Where does all the Crap Go ? A Short History of Sewage Treatment in Sydney

It’s the unspoken by-product of living in buildings.  And, strata schemes produce more of it than other buildings.

But, where does all that crap go in Sydney ?  How did we get to that position ?  And, what effect/s does effluent disposal have ?

The 1880’s & Sewage Farms

The story begins in the mid 19th century when urbanisation and population growth meant that cities all round the world had to confront sewage disposal in an organised way … not letting it just run into creeks, rivers, dams and the sea.  The thinking and strategies about this were largely led by the English (and Australia followed closely) and between 1850 and 1890 sewage handling and treatment developed quickly.

Interestingly, because the cost of building and running pipelines was high at the time much thinking was being directed towards sewage farms.

In 1882 in Sydney 309 acres were resumed by the government at the northwestern end of Botany Bay for a sewage farm.  It was administered by the sewerage branch of the Roads and Bridges Department and was modeled on a similar sewage farm in Adelaide which covered 470 acres.

In 1887 the Botany Sewage Farm collected about 1.5 million gallons of sewage each day.  Sewage was channelled to irrigation beds at different levels with filtration drains and then the effluent eventually went to the Cooks River. The cultivated land produced cabbages, turnips, lucerne and sorghum which was sold or consumed by pigs and cows raised on adjoining land.

It was reported in 1890 that lucerne had grown "beyond expectation" and the effluent water, which was analysed by the Government Analyst every quarter, was purified satisfactorily.

Sewage flow increased rapidly each year to 3.25 million gallons per day by 1900 and by 1908  6.75 million gallons per day was flooding the land so badly that crop growth was declining and eventually abandoned.

And public sentiment was turning away from sewage farms in favour of other sewage treatment options.  For instance, a government report stated that the sewage farm gave off "exceedingly disagreeable and offensive odours’’.

The farm closed in 1916 when sewage was piped to the coastline and into the sea instead.

1900, A Royal Commission & Chemical Treatment

By the turn of the century we had a British Royal Commission into Sewage Disposal (1898-1915).

This led to a period when chemical treatment was proposed instead.  That involved collecting sewage, treating it and converting it into a sludge that could be used for fertilizer. 

When the need for sweage treatment in Parramatta reached levels needing serious action no-one could agree about a sewage farm or treatment plant.  A referendum of rate-payers in 1898 resulted in 349 people voting in favour of a sewage farm scheme and 111 voting against it.

The situation was never resolved and decades later Parramatta's sewage was piped to the coast and into the ocean.

However, chemical treatment was tried for a very short time at North Sydney because ocean disposal was too expensive and the disposal of raw sewage into the Harbour was no longer acceptable.

So it was proposed that sewage be chemically treated and discharged into Middle Harbour at a place later called Folly Point.  That involved screeing the sewage, adding lime and sulphate of iron mixed, allowing it to settle in tanks so that sludge coulmd be removed and the clear effluent would be intermittently filtered through 6 feet of sand before being discharged into the bay.   The sludge would be made into sludge cake using filter presses and then burnt in furnaces.

Although the North Sydney sewerage works began operating in 1899, there were not enough tanks, the cost of lime for precipitation, sludge pressing and fuel for burning the sludge was too great, and there had been trouble with the sand filtering.  Within 2 years the sewerage works were abandoned.

1910 & Some Septic Tanks

Septic tanks had been in use since the 1860’s but it was not until the 1880’s that it was discovered that hat organic solids liquified under such conditions because of the anaerobic action taking place so the problem of sludge did not exist.

So, when the chemical approach at North Sydney didn’t work all the tanks were converted to open septic tanks in 1902 with the effluent from them still going onto the sand filter beds. This approach worked so well that the Water Board reported that the success of the experiments with septic tanks and cultivation beds justified the whole of Sydney's sewage being treated in this way.

But there were also complaints about the smells arising from the North Sydney tanks from nearby residents and from boating people.  For instance, at a public hearing in 1905 witnesses described what they saw at Folly Point as "an abominable nuisance" and reported that many of the ladies on the wharf at the time were made sick by it.

Additionally the sand filters were becoming less effective and eventually it was also decided to divert the sewage from Folly Point to the sea.

The 1920’s & Pumping to the Sea

Despite the experiments, by 1920 almost all of Sydney's sewage was being piped to the coastline and dumped into the ocean at three main outfalls; Bondi, Malabar and North Head.

That situation continues today with adjustments to the filtration methods and extensions of he outfalls further out to sea to stop drift back to the coastline and beaches.

Remember swimming at Bondi with a westerly swell in the 1970’s. 

Yuck !!!

Today & Back to the Beach

So, all us strata dwellers in Sydney have another thing in common with each other (and the house dwellers) … Our crap (no matter what kind, where from, or when created) all goes to the same place – the Pacific Ocean.

See you at the beach on the next warm Sydney day.

Francesco …

Acknowledgement to Sharon Beder and her article From Sewage Farms to Septic Tanks: Trials and Tribulations in Sydney, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 79 (1993)