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O'Shannassy Weir and Aqueduct

Location

1025A Warburton Highway Warburton, YARRA RANGES SHIRE

File Number

568

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

The O'Shannassy Weir and Aqueduct are part of the second phase of expansion of Melbourne's water supply system, and represent a different style and construction than the Yan Yean-Wallaby Creek water supply scheme in the nineteenth century. O'Shannassy Weir and Aqueduct is of regional significance.

The weir and aqueduct contain a wide range of intact and diverse features, demonstrating the way in which the Board constructed and managed the water supply as it flowed through farmland and forest areas subject to timbermilling.

The system also demonstrates the technology employed by the Board at that time, including a diversity of materials for the pipes, the methods used to prevent slippage of the soft ground above the aqueduct, the unusual trestle bridge construction added in 1947 following the collapse of one section of the channel, the system of caretakers' huts, access tracks and magnetic telephone communications along the channel, and the use of right-of-way access bridges for adjoining farms and timbermills. (McCann 1993: 121)

Group