the early years
In the 1880s, British journalists called our city 'Marvelous Melbourne' for many wondrous things, such as electric lights and a supply of clean drinking water from Yan Yean Reservoir. However, the young city was also known as 'Marvelous Smellbourne', because it was one of the smelliest cities in Australia.
In those days most of the dirty water (sewage) from homes was emptied onto the streets, and the sewage flowed into the Yarra River. This, mixed with wastes from stables, tanneries and factories, made the Yarra River very smelly and dirty.
Laying of the rising mains at Spotswood Pumping Station
Eastern Treatment Plant today
Thunderboxes
Before the 1890s, a toilet was a bucket or pan in a wooden shed. This is commonly known as a pan closet toilet or a thunderbox.
Thunderboxes were emptied about once a week by a nightman (so called because he collected the pans at night). The nightman would reach through a small door in the back of the shed for the pan. He would then empty the pan into his own bucket and return it to the closet.
The waste, called nightsoil, was carted to an area outside Melbourne where it was often used as fertiliser by market gardeners.
Because the wastes stayed in a pan for up to a week, thunderboxes were very smelly. They were built as far from the house as possible and usually backed on to a lane. People also often used chamber pots at night to save them the dark walk to the toilet. In the morning, the contents of these chamber pots were often emptied straight onto the streets.
As Melbourne's population grew, the nightmen couldn't keep up with all the waste. People also kept dumping their waste on the streets. Our rivers and creeks literally became open sewers.
By the late 1880s Melbourne faced a big pollution problem. The city's waste disposal habits were damaging our rivers, creeks and bays, making them unhygienic and unsightly. Epidemics of the fatal typhoid became frequent, and one in four children did not survive past their second year.
The establishment of a sewerage system and the Western Treatment Plant
A Royal Commission in 1888 recommended a sewerage system - a system of pipes, sewers and drains that are used to carry sewage from houses and factories to a sewage treatment plant - to be built.
An English engineer called James Mansergh, was hired in 1889 to draw up plans for Melbourne's sewerage system. After modifications were made by Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works' first engineer-in-chief, William Thwaites, construction began in May 1892.
The new system was based on a network of main underground sewers that would carry sewage, via a massive pumping station at Spotswood (now the site of the Scienceworks Museum) to a sewage treatment farm at Werribee.
Western Treatment Plant
Gradually sewers spread throughout Melbourne, deep underneath the streets. Thunderboxes, along with the nightmen, were replaced by inside water-flushed toilets. The introduction of a sewerage system also meant that smelly open drains and street channels were a thing of the past.
In 1897, the first Melbourne homes were connected to the sewerage system. By 1910 there were 105,993 houses and factories were connected to the sewerage system.
Septic tanks and the establishment of Eastern Treatment Plant
A sewerage system was not considered suitable for the outer suburbs. The population in these suburbs was more spread out, so local septic systems were used instead. These replaced the nightman's weekly visit.
Instead of traveling hundreds of kilometers to a sewage treatment plant, septic systems directed dirty water to a septic tank. Septic tanks are anaerobic (without oxygen), encouraging the growth of certain micro-organisms, which breaks down the organic wastes in the tank.
In the early 1960s, pollution problems caused by leaking septic systems led to the formation of a number of sewerage authorities in the Mornington Peninsula. These sewerage authorities soon began replacing septic systems with a sewerage system.
As Melbourne grew to the east and south, it became clear that a second sewage treatment plant was needed. So, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works built a new treatment plant at Bangholme. In 1975, the Eastern Treatment Plant started treating sewage from the eastern and south eastern suburbs. It now treats about 40% of Melbourne's sewage.