Sessional_Paper_1884 — Page 612

Report by the Surveyor-General on the progress and present position of the

Tytam Water Works, 25th June. 1884.

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of

His Excellency the Governor.

1. The Tytam Waterworks, though designed as far back as 1873, and fully approved by the EARL OF CARNARVON in 1877, while he was Secretary of State for the Colonies, were not commenced

until 1883. The final instructions from the Colonial Office for the commencement of the works are

contained in the despatch No. 86 of 1882.

2. The object of the Tytam Works is to increase fourfold the present deficient water supply of Victoria by the creation of a large artificial lake in the Tytam Valley from which the town may be able to draw an abundant daily supply of pure water, more especially during the dry season of the year-(October to April)—when natural sources are for the most part dried up.

3. The water in the old reservoir at Pokfoolum amounting to 74 million gallons had already been found insufficient in 1871 when Victoria contained only 95,000 inhabitants. At the present time when the population has increased to 110,000 the inadequacy of the old reservoir is of course the more felt, and the straits to which the poor especially, are put for the want of this common necessary of life are known to be very great.

4. From Pokfoolum and other minor sources the present allowance of water amounts to about 4 gallons a day per head of inhabitant. On the completion of the new Tytam Waterworks this daily allowance will be increased to about 19 gallons a day during the dry season, while during the rainy season of five months, and so long as the proposed new reservoir is overflowing, there is no reason why the supply to the town should not be practically unlimited.

5. Such confused notions have at one time and another prevailed in respect of possible improve- ments to the existing water supply, that it may not be out of place here to point out briefly, that no doubt has ever at any time existed as to there being ample water during the wet season, from the hills above Victoria to meet the requirements of the town during the dry season, and that the only point for consideration in connection with an improved water supply has been-not whether we could find water enough, but where we could find the best and most suitable site for holding the very large volume which we have at command and which we require to store up for use in the dry

season.

6. There are no valleys above the town or on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour any- where near Victoria where water could be ponded on a sufficiently large scale to meet the wants of the population during the dry season, or from which the water thus ponded could be delivered by gravitation through pipes at a sufficient elevation above sea-level to subserve the higher portions

of the town.

7. The only valley fulfilling these conditions was found-after an exhaustive survey of the topography of the entire island, in the Tytam district, and accordingly this locality, in spite of its distance from the town, had to be selected as the best site for the future reservoir.