May 2026
This amazing huge thing is pretty much only known to the people of Geelong – it’s the Barwon Sewer Aqueduct that runs across a floodplain to the south of the city, built in 1913-15, and sadly it’s about to be demolished.
It was designed by leading concrete engineers Stone & Siddeley, built using the early Considiere system of reinforced concrete, involving spiral reinforcing to improve its performance in compression. However it reproduces a steel structure (like the 1890 Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland pic 8) in concrete, so various members are in tension, which are more prone to cracking the exterior concrete, which happened as early as 1922. This was thought to be due to the conc quality not being too good, though seems to have lasted fine until the 70s when it was being regularly patched.
It was added to the Heritage Register in 1991, just before it was decommissioned in 1992. It was pretty much fenced off then, and despite much agitation Barwon Water refused the expense of repairs or upkeep, and now 34 years later it’s deemed so unsafe that it can’t even be safely propped let alone repaired, so Heritage Victoria has agreed to demolition. The same engineers designed the very long span Bow Truss Woolstore in Geelong, which was demolished as ‘unsafe’ in 1990, but was actually difficult to destroy.
I suppose it would have helped if the City of Geelong or the State Govt had provided funding for the aqueduct, maybe made it part of a bike track, but no, all rather sad. If it had been anywhere more prominent, that would have helped.
Photos via enthusiasts on Facebook (pics 1,3,4,5 @far_tracer ) and the heritage officers report.
Storey of Melbourne 