A Precious Resource - Busby's Bore

Paperbarks beside Busby's Pond in Centennial Park

A few weeks ago, I told you the history of the Tank Street which was the first supply of clean fresh water for the convict colony. By the early 1820s the Tank Stream was so polluted that an alternative had to be found.

The cairn marking the start of the bore, just within the Robertson Road gates of Centennial Park

John Busby, an engineer, came up with the idea of constructing a 3.6 kilometre tunnel from the Lachlan Swamps in Centennial Park to Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney Town to enable the piping of spring water which could then be sold to residents and provided to water carriers who plied their trade to the surrounding suburbs.

Left: John Busby Right: A section of the bore, date unknown

Poor old Busby was low on 'people skills', and engineering skills as well. The convicts in his work team did not respond to coercion and were not skilled diggers. The bore was not completed for 16 years. Water eventually flowed in March 1837.

'Busby's Bore' was the water supply for the colony until 1859 when a series of water tanks was established (on the ridge atop Centennial Park at Bondi Junction; on Oxford Street at Paddington; and in Crown Street) to which water was pumped from an extended series of lakes which were consolidated further with the official establishment of Centennial Park in 1888. These lakes were linked up to the more extensive swamplands of the Botany basin for a comprehensive water supply network. The BJ and Crown Street tanks still operate today. The Paddington tank is now the Reservoir Gardens.

Within in Victoria Barracks there is a vent down to the bore

The 'pipeline' cuts through under the Showground site, under Moore Park Road, beneath Victoria Barracks, beneath Taylor Square eventually running down Oxford Street (beneath it) into and through Hyde Park.

Woolcott's 1857 drawing shows the water flowing above ground through the race-course which is now Hyde Park

Even though there is a memorial fountain opposite the St James courts in commemoration of this engineering feat, the ramp and water station ended near the corner of Park & Elizabeth Streets close to where the Child Health Centre used to be. Parts of the bore are still down there, but entire sections have collapsed and have been filled with sand to stop subsidence.

On the cairn in Centennial Park, the route of the bore is detailed

Sunday in my City - Water on tap

On Art Gallery Road, near Robbie Burns memorial

Top left: Victor Chang memorial opposite St Vincents Top Right: Hyde Park south, near War Memorial Bottom Left: Mid Central Ave, that joined Gardens with Domain Bottom Right: Grand Drive, Centennial Park

Water is the most precious of commodities. More precious than gold. More precious that shares. Nearly as precious as education, but not as precious as love. We drink it, we cook with it, we bathe in it, we launder in it, we flush with it. Human household uses. But there are also industrial uses and agricultural uses. Water was a marginalised natural resource that was taken for granted. But that is all changing.

Australia is an arid country, and it is not alone on the planet in that respect. Our rainfall pattern is around the coastal fringes, and obviously this is where the population exists. We have creeks, but not a plethora of massive running rivers. No Niles, Mississips. No Rhines, no Danubes.No Amazons, no Yangtzes. Our main river system, one that drains a massive area of the entire continent, is the Murray-Darling which is nearly 3,500 km long.

All three bubblers are in the Botanic Gardens, the two small ones are same bubbler from different angle

Consumers the world over, for the last decade, have been convinced that the only good water to drink is the water that comes in small plastic bottles. This may not be totally true, but it does have people taking water where-e’er they go, and drinking water more frequently. Drinking fountains (bubblers) went out of fashion when advertisers told us that they transmitted diseases and were unclean.

All the bubblers featured here are very close to the inner city, and in areas that were developed in the middle of the 19th century. There are bubblers all over our city and in our major parks. I lost count how many there are in Centennial Park. Nowadays, these are all connected to our main water supply.

Today, I feature the humbler bubbler. Tomorrow, the bubbler gets a roof over its head.

Near Mrs Macquarie's Chair overlooking the Opera House

A member of the Sunday in my City community.

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - The Start

Reminiscent of a bunch of cats eager to be fed, the yachts stooged around jockeying for position and for wind. And I guess simply for room to move. The day was grey and mizzley but that did not seem to lessen the enthusiasm of the crowds on each and every headland.


Taking their life in their hands, smaller craft took it to the big fellers for their time in the spotlight, basking in the reflected glory of a Sydney-Hobart start. The SMH has some spectacular overhead shots, especially 3/18 and 17/18. The final shot below, shows the puff of smoke from the canon as the starter warns there is 5 minutes to start. Drivers start your engines ...

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - Sailors

Barrows hustled, managers bustled. Tension and anticipation oozed. Weathered profiles contemplated the conditions, the course, the tactics, the contenders.


Gnarled hands of experienced salts gesticulated expansively, as younger members nonchalantly osmosised the ambience. Tactics were determined beyond the maddening crowd. Would the million-dollar mast do the trick? Did they stow sufficient King Island Ash Blue? Would the winds in Storm Bay sweep them up the Derwent or strand them in no-mans-land?


The 2009 Sydney - Hobart Yacht Race line honours winner, Alfa Romeo fom NZ, crossed the finish line into Constitution Dock in Hobart at 10:02pm Monday after being the first out the Sydney Heads on Saturday and leading all the way.

Tomorrow: the starter's canon ...

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - Preparations

The overcast conditions, the wind and the scudding rain, sent the sail hands and captains alike on a wild goose chase to batten down the hatches. Three hours remained until that puff of grey smoke signalled the start of the 2009 Blue Water Classic from the line stretched out from Neilsen Park across to Chowder Bay and ending sometime Tuesday at Constitution Dock in Hobart.


The early morning crowd milled and shuffled through the fine mist, exchanging words of wisdom on conditions and tactics. The Cruising Yacht Club at Rushcutters Bay once again hosted its morning of mornings.

Summer days drifting away