Friday 18 June 2010

Arncliffe, sewer vent

This tall sewer vent dominates the skyline at West Botany Street in the southern suburb of Arncliffe. It was constructed at the turn of the 20th century as part of the Western Outfall Sewer. By the late 1800s, the five outfall sewers which drained into Sydney Harbour had grossly polluted it. As replacements, the Southern Outfall Sewer was constructed in 1886 including an experimental sewage farm, followed by the Bondi Ocean Outfall Sewer in 1889 and the Western Suburbs Outfall Sewer in 1898. These outfalls still serve the city today, south of the harbour. Sewer vents introduce a flow of fresh air through sewers to reduce the production of noxious and corrosive gases by enabling their release.

47 comments:

  1. Great to think they were seriously concerned about the environment that far back. Beautiful skies for a backdrop! Have a great weekend!

    Sylvia

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  2. Thank you! I have driven past that and always wondered what it was.

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  3. Obrigado pela visita, tem aqui fotos muito bonitas.
    Thanks for stopping by, here are beautiful photographs.

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  4. Ehy, sarebbe interessante poter salire in cima....
    bella foto :-))

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  5. A beautiful structure for a mundane task

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  6. Very interesting JBar - I never knew they vented sewerage like this! Great blue sky shot too.

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  7. Thanks for the info. At first glance, I thought it might be part of a lighthouse. It's an impressive sewer vent...and a beautiful sky for background.

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  8. Thanks for visiting my blog. I frequently visit your blog too.

    Regards
    Roberto

    http:clicksderoberto.blogspot.com

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  9. Thank you for teaching me something that I did not know before. Please have a great Friday.

    daily athens

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  10. Wonderful composition and the sky is looking beautiful! Great capture!

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  11. Beautiful shot of the sewer vent.

    Have a great weekend.

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  12. At first I thought it was a shot tower. Lovely design for something as everyday as sewerage.
    Cheers.
    Melbourne Daily Photo

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  13. BlossomFlowerGirl, it is a rather good design for something with this purpose. It seems like they made an effort with everything that they built back then.

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  14. Three cheers for sewer vents. Thanks for the info.

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  15. Beautiful photo!
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    The themes are:

    Monday - Creative Colors
    Tuesday - Macro
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    The winning photo for every theme/week gets their photo published on the website, check it out and ill be glad if you would join :)

    Have a good one!

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  16. Very interesting, I would never have guessed what that was.

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  17. What a brilliant idea! I love the look of it too, red brick is always so charming.

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  18. Very cool structure and backstory on the /chimneys.'

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  19. Great looking structure! Even a sewer vent can be lovely to see whilst it does the job intended!

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  20. Very interesting to learn about the sewer vent. I thought it was a chimmney.

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  21. I could never have guessed that the tall building was a sewer vent!

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  22. i like the tower...very nice shot...I notice that i have taken the shot from down to up...congrats
    graceolsson.com/blog

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  23. Outstanding monument into
    the clear blue.
    Have a nice weekend ♪

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  24. Great old structure, hope the cities remember to keep more of these old darlings to maintain the history and add interest to the sky line.

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  25. Gosh those late Victorians and Edwardians were clever, weren't they? Simple but effective technology.

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  26. Hels, they certainly were clever and they always seemed to build things with more style.

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  27. I have not seen a sewage vent any where. Thought it is a chimney. Few years back, you guys had trouble with your sewage system. Hope it is fixed.

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  28. Very informative, you captured the nice angle...

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  29. Ann, I think you're referring to pollution problems at some city beaches. That was fixed ages ago by building better treatment plants and extending the outfalls much further out into the ocean.

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  30. It's always good to vent!

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  31. I always enjoy the pictures of your trips around Sydney. So far on your blog I have seen more than when we were actually living there! Or maybe I saw some objects but did not really notice them.

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  32. The sewer vent looks beautiful in front of the lovely sky. Fascinating to learn about the structure.

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  33. Wow! You follow a lot of blogs. You must stay very busy. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

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  34. wow so tall! i love the the color contrast of the tower to the sky.

    thank you for visiting my skywatch entry. :)

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  35. I would never have thought this was as sewer vent - it's so grand.

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