NRS-21965 | Plans of the Walka Waterworks - Hunter River District Water Supply [Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board]

Full description

The NSW Public Works Department called for tenders for the construction of the Walka Water Works in December 1882 and contracts were signed in April 1883. George Blunt supervised the building of the reservoir, filter beds and settling and clear water tanks by 1885. James Watt and Company of Birmingham supplied and erected the three pumping stations installed at Walka in 1886 and James Russell completed the construction of the engine and boiler house. By January 1887 all works were completed and water began to flow to Newcastle, Maitland and the nearby mining towns. In 1892 the pumps were improved and a third pump was attached to the No.3 beam engine. This was also the year that the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board took over the works. In 1896-97 a second pipe was constructed between the Hunter River and the waterworks. In 1900 Newcastle was consuming double the water it had consumed in 1892.

The buildings and structures of the complex are generally constructed of load bearing brickwork, with trussed roof structures to the main engine houses, and roofed with corrugated iron. They include the main pump house, the boiler room, chimney, an eastern extension to the pump house built in 1893 used as an office, the western pump house built in 1913, a workshop, a boiler room addition built in 1913, the settling tank, filter beds, the Clearwater tank, the reservoir, the Chief Engineer's residence, the second Engineer's cottage and other miscellaneous features such as paved roads, paths and kerbing, a sparse scatter of plantings from the original period of operation, including an avenue of trees near the Chief Engineer's residence, a substantial railway formation, including cuttings and embankments, running from the site of the power station along the northern edge of the reservoir and connects to the North Coast railway main line at the western end of the site and steel steps and concrete footings for the fuel air pump house at the edge of the rail track below filter bed 7. The waterworks served as the sole water supply of the Lower Hunter towns from 1887 until 1929 when it was superseded by the Tarro Pumping Station. The implementation of the waterworks scheme for drinking and washing made possible the provision of sewerage systems to these towns. Equally important was the role water played in the development of secondary industry in the region. Without an adequate water supply, many of the industries that provided employment in the Newcastle area would not have been established. The waterworks were closed in 1945, decommissioned in 1976 and dismantled in 1978.

The plans include drawings, some in colour, and tracings covering a range of aspects of the waterworks including engineers drawings and cross sections of engines, sludge and syphon dredging, filter beds, sand washing apparatus, conduits, tanks and trenches. They also include architectural drawings and details of the waterworks buildings including pumping stations, boiler houses, masonry detail and engineers quarters.

There are two main numbering sequences applied to the plans including one applied by the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Hunter River District Water Supply incorporating an R sequence (e.g. 31-R-1_7) and a D sequence (e.g. 121_D_23). The second numbering sequence was used by the Department of Public Works Harbours and Rivers Plan Room and include a 384 (e.g. 384B_43), 385 (e.g. 385A_25), 100 (e.g.105_25), 6 (e.g. 6_D_5) and 16 (e.g. 16_D_25) sequence.

References
J.W. Armstrong, Pipelines and People. The History of the Hunter District Water Board, Newcastle, NSW, The Hunter District Water Board, 1967.
W. Clark, Report to the Government of New South Wales by W. Clark, Member of Institute [sic] of Civil Engineers, Charles Potter, Acting Government Printer, 1877.
Don Godden and Associates, Specialist Report for Walka Waterworks Conservation plan. [Sydney?], Don Godden and Associates, 1986.
Engineering Heritage Newcastle (2015) Newcastle's first water supply – the “Walka” scheme: nomination for engineering heritage recognition, https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/system/files/engineering-heritage-australia/nomination-title/HRP.Newcastle%27s%20First%20Water%20System%20-%20the%20Walka%20Scheme.Nomination.V3.Oct%202015_0.pdf (accessed September 2019).
P. George, The Walka Power Station 1953-1977, Bolwarra, NSW: self-published, 1997.
G. Jones, The Movement for Newcastle's First Water Supply 1875-1885, Newcastle, The Council of the City of Newcastle, 1967.
G. Karskens, Dungog Shire Heritage Study. Thematic History, Dungog: Environmental Perumal, Wrathall and Murphy Pty Ltd Planners, in association with Cameron McNamara, 1986.
C.P. Lloyd, P. Troy, & S. Schreiner, For the Public Health: The Hunter District Water Board 1892–1992, Melbourne: Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd, 1992.
'The Lower Hunter Water-Works',The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 22 December 1881, p.6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/845351 (accessed September 2019).
Maitland City Council , Walka Water Works: Detailed study – Its historical significance, https://www.maitland.nsw.gov.au/document/walka-water-works-historical-significance-detailed-study, [undated] (accessed September 2019).
New South Wales State Heritage Register, Walka Water Works, [undated]. Office of Environment and Heritage. H00466. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045638 (accessed September 2019).
B. Walsh, & C. Archer, Maitland on the Hunter (2nd ed.). Tocal, NSW, C B Alexander Foundation, 2007.