400 REPORT— 1891. 



1. House Sanitation in Sydney. 



By W. E. Cook, M.C.E. (Melbourne). 



Before the year 1880 no properly-defined and well-considered 

 system of sewerage was carried out in Sydney, but fi'om time 

 to time, as the growth of the city demanded, sewers of all 

 sorts and sizes, from 10ft. by 5ft. stone sewers to pipe-drains of 

 9in. diameter, were constructed in almost every street running 

 down to the Harbour of Port Jackson. These sewers served to 

 carry off both the stormwater and the foul-water sewerage 

 from the houses. In most cases they are still in existence as 

 stormwater sewers, and in many instances they still act as 

 foul-water sewers, pending the construction of the low-level 

 main sewers. 



In the year 1876 it was decided to construct a system of 

 sewers of such sizes and at such depths as to carry the foul- 

 water sewerage of the city and eastern suburbs into the ocean 

 near Bondi, and that of the southern suburbs on to a sewerage- 

 fai'm, where the foul water is purified by filtration through 

 sand, and the clean water effluent empties into Botany Bay. 



The main outfall-works of both the eastern and southern 

 systems were begun in 1880, under the late Mr. W. C. Bennett, 

 M.Inst.C.E., as Engineer-in-Chief for Sewerage. Upon the 

 death of this gentleman, Mr. E. Hickson, M.Inst.C.E., suc- 

 ceeded to the position, and all the works both on the main 

 and reticulation sewers were carried out under his supervision 

 until November, 1889, when, by the provisions of the Metro- 

 politan Water and Sewerage Act Amendment Act, the main- 

 tenance of the main sewers, and the construction and 

 maintenance of the reticulation sewers, including house-con- 

 nections, came under the control of the Board of Water-supply 

 and Sewerage. Mr. J. M. Small, M.Inst.C.E., who had for a 

 number of years been engaged upon the construction of the 

 main southern outfall and branch sewers, was then appointed 

 Engineer for Sew^erage under the Board. 



When Mr. Small took over the control of the sev/erage 

 works under the Board, fourteen thousand houses had been 

 connected with the sewers (principally the old city ones), and 

 since then, up to the end of 1890, four thousand additional 

 houses have been connected. While designing and construct- 

 ing the reticulation sewers, it was also necessary to initiate 

 and carry into effect a thorough sj'stem of house-connec- 

 tion, and provide for the ventilation of the house-drain and 

 its various branches. Certain well-defined regulations have 

 been laid down for securing the thorough construction and 

 ventilation of the house-drains and branches, and these are 



