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| Gulag Architecture - not her Majesty's Prison but a historic waterworks begun 1861 |
It's Architecture
Month in Hobart and over the weekend many buildings both public and
private, were open to the public. You can have a look at some of them
here.
Alas, many places
were already booked out even before the brochure was published and the times of several which I would have liked to
see, clashed with others I wanted to visit.
From the website, you will see that Hobart
certainly has a range of intriguing architecture. I have visited or mentioned some
of these buildings such as the
Markree House Museum or the charming Egyptian -style
Jewish Synagogue previously, and for a short time we lived opposite the Tate House in Taroona,
so I thought I would just take a peek at the Hill Street Reservoir which is
only a short walk from my house. Alas, this too was already pre -booked out,
but after a bit of pestering and pleading, Taleah agreed to let me know if
someone failed to turn up and I managed to go on the last tour of same.
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| You could be forgiven for thinking this was designed to stop people escaping, but it's designed to stop people falling into a vast empty reservoir |
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| Taleah of Taswater |
The exterior of the Hill Street Reservoir and Pump Station which
I pass on my way to the local shops, had always looked rather grim and Alcatraz
–like with its high fences, barbed wire
and intimidating “No Standing” signs, so
I was quite curious as to what lay inside. Besides, I have always been rather
intrigued by our industrial heritage. The grand houses and stately homes are
usually well -preserved and much is known about them, but our more utilitarian buildings are only now
starting to be appreciated when we have lost most of them. I think of the charming power station at Lake Margaret
with its brass fittings and clerestory windows, or the gracious lines of our
early, usually Art Deco Hydro buildings or the quaint pump houses in the Derwent Valley, so my expectations were rather high. [In regard to Art Deco, see for example, the
Jet Service Station built in 1936, number 26 in the brochure, which was also on
show].
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| Interior of original reservoir |
In terms of the beauty of the architecture, the reservoir
didn't exactly leave me breathless. Only function and necessity have dictated its
form, but there are some intriguing details. For instance, as Damian, engineer with Taswater explained, in the early days of
the colony, when concrete had not yet been invented and the colony
had little limestone, Aboriginal shell middens were burnt and used to make mortar
to line the brick cistern. If you look closely at the walls of the first Hill
Street Reservoir, built in 1862, you will see bits of shells and burnt wood.
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| Damian from Taswater also expounds on the difficulty of maintaining pressure, purity and supply as Hobart grows and the climate warms |
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| Midden shells and charcoal still show in the mortar of the original reservoir built in 1862 |
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| The old Reservoir now houses pumps and valves |
Unfortunately, these walls leaked like a sieve and as Hobart grew, a second reservoir
was built in 1883. By this time, materials had improved and this one still
serves as auxiliary storage today with most of the old reservoir now occupied
by a pumping station built in the 1980s. This regulates flow to various parts
of Hobart and provides supplementary water from the river in summer when
mountain supplies run low. The style of the pumping station is utterly Spartan
with no concession to any artistic sensibilities at all. Its most remarkable
feature beyond a mundane collection of pipes, valves and gauges is its very
neat cleaning station, but perhaps that’s a comforting thought.
Incidentally,
Taswater staff have noticed changes as the climate warms – not just in the
greater need for back up supplies, but also the increasing growth of algae and other organisms in
our catchments, which mean far greater costs to keep water clean and pure.
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| I probably prefer this end of our water supply, but it's good to know how it gets into our houses |
Regardless of its architectural merit, the Hill Street
Reservoir plays an important role in the history of Hobart’s water supply -an
intriguing story in its own right, and one which we often take for granted. A
visit to the original pumphouse at the Waterworks Reserve is very instructive
in that regard, or as you walk along the
Pipeline Track either from Ferntree to
Ridgeway or up to Wellington Falls. In my case today's tour at least represents a mystery solved.
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| Historic photo of the RidgewayDam given to me by Taswater |
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