Yan Yean Water Supply System Conservation Management Plan Volume 3: Assessment of significance Final May 2007 Prepared for Melbourne Water © Context Pty Ltd 2007 All rights reserved; these materials are copyright. No part may be reproduced or copied in any way, form or by any means without permission. 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 iii 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 iv 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. v Figure 1 The Yan Yean system (As reproduced in Dingle & Doyle 2003:34) vi YAN YEAN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM CMP 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 1 VOLUME 3: ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 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.