Get pumped about the Spotswood Pumping Station!

Before Melbourne had an underground sewerage system, cesspits and night pans were used to dispose sewage. So that the stench was less noticeable, the toilet was banished to the ‘outhouse’ or ‘privy’, usually at the far end of the backyard. This also meant easier access for the nightcart man, who emptied the pans from the laneways behind houses. Those back lanes, and outhouses, still exist in the suburbs that were built prior to the installation of the sewers.

Steam engines

For almost a quarter of a century from 1897, steam power was the sole motive power source for driving the pumps at Spotswood Sewerage Pumping Station. Steam power was also used for driving dynamos to supply electric lighting, for driving the workshop machinery, economisers, feedwater pumps and control valves that regulated the sewage flow. By 1914, the Pumping Station was equipped with 10 steam pumping engines, capable of lifting 36 million litres every 24 hours. Steam was supplied to the engines by 10 large coal-fired boilers, each designed to evaporate 4077kg of water per hour.

Electric engines

After the first electric pump was installed in 1921, steam power took a secondary role, being mainly used to handle peak sewage flows, but the steam pumps continued to be used intermittently until 1947. Today, five of the original steam engines survive, having been saved by the generation of engineers who had a special affection for the old steam technology on which they began their careers.

Today, Melbourne produces approximately 900 million litres of wastewater per day, enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground to a height of 50 metres!  90% of Melbourne’s sewage goes to one of two major treatment plants, the Eastern or the Western treatment plants, and the rest to smaller plants. There the sewage gets treated to create recycled water. Some of the uses for this recycled water is for firefighting, irrigation water for watering parks and gardens and even to flush toilets again.

The rapid growth of Melbourne after the Second World War meant that by the 1960s, the Spotswood Pumping Station’s capacity had been exceeded. A new Pumping Station was built in 1965 at Brooklyn. It has eight large pumps and lifts water 25 metres to transfer sewage by gravity along the western trunk sewer to Werribee. A second pumping station at Hoppers Crossing was also built to keep up with the demand in 1992. Today sewage is transferred from the Brooklyn Pumping Station to Hoppers Crossing, and then to the Western Treatment Plant.

In the following activity, students learn how the Spotswood Pumping Station pumped sewage for almost 70 years and write a creative piece to solidify their understanding.

Suggested videos for your students to view: 

What your students will need 

• Teacher notes to provide students with background information for this activity (using the information on this web page)
  
• The Pumping Station video link provided about the Spotswood Pumping Station for students to view and take notes
• Student worksheet

Curriculum links

Science

• Science as a human endeavour   (Year 5-10)
• Earth and Space sciences (Year 7-8)

Geography

• Water in the world (Year 7-8) 

History 

• Historical significance (Year 5-10)
• The modern world and Australia (Year 9-10)

Design and technologies

• Technologies contexts (Year 5-10)
• Technologies and society (Year 7-10)

Critical and creative thinking 

•  Meta-cognition (Year 5-8)

Personal and social Capability 

• Collaboration (Year 5-8)

Related links

From past to present - at the Western Treatment Plant (Year 5-6)