. Human interference in Reference Areas is restricted to the minimum essential; ensuring that as far as is practicable, long-term changes result only from natural processes (Parks Victoria 2000).

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The characteristics and significance values of the landscape may be summarised as: • Overall diversity and quality of forest and woodland habitats in areas long closed to the general public, with relatively high landform and geological diversity, biodiversity and representation of threatened species and vegetation types – State to National significance. • Old growth Mountain Ash forest on the Hume Plateau with Dave Ashton’s long term study sites – International significance. • Long term study site for Platypus at Toorourrong Reservoir (Australian Platypus Conservancy) – high Regional to State significance.