BENALLA WATER SUPPLY DEPOT

The Benalla Water Supply Depot comprises a c.6 metre diameter riveted iron tank, with blacksmiths shop; a steel tank, a reinforced concrete tower; a carpenters shop; and a brick pumphouse.

How is it significant?

The Benalla Water Supply Depot is of significance to the State of Victoria for technological and social reasons.

Why is it significant?

The Benalla Water Supply Depot demonstrates the evolving nature of a municipal water supply expanding to cope with the increasing demands of a growth in population in a country town. The sequence of water tanks and the existence of workshops designed to build and repair all the machinery needed to provide town water supply illustrates the level of independence needed to maintain such structures in rural Victoria.

The Benalla Water Supply Depot is an essentially intact example of a complex which demonstrates the changes in water tower design since the 1880s. It is also a rare surviving example of a nineteenth century municipal water supply complex containing all the elements needed to supply a rural town in that period: an iron water tower, blacksmith's shop, carpenters shop and pumphouse. The Water Supply depot is important because of its ability to demonstrate the population growth of Benalla, an important rural town in Victoria for over a century, and its increasing demands for a safe and constant supply of drinking water.

Group

Utilities - Water

Category

Water Pump House/Pumping Station