City park lands depot for Adelaide's Australia-first sewerage system from 1881; used by E&WS, SA Water to 2008

The site of what was called the Thebarton depot or sewers yard, in the Adelaide city west park lands, was commissioned in 1881 as a temporary base for setting up Adelaide's Australia-first deep drainage and sewerage project, next to Port Road. The temporary tenure extended to 2008 as the site became works headquarters for the Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) then SA Water in 1999. The area (see inset map) later also was called Gladys Elphick Park/Narnungga Park (Park 26) when returned to the Adelaide city council.
Images courtesy Adelaide city council and Google Maps.

The first practical step towards starting South Australia government hydraulics engineer Oswald Brown’s Australia-first deep drainage and sewerage system was the leasing from 1879 of a triangular block of the Adelaide city west park lands from the city corporation.

The leasing of the land that became known as the Thebarton depot or sewers yard was the result of drainage and sewers acts pass by the South Australian parliament. Supposed to be temporarily in the park lands, the Thebarton depot was used as the base to construct, maintain and operate Adelaide’s first sewerage system, commissioned in 1881.

A sewer pipeline was laid along the railway line at the park lands depot site to take solid and liquid waste from Adelaide city and suburbs to a sewage farm at Tam O’Shanter (later called Islington) six kilometres north of the city. This was part of a change to the sewerage plan suggested by British hydraulics expert William Clark when he visited Adelaide in 1878.

Under Clark’s plan, the sewage would go to a farm near Hindmarsh and be discharged into the sea. The South Australia parliament passed the 1878 Better Sewerage and Cleansing Of the City of Adelaide and Suburbs Thereof Act to support that concept until it was halted by public protest. In 1879, a royal commission looked instead at the best site for a land-based farm as final treatment for all sewage.

Brown made the choice taken by by the commission for Tam O’Shanter (Islington) over Reedbeds (Findon) as the sewage farm site – fixed under the 1879 Sewers Act. The flow of sewage over two hours along the pipe from Adelaide city to the Tam O'Shanter sewage farm was sent by gravity with a fall of about 168 feet between them. The two drum strainers at the farm were driven by the hydraulic flow from the pipe.

The other change that Brown made to Clark’s plan was to extend the sewerage infrastructure (and its necessary deep drainage) coverage beyond just Adelaide city and North Adelaide to the city and principal suburbs. Extending the scheme ran into the constant concern about costs among parliamentarians.

In the 1879-1880 sessions of parliament, under William Morgan’s government's water supply and sewerage policies, the bill to provide Tea Tree Gully and Modbury with water was denied in the House of Assembly after many believed it be too costly to serve so few people. In 1880, the bill passed both houses of parliamnet, the scheme's cost lessened by £1,000 by leaving out the Modbury portion. The Glen Osmond waterworks bill in 1880 was also resisted because of its economies. Public works commissioner George Hawker argued for the scheme, saying the hydraulic engineer’s estimates showed a positive outcome.

On the other hand, members of parliament unanimously supported the 1879 waterworks bill to get more revenue by repealing free water to lands and buildings used by the government for public purposes. The bill extended the water area to include big areas in the western coastal suburbs and empowered the public works commissioner to fix scales of water charges by rating or assessment or sale of water by measure. Engineer in chief Henry Mais had overseen gradual changeover to Seimens meters and to Bateman and Moore's fire plugs to place all persons using water for other than domestic purposes under meterage.

More revenue was brought in by tightening accounting and changing the waterworks (management) division in the engineer in chief’s department to the rates department. Mais was keen to employ solicitors to get in outstanding rates. In 1869, the first summons case was in the Port Adelaide local court against a local who wouldn't pay his rates. Mais had noted the outstanding rates owing and was amazed so few cases had been taken to court. In 1869, a solicitor was appointed by the government for all public works department business and crown law officers handled all cases from 1870.

By 1872, Mais had introduced inspectors to ensure new services would be laid according to updated regulations and to report any waste of water. From 1875, mixups were erased by the engineering division collecting, as well as issuing, service fittings accounts.