122 



Failure of the Van Yean Resei^voir^ 



ing serious or irreparable injury upon the inhabitants of the 

 district through which the Plenty takes its course. One 

 witness^ who Avas examined before the Select Committee^ 

 gravely proposed that a half-inch pipe from the reservoir 

 should be given to the inhabitants on the banks^ in lieu of 

 the river itself; but to be serious^ I am most decidedly of 

 opinion that it would inflict irreparable injury upon the 

 inhabitants of the Plenty district to abstract more than two- 

 thirds of their river from them. Even with this loss they 

 will suffer enough in the permanent closing of all the mills ; 

 and I have no hesitation in saying that the good sense of the 

 public of Melbourne would neither expect nor demand more. 

 If the Yan Yean scheme cannot afford to do this it had better 

 be abandoned at once. Nor do I think that the public interests 

 would suffer much thereby. 



In ordinary seasons, as already shown, the discharge of the 

 Plenty above Yan Yean, is 2700 gallons per minute in 

 December, and deducting one-third there will remain 1800 gal- 

 lons, or an equivalent to 2 feet 5 inches; this, added to 2300 

 gallons, which is the amount at present lost in the swamps, 

 but which I take for granted will be saved, gives 41 00 gallons 

 per minute as the average amount of water available from the 

 river for the supply of the reservoir, and this will give a 

 depth of 5 feet 6 inches. 



It is more difficult to calculate the amount that might be 

 obtained from the river in time of floods, from the uncertainty 

 of their occurrence, volume, and duration. Had the reservoir 

 been in close proximity to the river, with a sufficient fall, a 

 large amount of flood water might easily have been secured; 

 but in order to obtain 25 feet of depth for the reservoir, it 

 is necessary to bring in the river from a higher level by means 

 of an aqueduct of about 2 miles in length, which winds round 

 the base of the range which separates the river from the 

 reservoir, and which will enter the latter by a tunnel which 

 is being cut through this dividing range. Unless, therefore, 

 a very strong embankment be constructed for the purpose of 

 damming the flood water, which would be a very difficult and 

 expensive operation, owing to the level character of the right 

 or opposite bank, it is difficult to see how the floods can be 

 taken advantage of to any great extent. On such occasions 

 the water is Avidely extended over a large surface, and will 

 naturally prefer the lower level of the river to the higher 

 level of the canal or aqueduct. 



Assuming, however, that the aqueduct can be tiled trom 



