Tour provides rare glimpse of water heritage

摘要

Around 160 Sydneysiders donned safety harnesses, gumboots and helmets, and descended a ladder under Australia Square to explore a section of the Tank Stream on tours organised by Sydney Water and the NSW Historic Houses Trust last month. The guide was Engineers Australia's Engineering Heritage Australia group member Jon Breen, a retired Sydney Water civil engineer. The stream - running from what is now King Street and emptying into Sydney Cove where Circular Quay now stands - was the first water source for colonial Sydney. During the drought in 1790 the colony's first engineer, Captain Augustus Alt, had convicts construct three or four water tanks that gave it its name.