THE SYDNEY WATER SUPPLY. 221 



of the storage reservoirs on the Catchment Area under 

 complete control to the extent of making the maximum use 

 of the rainfall upon the area, and enabling the reservoirs 

 to maintain not only a constant supply via the present low 

 level gravitation system of open canal to Prospect Reservoir, 

 but also a constant supply of water at high pressure suffi- 

 cient to meet all demands of the consumers located in the 

 higher zones of the city and suburbs, on both sides of the 

 Harbour, for the next thirty years, thus dispensing alto- 

 gether with pumping from the time the works may be com- 

 pleted, thereby placing the city in an entirely secure posi- 

 tion with regard to its water supply, inasmuch as it would 

 be safe from any interference of any kind whatsoever, and 

 also entirely independent of coal strikes. 



The idea of bringing in the water under pressure 

 through pipes is, of course, not a novel one, and no doubt it 

 has occurred to everyone who has ever given a thought to 

 the improvement of the water supply. 



The fact that the water is now impounded in the Cataract 

 Reservoir at an elevation which would command all the 

 heights ever likely to be occupied in the vicinity of Sydney^ 

 has long been recognised, but, on reflection, it has generally 

 been considered that the limited quantity of water from so 

 small a catchment as 50 square miles, does not warrant the 

 expense. 



After studying the topography of the present Catchment 

 Area on the Upper Nepean River from a recognizance sur- 

 vey made by Mr. Surveyor Lee in 1902, with the aid of an 

 Aneroid barometer, which enabled him to give spot levels 

 along the various streams, I noticed that the levels of the 

 several sites for future dams in the Cordeaux, Avon, 

 Burke, London and Chain-of-Ponds were such as to indi- 

 cate that if they were all connected by tunnelling they^ 

 could be all drained one into the other from the highest at 



