Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works
The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1991, the MMBW was merged with a number of smaller urban water authorities to form Melbourne Water. MMBW was abolished in 1992.
Establishment
From Melbourne's settlement in the 1830s into the boom years of the 1880s, the disposal of sewerage was very basic. In the early days the majority of waste from homes and industries flowed into street channels and on to local rivers and creeks which became open sewers. By the 1880s, many homes in the inner city had privies backing into a rear lane, the Pail closet system where "Night soil" was collected in pans by a "nightman" reaching through a small door in the back of the outdoor toilet. It was carted away to the outer fringes of Melbourne, where it was often used as fertiliser by market gardeners. Because the waste stayed in the pan for up to a week, and some waste still flowed straight into the street, Melbourne was nicknamed "Smellbourne".By the late 1880s Melbourne's population had grown immensely to nearly 1/2 million, and the city's waste disposal habits made the rivers, creeks and bays unhygienic and unsightly, and epidemics of typhoid became frequent. This led to a Royal Commission into Melbourne's public health in 1888, which recommended a sewerage system, and supported the establishment of a Board of Works to build it. James Mansergh, an eminent British sanitary engineer, was brought out by the Victorian Government in 1889 to recommend the most appropriate plan; he advocated a water-borne sewerage system, something local engineers had long asked for.
The MMBW was established by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works Act 1891 passed by the Victorian Parliament in December 1890. The Board was based on London's Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established as an appointed rather than elected authority to take charge of citywide initiatives, such as sewerage and parks. The Act made the Board responsible for the construction and operation of a sewerage system, as well as the existing water supply from the Yan Yean Reservoir.
The MMBW took on the Government debt incurred in the building of the Yan Yean water supply, an amount then in excess of ₤2 million, but was also empowered to impose rates for water supply and sewerage on properties in the "Metropolis".
Sewerage system
Construction began on Melbourne's sewerage system under the leadership of the MMBW's first engineer-in-chief, William Thwaites in 1892. Thwaites had convinced the Board to abandon Mansergh's scheme and to adopt an alternative, simpler scheme that in all essential aspects was identical to a scheme he had proposed in 1889.Huge brick-lined sewers were built under the city, draining towards the west running under the Yarra to a pumping station at Spotswood. It was then piped on to a treatment farm, now the Western Treatment Plant, near Werribee, a small country town at the time, where the treated water was used to irrigate pasture and market gardens. The system began operations in 1897.
By 1910, there were 123,227 connections to Melbourne's water supply system and 105,993 connections to the sewerage system.
As part of this work, the MMBW measured up and drew detailed maps of all the settled areas of Melbourne at a scale of 40 feet to 1 inch, creating a set of maps that are now an important historic resource.
Later activities
There was no initial planning for a separate citywide storm water management system. By the 1920s a need for improved metropolitan drainage, in particular infrastructure involving more than one municipal district, was identified. Under the 1923 Metropolitan Drainage and Rivers Act the MMBW became responsible for metropolitan main drains, for which it was empowered to imposed a drainage rate. Local Councils remained responsible for local drainage.In the years towards the end of WW2, there was a general concern to prepare citywide plans for post war reconstruction and development, and a Town and Country Planning Board was established in 1944. In 1949 the Town and Country Planning Act gave the MMBW authority to prepare a comprehensive plan for the metropolitan area of Melbourne, and in 1954 the Board was made the ongoing chief planning authority for metropolitan Melbourne. The Board had made a thorough study of land use and infrastructure in Melbourne and produced the Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954 which recommended amongst other things land-use zoning, a system of freeways and bypasses, and a park system.
Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1958, the Board was empowered to impose a "Metropolitan improvement rate" for its responsibilities. The MMBW remained the de facto, unelected planning authority for Melbourne until the Ministry for Planning and Environment was created in 1987.
The responsibility for the construction and maintenance of metropolitan highways and bridges was vested in the Board by an amending Act in 1956, causing a great deal of conflict with the Country Roads Board, until all road responsibilities were passed to the CRB in 1974. At that time also, the MMBW's responsibility for protection of Melbourne's Port Phillip foreshores was transferred to the Ports and Harbors Division of the Public Works Department.
Abolition
In 1992 the MMBW was abolished and replaced by Melbourne Water. During the 1990s Melbourne Water lost the majority of the former MMBW's remaining functions, water supply, sewerage and some parks. Water supply and sewerage services were split into 3 public water retailers, while its waterway functions were transferred firstly to Melbourne Parks and Waterways and then to the Minister for Conservation, with Parks Victoria becoming a service provider to the State for the conservation and management of waterways as well as some metropolitan parks. The waterways that had previously been vested in the MMBW reverted to crown land. By the end of the 1990s Melbourne Water's main responsibility was for the provision of bulk water from Melbourne's numerous reservoirs, including water provision to irrigators in outer Melbourne, main drains, and sewage treatment. As a successor in law to the Dandenong Valley Authority it is also responsible for flood protection in that former authority's declared "Waterway Management District". It imposed a "waterway management charge" for the building of levee banks and other flood protection works in these flood prone areas.MMBW Chief Engineers and Chairmen
Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works Executive Engineers between 1891 and 1986:| William Thwaites | 1891–1907 | |
| Calder Edkins Oliver | 1907–1919 | |
| William Wilson | Engineer of Sewerage Construction | 1908–1925 |
| Edgar Gowar Ritchie | Engineer of Water Supply | 1908–1936 |
| A.M. Grant | Engineer of Sewerage Construction | 1925–1929 |
| Edwin Fullarton Borrie | Engineer of Sewerage Construction | 1929–1950 |
| Chief Planner | 1950–1959 | |
| Alexander Edward Kelso | Engineer of Water Supply | 1936–1943 |
| F.M. Lee | Engineer of Water Supply | 1943–1955 |
| Deputy engineer-in-chief | 1955–1966 | |
| James Alexander McIntosh | Engineer of Sewerage Construction | 1950–1955 |
| Chief investigating and designing engineer | 1955–1967 | |
| Albert Francis Ronalds | Engineer-in-Chief | 1955–1967 |
| Edgar Sherwen | Chief construction engineer | 1955–1960 |
| A.G. Robertson | Engineer-in-Chief | 1967–1976 |
| L.J. Brack | Engineer-in-Chief | 1976–1981 |
| N.B. Smith | Director of engineering | 1982–1985 |
| Deputy general manager | 1985–1986 |
Edmond Gerald FitzGibbon
Edmond Gerald FitzGibbon was Melbourne Town Clerk from 1856 to 1891 and first Chairman of the MMBW, appointed in 1891. He had previously campaigned for a London Style Board of Works to provide Melbourne with essential public utilities including water supply and sewerage. He campaigned against pollution of the Yarra by effluent from factories. As early as the mid-1860s he was negotiating with governments and suburban councils to get agreement. The resistance of the suburban councils finally gave way when FitzGibbon helped obtain favourable terms. He was, however, criticized by the press for the high capital expenditure, having raised large loans from London Banks, when it was believed the works could be financed more cheaply in Melbourne. During FitzGibbon's fourteen years as chairman of the MMBW, the sewerage system was completed and water catchments were consolidated and protected.A Bronze statue was erected in 1908 at the corner of St Kilda Road and Linlithgow Avenue, Melbourne, to commemorate his achievement. This was sculpted by James White with a Harcourt granite pedestal, and known as the 'Edmund Fitzgibbon Memorial'.
William Thwaites
William Thwaites is considered the father of Melbourne's sewage system, despite official design credits going to Mansergh. Thwaites commenced his engineering career on railway construction in the 1870s and then moved to the Victorian Public Works Department in 1879 surveying the Portland Harbour, Gippsland Lakes entrance and Sale navigation canal, as part of preparatory plans for their development under Sir John Coode's designs. He also undertook a survey of Swan Island for defence purposes in 1879. In 1880 he transferred to the Water Supply Department, surveying the Broken Creek improvement, and then under the renamed Melbourne Water Supply Branch of the PWD worked under mentorship of William Davidson. From 1881 he was surveying Bruce's Creek diversion and prepared drawings for the Yan Yean clearwater channel, Toorourrong Reservoir when he discovered Wallaby and Silver creeks and demonstrated their suitability for diversion of water to Yan Yean at a time of serious water storage. he then surveyed the Wallaby and Silver creek aqueducts. Thwaites also designed schemes of service reservoirs to serve the expanding suburbs, including those at Essendon Caulfield and Preston. However, a major failure in this period was the cracking of the new water main over Merri Creek on the Yan Yean supply, which was shown by W. C. Kernot to have been caused by errors in Thwaites' and Davidson's design.In 1883 Thwaites was appointed Engineer, Roads, Bridges and Drainage in the PWD, and undertook a series of swamp reclamation schemes including the Port Melbourne Lagoon, West Melbourne Swamp, Moonee Ponds Creek, Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp, the Moe River and Lake Condah although the last was completed by Carlo Catani. In 1889 Thwaites also designed the system for pumping water from Dight's Falls on the Yarra River, to the Botanic Gardens. Thwaites was made engineer in charge of the water supply branch in 1890, and engineer-in-chief of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works in 1891.
William Davidson
William Davidson, was a civil engineer appointed as assistant to the superintending engineer of the Melbourne water supply in 1873, and chief engineer in 1889. He made an important contribution to the development of Melbourne's Sewerage system by providing meticulous statistics of water usage from the Water Supply Department, which could help calculate the capacity needed for the sewers.Christian Kussmaul
Christian Kussmaul was in charge of design the key component in the system, the Spotswood sewage pumping station. It was said of him that "… it is well known that the success of its work is due more to the designing engineer, Mr. C. Kussmaul, than any other individual." Kussmaul was born on 9 January 1851 and gained experience undertaking railway work in Germany. He moved to Australia in 1886 initially joining the Victorian Railways, then moving to the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works in 1891, where he was promoted to the position of Designing Engineer and then acting deputy to the Engineer-in-Chief. He was given six months leave of absence and his position abolished from the Board in 1914, while another nine other German born employees were dismissed, as anti-German sentiment and fear of sabotage spread throughout Australia. Kussmaul died shortly after leaving the Board, on 30 July 1916. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers on 6 December 1898 and became a full member on 24 February 1903.Edgar Gowar Ritchie
Edgar Gowar Ritchie was a hydraulic engineer who worked for the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works for the majority of his career.Ritchie was actively involved in the MMBW from its formation and was involved in development of Melbournes water supply from 1896, and went on to become Engineer of Water Supply with the MMBW in the 1920s. Ritchie was also engineer in charge of sewerage from 1891 and one particularly tragic incident he had to deal with involved in investigations into the death of three men during sewer work when they were overcome by gas. He identified the need to keep certain chemicals out of the sewer system. From 1908 he was engineer in charge of water supply and was responsible for construction of the Maroondah, O'Shannassy and Silvan reservoir and their associated aqueducts. He retired in 1936 In 1943, Ritchie was awarded the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal from the Institution of Engineers Australia.
Walter Carre Riddell
Walter Carre Riddell was chairman of the MMBW from 1905 to 1927. Riddell was one of the pioneer settlers of Riddells Creek in Victoria, and became a councillor for the Shire of Caulfield in 1889. Riddell had a long-standing interest in sanitation having undertaken extensive travels in Europe in 1888 where he had inspected sewage farms in Germany and Britain. He was a commissioner on the first Board of Works representing the council in 1891. Riddell came to the position of chairman of the Board in 1905, the first chairman Edmund FitzGibbon, having succumbed to illness and died in office. Riddell acted as chairman for fifteen months in an honorary capacity initially, as Act prohibited him from taking a salary until he had given up his legal practice. He was elected full-time chairman in April 1907 with a unanimous vote. During twenty years tenure Melbourne's sewerage system did not present major problems, with the 'metropolitan farm' working adequately and being extended as necessary. A new system of grass filtration was introduced to supplement land filtration when the weather was too wet for evaporation and soil absorption to work effectively. Riddell took a special interest in the cattle breeding programs at Werribee. Riddell was also responsible for recognizing the uneven growth of Melbourne was putting a strain on the sewers, and so began the planning for separate south-eastern treatment plant and sewer network.Calder Edkins Oliver
Calder Edkins Oliver, came from an engineering family, his father, Alexander Calder Oliver, having been secretary of the Victorian Roads and Bridges department. He also married a sister of Professor Kernot. Educated at Melbourne University, he passed as civil engineer in 1877, master of civil engineering in 1893, obtained the certificate of hydraulic engineer in 1889 and municipal engineer in 1896.In 1877–8 he was field assistant in the Victorian Railways department, then from 1878 to 1883 with railway contractors C. and E. Millar, followed by sewerage and water supply work with the Sydney Corporation. He commenced with the MMBW on its formation in 1891 holding positions of superintending engineer of sewerage, superintending engineer of sewerage and water supply, acting chief engineer, and engineer in chief. Oliver was a member of the University Club, honorary co-examiners in hydraulic engineering at Melbourne University, an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers 1888, and full member from 1897. He assisted with the development of sewerage systems in Perth in 1909, Brisbane in 1912, and Canberra in 1916. Oliver retired from the Board in April 1919, after 27½ years, joining the consulting engineers A. G. Harding Frew & Co. He died in 1930 aged 74 years.