HISTORY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 635 



Francis Bell, City Engineer ; W. C. Bennett, Commissioner and 

 Engineer-in-Chief for Roads and Bridges; Alderman M. Chapman; 

 G. F. Dansey, M.R.C.S., City Health Officer; F. li. Grundy, 

 C.E. ; E. O. Moriarty, Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and 

 Rivers ; Benjamin Palmer, Mayor of Sydney ; R. B. Read, 

 M.R.C.S. ; Hon. John Smith, M.D., Professor of Chemistry and 

 Experimental Physics, University of Sydney ; John Whitton, 

 Engineer-in-Chief for Railways ; Hon. J. B. Wilson ; and Charles 

 Watt, Government Analyst. Tlie chairman, with five other 

 members of the board — Messrs. Alleyne, Bell, Bennett, Moriarty 

 and Wilson were constituted a central board to carry on the 

 general inquiry, and the services of the other members were 

 utilised by the formation of committees to investigate subsidiary 

 matters, and to report to the central board from time to time. 



Within one year from the date of their appointment the board 

 submitted nine progress reports and some matters of a most urgent 

 nature as affecting the sanitary condition of the city were dealt 

 with and remedied as far as practicable within that period. After 

 a most exhaustive enquiry the board submitted their twelfth and 

 final report in May, 1876, two years and one month from the 

 date of their appointment. The city of Sydney is situated on the 

 southern shore of Port Jackson, at about five miles distance from 

 the Heads, or entrance to the Harbour from the South Pacific 

 Ocean. From a point on the ocean cliffs, about three and three- 

 quarters of a mile south of the South Head, and known as Ben 

 Buckler Point, a high ridge extends in a westerly and south- 

 westerly direction, having a mean elevation above sea-level at its 

 eastern end of about two hundred feet and declining thence to 

 about one hundred feet near Newtown. The district to the north 

 of this ridge, on which the principal portion of the city is situated 

 drains to Sydney Harbour, and the southern slopes drain to 

 Botany Bay and Cook's River. It was decided that tlie sewage 

 of those portions of Sydney and its suburbs which naturally drain 

 into Port Jackson sliould be collected into an outfall sewer, and 

 led away by the most direct course, and at as low a level as practi- 

 cable, and discharged finally into the sea near Ben Buckler Point, 

 while the sewage of the southern district should be collected into 

 a separate system and taken to Botany and there be utilised as a 

 sewage farm, there being an ample area of light sandy soil at a 

 convenient level for irrigation by gravitation, available for the 

 purpose. The area drained by the northern system is about five 

 thousand three hundred acres, and tlie area di'ained by the southern 

 system about one thousand one hundred acres. In 1879 the 

 Government decided to proceed with the works on the general 

 lines recommended by the board, and Mr. W. C. Bennett was 

 appointed Engineer-in-Chief for Sewerage. The first contract was 

 let in 1880. The northern and southern outfall sewers have been 

 completed and brought into use, and most of the branches are 



