A Few Australian Drains

[DougCC]

Everyone loves Fortress, but it's a lot harder to get into since a couple of graffers died in a flood

Doug.

_____________________

Sydney's Best Drain.

Fortress - part A
Built in 1968 as an overflow for the Bunnerong Storm Water channel, the Lurline Bay Outfall (or Bunnerong SWC Amplification as its officially called) was unique in Australian Engineering history at the time it was created.
Dug using 'widowmakers'(aka: large handheld rock drills), out of the bare sandstone, it was tunnelled out of the bare rock and didnt follow any natural watercourse. Sections of the tunnel were reinforced with concrete either entirely or just in the walls. At its deepest the tunnel sat 31m below the surface, the largest of the 4 access shafts being 23m high. The tunnel began down at the rock strewn Lurline Bay, sitting within the waves of the high tide then made its way thru the base of the much elevated suburb of Maroubra before its own elevation brought it to within 4 metres of the surface up near Anzac Parade.

Predator discovered it in 1992 after noticing that a substantial amount of the Sydney Water Corps 1965 budget had been blown building it. He made his way down to Lurline Bay and found the Outfall.
The rest as they say, is history.

A VERY EARLY PHOTO TAKEN IN FORTRESS WITH PREDATOR ON THE RIGHT


Fortress was Sydney's first real 'mega drain'. It set the benchmark for all the others still waiting to be found, and unfortunatly it took a long time for any of the cities other tunnels to even come close to it in terms of size, length and goodness.

In its early days it saw fairly regular visits from Cave Clan explorers from Sydney and Melbourne; expos were run for visiting Melbourne Explorers and other out of towners; in 1995 a wake was held for Mullet, an avid Cave Clan explorer who died that year in a mountaineering accident.
In 1998 it started to become more popular as regular large expos were organised; it featured in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald; and in 2000 it started getting very heavy regular use as a popular location for Cave Clan New Explorer Expos.
In 2001 it was host to Sydney Branch of The Cave Clan's 10th Anniversary;

10 YEARS BABY!


and in 2003 it featured in a Good Weekend Article that got us into more trouble than we would have guessed, lol;

GOOD WEEKEND FEATURING PREDATOR AND RODENT ABSEILING DOWN THE CATHEDRAL


In 2004, a sad irony struck, as Fortress became the home for the memorail of the person who found it. Predator died at the age of 33 from Lymphatic cancer and his wake was held down Fortress, a huge dedication wall and shrine erected in his memory.

THE MEMORIAL


Most recently Fortress has seen explorers on a moderately regular basis. The New Explorers expos arent happening as much; Sydney Water have tried to stop people accessing the drain by successfully bolting down one manhole cover, yet not so successfully locking up another.

THE LOCKS MAKE THE COVER EASIER TO LIFT, YAY!


In October 2005 a brass plaque in final dedication to Predator was bolted to the wall on the far side of the Cathedral near the top. Rodent, a professional rigger and an old friend of Pred's, dynabolted it in such a way that it will be hard to remove or indeed vandalise.

THE PLAQUE IN POSITION AT THE TOP OF THE 23M HIGH CATHEDRAL


IN CLOSE UP


All in all the Fortress bears the marks of nearly all of Sydneys Urban Exploration History; and it does so proudly.

With a tidal outfall that spends 6 hours a day getting hammered by waves direct from the Pacific Ocean, the drain obviously had to have other entrances. Initially a grille in a gutter got you into the most upstream reaches, tho it was via a knee deep sump. Later on, manholes were found, the most notable being in the top of the cathedral itself; yet the most popular one being in a back street in Maroubra.

This lid was a 40kg six seg pizza, nice n easy to lift despite its steel and concrete construction. It sits next to a telephone pole in a quiet back street. Popping it see's you heading down a 4m deep shaft and into a heavily graffed junction room. Heading downstream is a 6ft rcp; upstream are two 6ft rcps, which go on forever, passing numerous side tunnels, rooms and sumps before shrinking away to nothing.

Taking the downstream bound tunnel, the rcp only lasts about 250m before it becomes a 7ft concrete rectangle.

At the changeover is the Mini Cathedral. This is a 7m high access shaft with two balconies built into it. Theres a manhole at the top but its been tarmaced shut so its no use as a way in or out.

SOME DUDE, HATCHET and DIRGE ON ONE OF THE MINI CATHEDERAL BALCONIES.


From here the tunnel is steeped in graff and formations. The lack of waterflow having allowed the dripping of the stalagtites to form stalagmites.

CONCRETE TUNNEL


Around a bend, the concrete gives way to the bowels of the earth; the tunnel becoming a rough arch with concrete benches and floor.

SANDSTONE (pic by Curly)


Further in the sandstone becomes spraycreted in parts, mostly due to shale being present in the rock.

SPRAYCRETE (pic by Wizard)


All of this is liberally mixed with concrete sections before you hit the 'Y Junction'.
This is where the 10 Year Anniversary Wall and Pred's Memorial are located. The wall has the names of everyone involved in the Sydney Branch of Cave Clan between 1991 and 2001 and covers around 60m of the tunnel.

THE Y JUNCTION. (pic by Dsankt)


Turning left at the junction you enter a taller narrower tunnel that leads to an odd slide with a narrow staircase next to it. At the top is a drop shaft, a dead end rcp and a big sump pit full of water. This slide and staircase have always been a slight mystery as they seem overkill for the small amount of water that uses them. Only the gazillions of cockroaches that live on the walls are likely to know the answer.

THE SLIDE (pic by Durgin)


AND AGAIN (pic by Dsankt)


Heading back downstream, the tunnel flicks between rock and concrete a few times and you pass the remnants of mouldy carpet left behind from parties. By this time, the slight pinging sensation you may have been experiencing in your ears has grown uncomforatably stronger. Every few seconds, 'POP'! This is caused by ocean waves hitting the outfall at high tide, sending pressure waves 2kms up the tunnel.
Ahead there is the clatter of falling water, and as you approch, there is a sump installed in the wall of the tunnel, water tumbling out of a steel pipe. As you look up to follow the pipe, you see The Cathedral.

THE CATHEDRAL (pic by Dsankt)

[DougCC]

The Fortress - Part B

THE CATHEDRAL WITH CUSTOMERY WATER DROPLETS ON THE LENSE


THE LADDERS (pic by Curly)


There are 5 concrete balconies, anchored into the rough rock shaft, interspersed by ladders that are eternally coated in sand. Toy plastic glow worms hide in nooks and crannies in the rock on the way up, the remains of a power supply dangle from the balcony railings.
Its been climbed more than any other shaft in Sydney, at least 20 ppl have abseiled down it; twice that many have launched fireworks up it; and its manhole entrance, sitting in a small suburban park has pissed off more residents than any other manhole we use to enter locations.

After Sydney Water decided to bolt the upstream manhole shut, we had to use the Cathedral manhole to enter. Around the same time, the New Explorers Expos were getting big and very popular. In mid 2003, one hundred and eleven people entered Fortress thru the Cathedral manhole and shaft. It took around 45 minutes! Another effect is caused at high tide when pressure is blown out the manhole by the sea. Shrieks could be heard coming from people as a sudden hurricane blast erupts around them as they climbed the rungs.

Following onwards, the tunnel turns a bend and the remaining 1600m to the end is dead straight, to the point where you can just make out the light at the end of the tunnel during the day if the tide is low.

Not too far on is The Tongue. This was a 3ft long stalagtite made of rust, until SOMEONE(wont name any names)decided to slam dunk it and took off the lower half of it. It hangs from the tallest section of tunnel in the system.

THE TONGUE


After this the tunnel changes slightly. The rock sections become ever more invaded by concrete, the benches rising up the walls until only the tops of the walls and ceiling are rock. This also enlarges the tunnel, it having been previously only 8ft high, the new shape averages between 9-10ft high.

Onwards you go, and go and go, and you find the one problem with Fortress: It does have a few boring sections. But before long you reach the Bong Room!

THE BONG ROOM (pic by Curly)


This is an odd room, blasted entirely out of rock. It has a single balcony, thru which dangles a drop pipe with a big stem popping out. The pipe hangs above a pit that has an overflow pipe as well as a steep overflow slide. The whole think looks like some weird cannabis smoking device, thus its name. This pipe is an overflow for the Maroubra drinking Water Reservoir, and therefore is responsible for the mild chlorine smell that fills the atmosphere in this section of the drain.

Heading on, its the home stretch, the concrete meets the rock ceiling and the drain gets up to 12ft in height. By now, if the tide is up, you can hear the waves a-crashing. The graff gets heavier, guestbooks start to pop up and everything if it wasnt already, things starts to get real moist!

The near end is reached at the big slide. This thing is huge, around 4m high and shaped like a shallow 'S'. Theres been a rope dangling down it from a nearby manhole rung since forever, even when Predator found the drain in '92 it had a rope on the slide. Without the rope, youd be VERY hard pressed to get up the slide, tho getting down would be possible via a little dermal loss. During the day the slide is illuminated by the Blow Off Valve, a rusty grille set high in the ceiling. Without this valve, the pressure waves from the ocean tides would be detrimentally stronger than they are, and standing outside above this grille at high tide is sure to ruin your groovy hairstyle.

MR INDIA ON THE SLIDE


Once down, and having hopefully done so without slipping, your at the last 150m. Walking down this 6ft high rectangle, sea water streaming thru holes in the ceiling as waves wash back off into the sea it will depend on the tide as to what you come up against. If its high tide, look out, as the waves FILL the tunnel from floor to ceiling, which is fun as long as your holding onto something! At mid tide its all goodah, waves are waist deep and will still knock you off your feet if your not careful but if you're down at the outfall holding onto the bars its great fun!

A DODGY PIC OF MID TIDE


GETTING BLASTED AT THE OUTFALL


At low tide, the water doesnt reach the outfall, instead crashing as foam just outside it. You can exit at low tide, tho be careful not to get too close to the waves as the whole bay is made up of rocks and boulders. Crabs scurry along the mouth of the tunnel eating the dumped seaweed and algea.

THE OUTFALL AT NIGHT


THE OUTFALL AT NEAR HIGH TIDE


THE OUTFALL AT LOW TIDE


In recent years a sign has gone up down at the bay, explaining the prescence of the drain, amd its purpose... dunno why. Its purpose seems obvious.

Fortress is now listed as a Heritage Item: http://www.sydneywater.com.au/Public...lic4570011.pdf

EXITING

[MJS]

When we booking a flight ojay?

[DougCC]

What can I say about The Maze???

I want to marry her!

Cheers,

Doug

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It's the most famous, most heavily explored drain IN THE WORLD.
Yes, the world...
Its...

THE MAZE - Part A

Now, fuck me drunk, i gotta admit right now, that ive never explored the whole thing. Why? Cos every time i did explore it, id be with a large group of interstaters in Melbourne for the Clannies weekend. We'd do the 5 odd km of big fuck off tunnels, turning back as soon as we reached the first stoop section. The few times i was in Melbourne exploring alone, id be off trying to break my own records (38 drains in 5 days, August 2000, schiznizzle!) on tunnels i hadnt already seen, so i never got round to going back and finishing off all the sections of Maze i hadnt done.

Im not exactly sure how old The Maze is. As far as i know the oldest section date from the 1880's-1890's.
Like a lot of Melbourne drains, a lot of the system is bluestone and brick construction, with gazillions of additions. Not including the sections i havent explored yet i can recall the system having around 18 tunnels (including main trunks). Admittedly, i don't think you could get lost in there, unless you were a total pleb. The drain runs a reduntant overflow system. Most people who explore it enter in the middle. You walk into the 9ft canal outfall from the park and to your left is a 10ft dia rcp heading past you going downstream, the covered canal going upstream. If you were to turn around and walk back out of the drain and follow the canal 3kms downstream youd eventually rejoin the tunnel to the left of the canal outlet, albeit in a different form than the 10ft rcp that it started out as.

Until the mid 1990's Maze wasnt fully explorable as one system. A huge waterfall, a good 4m high rents an obstacle mid way down the big rcp. For years the waterfall had no ladder and being impassable, effectivly split the drain into two parts: Maze (or Upper Maze) and Room (Lower Maze). In the tradition of starting downstream and heading upstream we'll begin in Lower Maze.

It dumps into the Yarra River in such a way that you need a boat to get in. The big 14ft high horseshoe tunnel dives down into the river, the depth reliant upon the tides, but nevertheless remaining permanately too deep to stand in. The light streaming in is always spectacular, and as the tunnel s-bends its way out away from the river its an impressive bit of engineering.

THE OUTFALL


JUST IN FROM THE OUTFALL (pic by Slyv)


You round the bend and enter The Room. Listed as a separate drain until the ladder problem at the waterfall was rectified, The Room really lives up to its name, being the junction for the 14ft high horseshoe, a 12ft diameter redbrick pipe and the 10ft rcp that comes down from the canal outfall 3kms upstream.

At high tide, water back up to the steps in the room tho it doesnt really get deep, and even without the tides the water lazily pools as it makes its way from the pipes, thru The Room and out to the Yarra.

The Light bending its way up from the outfall is complemented by a manhole shaft on the right hand side; beams streaming thru one of Melbourne Waters Steel covers, illuminating the impressive sight of the two huge pipes.

THE TWO PIPES IN THE ROOM (pic by Curly)


STRIKING A POSE IN THE 12FT REDBRICK (pic by Infectoid)


Approaching the redbrick, i always remember being awestruck at the size of this orange-red bohemoth, its patchwork of bricks like a mishmash of water worn scales in the gullet of some odd reptile. As its an Aussie drain, theres not enough waterflow to get your feet wet and an easy left right alternation gets you up the 300m to the connection with the most downstream reach of the overflow canal, passing under sections illuminated by small grilles and an odd, old keyhole shaped sewer overflow that long ago was rammed full of concrete in an effort to clean up the drains input into the river.

You emerge to the daylight in a deep trenchlike canal that goes onto snake its way up thru Hawthorne. Following it leads directly, if painfully to the outlet in the park. The painful part comes from the fact the canal is essentially a very steep sided V shape, made of bluestone slabs that have since been coated in concrete. The central channel is too awkward to walk thru (plus youve managed to keep your feet dry so far havent you...) but walking 3kms along a steep channel edge sucks nearly as badly. Midway up the canals distance is the side drain known as The Slide. Its presence is usually enough reason to encourage those not wanting to endure the painfully steep edges to... endure them.

THE INLET FROM THE CANAL (pic by Infectoid)


Stepping back in and heading back down to The Room, we will take the 10ft rcp. This snakes its way up to the waterfall, being a mostly dry-shoe affair until you reach the last 100m and have to pull off a killer performance of either the splits or the mad left-right dash. If yer short legged yer fuckt and just have to wade thru the water which has banked up in this section where the drains slope gradiant falls entirely.

Ahead is the sound of the falls. The room containing them is big, the falls themselves tumbling 4m out of a 10ft rcp at the top to land on the floors curved bluestone floor. This blue stone seems to be common on the floors of Melbourne drain waterfall rooms, mostly im guessing, cos it survives the erosion of water landing on it better then concrete.

A letter was sent to Melbourne Water in the '90s pointing out the lack of a ladder on this fall and indeed on another in a drain known as Camo's Tomb. To i think the Cave Clans surprise, Melbourne Water conceded and installed ladders on both waterfalls, and from that day hence the two halves of Maze became one.

THE WATERFALL (pic by Curly)


At the top of the falls, the tunnel is completely plastered with graffiti. The whole drain is in fact plastered with it as you will see, but for some reason, Upper Maze has more of it than Lower Maze.

FROM THE TOP (pic by Vampyr)


Its a long walk onwards, past tall manhole shafts and random bursts of aerosol colour, The rumble of the falls diminishes as you Back n Forth your way ever upstream.

THE 10FT RCP


Once when we were down in this tunnel we heard a noise. Investigation showed it to be a Possum stuck at the top of one of the manhole shafts. We tried to rescue it, but were deterred when it released a deluge of urine and runny crap on anyone who attenpted to climb the shaft to retreive it.

After a long walk you finally reach the Canal Outlet.

THE CANAL OUTLET WITH THE BYPASS RCP (pic by Slyv)


SYDNEY, ADELAIDE and BRISBANE CAVE CLAN FOLKS ABOUT TO DO MAZE FROM THE CANAL OUTLET, 2003. (pic by Infectoid)


Heading up the covered canal tunnel the graff goes into overdrive, Mr India once got lost up a 3ft rcp on the left hand side; peices play fistycuffs with crap homeboy tags and legible Cave Clan graff and finally you reach the Triple Split junction.

CHAOS (pic by Dsankt)

[DougCC]

The Maze - Part B

THE TRIPLE SPLIT IN CALMER TIMES (pic by Curly)


Here you have two 8ft dia redbricks, the right one a nearly reduntant overflow, the left in full swing. The 9ft high stone arch on the right is the main tunnel leading up to Camberwell.

The walls in this junction are *obliterated* with Cave Clan graff. Year after year, it gets ever harder to squeeze your name into an inch square section of blank wall(or indeed wall that marker pen will take to). PPl have been consistantly exploring Maze since the 21st of May 1987. Over 7000 people have passed thru the Cave Clan in the last 19 odd years and i can near as guarantee that most of em have done mAze at least once.
You could stand for hours reading the snide comments, insults, names, illustrations, directions and bold statements plastered on the walls.

A SECTION OF WALL AND THE BATTLE OF THE BLACK MARKER PEN


Heading up the left most redbrick, the nice dry one, its a 100m walk to Dodgy Deals, an offset, stretched X, four way junction made up of four 8ft dia redbrick pipes.

DODGY DEALS LOOKING UPSTREAM(pic by Dsankt)


Stepping out of the pipe you were in, theres the main rcp to the right, another pipe coming in diagonally from the far right, and to the left is the tunnel leading to Swipes Room. Taking this last one, its a walk to the second odd junction, a brick hallway, the left wall punctured by around 5 or 6 oddly placed rcps and oviforms, thats twist and rise, heading off to God knows where. Ahead the 8ft pipe continues, accompanied for a while by a 5ft brick oviform that runs parallel for a while before dead ending.

ODD OVIFORM (pic by Dsankt)


The 8ft Rcp leads onto Swipes room. Swipe was a graff artist(amoungst other things) who did really good artwork in this one room, featuring Mister Men characters and other stuff. A 6ft rcp runs off Swipes to the left and the redbrick continues on.

REDBRICK (pic by Infectoid)


A second graff plastered room sees the end of the 8fter. From here there are two tunnels, Ive only ever taken one. It was a long stooper that lead eventually to this grille, which as you can see is in a kids playground.

KIDS (pic by Dsankt)


Eventually another tunnel comes in on the right, leading back downstream. Its a 5ft redbrick and taking it eventually leads to another odd junction room, emerging into an oddly shaped oval tunnel before dropping down into a stone n brick arch. Heading beyond this about turn leads on to more good stuff as the stoop gets bigger and there is another slide with nice 6ft oviforms somewhere up there.

ODD TUNNEL (pic by Dsankt)


SYDNEY (BRANCH OF THE) CAVE CLAN... ERR, REPREZENT, IN THE OLD ARCH.


There are a few dead tunnels entering this area, including a nice dry Oviform that runs off a way, eventually becoming completely cobweb strewn before hitting a brick wall.

OVIFORM TUNNEL (pic by Infectoid)


Heading downstream thru a vaguely familiar 8ft RCP you emerge back at Dodgy Deals, this time from the diagonally entering pipe that was on the far right last time.

DODGY DEALS AGAIN, BUT LOOKING DOWNSTREAM (pic by Bongarse)


Baaack at the Triple Split, we head up the tunnel to the far left.

TRIPLE SPLIT WITH THE PATH AHEAD ILLUMINATED (pic by Bongarse)


This tunnel is prolly the most interesting, and sadly i havent got many pics of it. It starts out as a 9ft high stone archway, with chunks of brick n concrete added in for good measure. There are numerous odd rooms on the way, one of which seems to essentially be the underside of a building. You find youself beneath timber floor boards and foundations, and if you wanted to be a real cunt you could turn off the buildings gas and water supply. More rooms appear, the tunnel alternates back n forth between concrete box, covered canal and archway; there are various small side tunnels, before the tunnel settles into a steady covered canal

THE COVERED CANAL (pic by Infectoid)


PASSAGE (pic by Dsankt)


A skylight grille harks the approaching end. A pair of 5ft rectangles do lead on to bigger and better things, including more redbrick pipeage, oviforms, and the infamous Camberwell Junction, but as ive not been up there i sadly cannot relate it any further.

CAMBERWELL JUNCTION FROM OUTSIDE GREAT FOR SCARING PEDESTRIANS. (pic by Bongarse)


So, Maze, yeah, big bloody drain, 4 hour round trip, lots of walking, a gazillion side tunnels, more graf in one drain than a lot of cities can lay claim to in their entirety. More expos have been run down here than any other tunnel, id imagine. The Cave Clan used(and possibly still do) run End to End Without a Torch Expos, amoungst all the other normal trips. These particular Expos involve the group exploroing the drain in pitch darkness, with only a few emergency torches that remain off unless deemed completely neccessary. Wouldnt want to fall down that bloody waterfall tho!

[DougCC]

Not much to this drain - concrete and just a few shapes, but just like The Maze, it has great character!

Cheers,

Doug

______________________________________

Cars in Drains...
= Mini Tenth - Part A

Now while i really wish i had scanned one of the pics of my fully sick Torana down this almighty whopper of a drain, alas i didnt and wont till i get back to Aust later in 2006.

Ive nevertheless assembled a good bunch of pics, even if the quality is a bit... 'how ya goin'.

Mini Tenth is named 'Mini Tenth' cos its a marginally smaller version of the 10th drain found by the Cave Clan in their early years in Melbourne. This 10th drain was named 'Tenth' (funny that eh...?) and it was, a 2km long arched tunnel running beneath a major freeway. Mini Tenth was found on the 29th of March 1987 by Dougo, Sloth n Woody, only four months after Tenth was located, and like Tenth, Mini Tenth also ran under a fairly new freeway.

INLET OF MINI TENTH, WITH HUGE CANTERLEVERED THRESHER GRILLES -GOOD FOR SWINGING ON (pic by Stinger)


A lot has changed since then. Originally the inlet, like the outlet, was an archway, but sometime since the 80's, the twin rect tunnels were added and a nearby drain once known as Knightstalkers Tomb was physically joined to Mini Tenth via this extended section.

GILLIGAN IN THE OUTLET TO THE ORIGINAL KNIGHTSALKERS TOMB. (pic Cave Clan Archive)


These days entering Mini Tenth involves wandering down a long driveway and into the creek channel, past the gates and down the 12ft high rectangles. The right hand one is better as it leads 150m down to the Knightstalkers addition. Knightstalkers is 9ft rect with a pointed roof, commonly known as an 'envelope' tunnel. 50m up it on the left is a 7ft rcp that leads to The Harmonious Harpie Hunters grille room.
The HHH were a bogus group of drain explorers made up by Cave Clan to counteract the semi fictitious group called The Red Berry's whom were said to be renegade, vigilante-esque, anti Cave Clan water board workers. The grille room is sloped, the ceiling height getting lower as you get further in.

KNIGHTSTALKERS CONNECTION (pic by Bongarse)
[img]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums

[DougCC]

MINI TENTH - Part B

KNIGHTSTALKERS CONNECTION (pic by Bongarse)

The main tunnel leads on to the first of three waterfalls, the three getting progressively higher as they go, all illuminated by roof grilles. In between the falls, the tunnel is channeled, creating what Melbourne drainers call a 'station'. Due to the dryness of this area, what with the water encased in a 2ft deep trench, the walls are typically plastered in graff, messages, tags, abuse and art.

DSANKT SITTING ON ONE OF THE FALLS (pic by Dsankt)


Beyond the third waterfall, the tunnel reverts to an 9ft rcp... the exact rcp in the old picture above, just minus the skungy water n bolted directly onto this umbilical to Mini Tenth.

THE WATERFALLS (pic by Bongarse)


Back in the main tunnel, the twin rectangles merge into a large chamber, its size reinforced by long concrete beams, that sit above the original inlet, a 14ft high archway.

BEWARE, HIS MOST HEADLINESS IS WATCHING FROM ON HIGH! (pic by Cave Clan Archive)


THE ROOM. (pic by Bongarse)


THE ROOM AFTER THE DELOREAN TOOK OFF FOR 1955... (pic by Bongarse)


Heading on down this tunnel, you basically have 1.8kms of walking till the end. Theres loads of interesting stuff written on the walls and side tunnels galore, with waterfalls, grille rooms and pipes that lead on forever.

FISHIE N DRAC IN A MINI TENTH GRILLE ROOM


Eventually you reach the end, which is wet, rocks and debris having caused water to pool.

THE OUTFALL (pic by Voighty)


So yeah thats it. You went for a walk thru a big drain. End of story to most people...

The Cave Clan aint most people.

Beyond all the exploring, Mini Tenth has been used for a myriad of things over the years. Obviously theres all the exploring and artwork. But what about parties? Numerous Cave Clan parties have been held down Mini Tenth, but the biggest event was a Doof held there in (i think..) 2002. I heard that the attendace was somewhere in the order of 2000 people. Thats a shitload of folks squeezed into the upstream chamber dancing, firetwirling and get wasted to the rythmic beats of hard psytrance.

A pic, albeit unspecific, from the Doof, ended up in an article on the Cave Clan in Australian Readers Digest (the one where the reporter reckons Dougo looks like Hagrid from Harry Potter, lol).

DRAIN DOOF DOWN MINI TENTH (see the concrete beams overhead?) (pic from Readers Digest)


The doof went well, ppl got wasted and noone passed out facedown in the water, so it was all goodah.

Beyond all this the main *great* thing about Mini Tenth is you can be like Charlie Croker and his Self Preservation Society and go for a *drive* thru it. And you aint limited to driving Mini Coopers thru it either. Its big enough to fit pretty much any vehicle, excluding a semi rig or a London Double Decker bus.

And the beauty of it is... there no speed limit underground...

As internet history goes, Panic was the first person to drive a vehicle thru Mini Tenth.

PANIC'S LADA NIVA IN MINI TENTH (pic by Panic!)


He got the idea of the Cave Clan, who im told got the idea from this 1996 photogragh:

CAR WASHED INTO MINI TENTH (im told its NOT a Ford...) (pic by Ash)


And im sure this inspired them as well:

GM HOLDEN WB PANEL VAN LEFT AFTER BEING PARTIALLY STRIPPED (pic by Cave Clan Archive)


My earliest experience with driving thru this Godsend to those who dig drains, cars and fast driving was in Mr Indias 1970 Holden HG Kingswood.

With Mr India, Burgatron and myself in the front and Fishie, Starla and Trioxide in the back, we snuck the car to the driveway, then down into the drain the night after one of the Clannies. Mr India carefully navigated past the steel bolts sticking out of the ground and into the right hand tunnel.

Reaching the room, a revolving yellow beacon was placed on the roof, a Rammstein cd was queued up, and upon the first stains of german industrial metal, Mr India tromped the throttle to the floor, and the Woody sped thru its three gears (manually shifted on the column) to a top speed of 170kph, water spraying out all over the place, the car weaving back and forth as its wheels caught in the water.

A DODGY-HANDHELD-STICKING-HEAD-OUT-WINDOW ACTION SHOT OF THE WOODY (pic by Wizard)


We roared to the far end barely stopping short of the rocks and boulders, before doing a 10 point turn and careening back the other way.

THE HG WOODY IN MINI TENTH


US LOT AND THE HG WOODY IN MINI TENTH
<

The next year, the night before Clannies, 9 cars, containing over 40 people converged on the carpark up above the drain. We all carvelcaded thru the drain, Mr India setting the pace at roughly 130kph, in his new 1969 HT Kingswood. While everyone was converging id gone down into the drain in the Torana and had unbolted the muffler. The lumpy cam, rough idle and ported exhaust warbling out of the 2-1/2inch exhaust without being muffled sounded amazing. As i roared off, the whole drain SHOOOOOK and in between gear changes the back pressure would sound like a clap of caged thunder, IT RAWKED! I aimed to get the car up to its top speed, but typically was let down by my own lack of planning. The Torana had no splash plate beneath the engine and water kept spraying onto the leads and stalling the motor. Try stalling at 150kph! In the end i had a great enough head start that i didnt hamper or slow anyone else down. However ppl got shitty at the racket the car made while it was around so in the end i waited for them all to turn around and head back before i unleashed the roaring(and coughing and spluttering) deamon again.

It was so much fun!

GRIDLOCK AT THE END (pic by Feccie)


CARBON MONIXIDE ASPHIXIATION (pic by Wizard)


TURNING AROUND (pic by Wizard)


So if you ever get to Melbourne or indeed if you are already in Melbourne and havent fanged thru Mini Tenth; go down to Malvern n let loose of the most exhilarating peice of road under Australia.

Hah, i found a pic of my Torana down Mini Tenth!

TORRIE (pic by Wizard)

[DougCC]

I have some video footage of the original Swoo that I need to convert from VHS.

It's a really nice drain.

Just a reminder that these posts were made by Siolo and not me.

Cheers,

Doug

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Swoo - Part A

Found in 1992 when Diode was scouting an abandoned Gasworks, Swoo was at the time one of the oldest drains in Sydney that had so far been found outside of the city centre. Built roughly sometime between 1882 and 1888, it was still mostly intact and original when the Cave Clan explorers found it.

The story goes that Diode n Pred(or was it Mullet...?) found the 6ft high horseshoe shaped inlet tunnel beneath the railway viaduct and headed into it. The tunnel ended on the other side, replaced by a shallow brick channel that was blocked by overhanging Lantana and weeds. Diode pushed thru the foilage and was in mid way thru saying something to Pred when he fell down a steep slide. The last words uttered before he fell began with 'SW' and this was followed by a loud 'OOOOOOOOO' as he he toppled 3 metres down the slope. At the bottom of the slide was another 6ft horseshoe arch tunnel bottom. They squeezed thru the bars and found a second slide, leading into a very old 9ft high arched stone and brick tunnel, passing thru sections that were covered canal, with corro iron roofing; 9ft concrete rectangle sections with numerous small side tunnels, eventually leading out to the harbour.

In addition to this there was another 6ft brick arch tunnel up a canal from one of the terminating side tunnels that lead to ann odd corro iron shaft with a huge pyramid shaped grille over it.

The whole system would have been only about 600m in length, but it was full of old titbits, stalactites, crystal formations on the walls, side passages and shape changes.

They named it Swoo, after the noise Diode had made when he took the first slide.

In 1995, Predator took Prowler (from Melbourne) to explore it and the two of them arrived to find the gas works under demolition. Not only that, but a section of the drain had collapsed under the weight of a bulldozer and the huge machine hadnt yet been salvaged from its partial burial site.

Noone explored Swoo between 1996 until mid 1997 as it was caught up in the demolition of the gasworks and the construction of very posh new apartments.

In mid 1997 Ogre and Mr India decided to explore it, having never seen the original tunnel. They arrived to find the entire system completely transformed from what theyd been told about. All the old tunnels had been virtually wiped out, there were now five huge slides instead of the original tunnel slide and the canal slide; and the prevaling tunnel type was 6-8ft rcp. On this first trip the encountered an odd 2ft diameter pipe that lead, it turned out, into the old original 9ft arched tunnel. This was named 'Old Swoo'. They also realised the 'Pyramid' tunnel had been connected to this new system. While down the new drain they ran into Predator and Fil, (an explorer from Canberra) and the group collectively christened the new system 'Swoo II'.

THE SWOO INLET AT NIGHT


Swoo is a fun drain. In fact its one of the most fun drains in Sydney. It's barely 1200m in length and its not very big, but its feature packed, the slides offering all sorts of physical challenges, coupled with the scaleable pyramid shaft and the muddy squeeze thru to Old Swoo.

It starts as a 5'5"ft brick arch at the base of a railway viaduct. Its hidden in a dense grove of spider infested weeds and trees and is fed by the most pitiful creek in Sydney. So pitiful is this creek that the first 300m of the drain is often bone dry and the drain is fully explorable even amidst a major rainstorm.

100m in the arch gets bigger as huge chunks of floor have been eroded away and bricks have fallen out of the ceiling, taking with them entire colonies of miniscule spiders. Rounding a bend, the tunnel becomes a 5ft concrete rectangle before you reach the first slide. This is the hardest one to negotiate, as its fairly steep and oddly contoured. Its also the original Swooooooo! Slide that Diode fell down, but its been buried since Swoo II was created, the only evidence of its original status as a canal slide being the brick walls. At times over the years ropes have been set up making it easier to use. Without the ropes one can descend it, but its hard to then re ascend, prompting most ppl to exit via the main junction grille further downstream. An added bonus is this slide is usually fairly dry, but it oddly goes round a bend as it reaches its lowest point.

DRAC ABOUT TO DESCEND (pic by Guru)
<img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f149/siolo/CRW_2107-01Largecopy.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

THE 1ST SLIDE.


At the bottom is a manhole room and the second slide. This slide is brand new. The second original Swoo Slide appears to have been wiped from existance, but this new replacement easily makes up for its demise. This second slide is probably steeper than the first but its curved surface makes it easier to use. Most ppl just do a back peddling runner down this one trying to avoid colliding with the 5ft rcp at the bottom.

THE SECOND SLIDE UP (pic by Curly)


THE SECOND SLIDE DOWN (pic by Wizard)


Most ppl at this point have a whinge that the rcp is only 5ft (speshally those spoilt melbourne carnts...) however this section only lasts a few minutes and is split up by rooms with exceedingly high manhole shafts( high because they pass thru the centre of huge piles of rubble since landscaped into the grounds of the posh apartments).

The stoop section ends at a small slide that leads down into a three way juntion. Commonly known as the 'Main Junction' or 'Pyramid Junction', the main 8ft pipe is off to the right and the pipe leading to the Pyramid dead ahead. The grille illuminating this room is often used as the main exit as it is a lightweight alloy grille in a backyard.

[DougCC]

Swoo - Part B

BEANZ, BOLT, ORIFACE, FISHIE AND DIRGE ON THE BENCH IN THE MAIN JUNCTION


STANDING: OGRE, STOLLI, SWITCH, TRIOXIDE, MADDOG, BJ, DRAC, ??, HATCHET, MR INDIA, ORCHY, MARAUDER, BEANZ, DTROG.
SITTING: DIRGE, BOSTE, ??, ??, ??, MANGA, GEORGIE. ALL SQUISHED ONTO THE MAIN JUNCTION ON A SWOO EXPO.


Ignoring the Pyramid for now, the rest of the tunnel is all 8ft rcp, which is nice. Over the last 5 years numerous Paintshop Expos have been held in an effort to make this goodah little drain even more fun. Thus the next 800m of tunnels, rooms and slides are decked out in all sorts of odd designs, paintjobs, peices, tags, poems and song lyrics.

The 8ft rcp goes barely 100m before reaching the next slide. This one is the longest, and is made of a diagonally placed 8ft pipe rather than being ...'sculpted'. Its easy to traverse, although a small side pipe often blasts a spout of water near its top, making it sometimes slippery.
The room at the bottom is home to the Old Swoo connection pipe.

SETTING UP FOR A PAINTSHOP EXPO (pic by Curly)


THE ROOM A FEW YEARS AGO, WITH THE OLD SWOO ALCOVE TO THE BOTTOM LEFT (pic by Wizard)


EVERYONE ENJOYS SWOO!


Here we'll go into Old Swoo.
Its a tight squeeze, as the little pipe is quarter full of dry mud. Once into the old arch the ceiling gets higher and you come across a huge mound of sprayed concrete. Its from a burst vertical pipe that was punched thru the tunnel roof to lay building foundation pillars. The huge mound has blocked the tunnel up, ceating a large pond of muddy knee deep water. Other pillars sit amidst the carnage, and beyond them is the old original Swoo Junction, with a 5ft rcp to the left and a 5'5ft Sandstone hallway to the right.
It was only a short period after Swoo II was first explored that these pillars were sunk thru the roof, effectivly turning Old Swoo from a nice old tunnel into a swamp. During this time, the last remnants of the crystalline formations from the old system clung tentitivly to the walls and ceiling, like some kind of candy floss. With the insertion of the pillars the crystals dissolved.

SLOSHING THRU OLD SWOO


THE LAST PILLAR AND JUNCTION (pic by Curly)


THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT


EXITING OLD SWOO


The main tunnel goes round a bend from The Old Swoo Junction and past loads more 'art', before reaching the final slide in the main system.

This ones kinda awkward, and most ppl either do a runner or just go for gold down it. Its nicely illuminated by a grille during the day and the banks along the edges have been painted red.

GOING FOR IT ON LAST SLIDE (pic by Curly)

The final stretch takes you thru a bend or two and a manhole room before you reach the last room.
This last room has easily the largest collection of explorers tags in Sydney (well beyond Fortress), and was for many yeahs home to an 18th Hole Golf Course Flag (from numerous 'Putt Putt in Swoo' Tournaments) and an inexplicably placed racing bicycle.

THE FINAL ROOM


THE INEXPLICABLE RACING BIKE


Here, at this room most ppl turn back, as ahead is what used to be Mr India's Poo Pit. In reality this was a grotty exit pipe Mr Inia climbed out of, but it was bastardised to represent the tunnels ahead; twin 5ft rects with loads of mud and skungy tidal water. Then, somehow, all the mud vanished and those willing to go the stoop could reach the rather odd outfall of this drain. A set of 4 stainless steel trash racks leading to a flooded grille room then out into the harbour via 3/4 submerged 6ft rcps. As you can imagine, most ppl just went back the way they came.

MIDWAY DOWN THE FORMER 'POO PIT'


THE END (pic by Curly)


So yeah, you about turn an go allll the way back up the slides, doing your best not to go arse over tit on the way.

Back at the Main Junction...

Heading up the Pyramid tunnel, theres another slide, this one real long but not as steep and passing thru two rooms.

The rcp continues passing beneath numerous grille rooms before reverting back to a 6ft horseshoe arch. This was the original start of the Pyramid Drain, which was at the time of its discovery recognised as a separate drain, despite being barely 200m long. The spiderwebs reappear and the floor becomes eroded.
Suddenly the tunnel becomes corro iron. This is unusual in Sydney. Into this section of pipe is molded the pyramid shaft. Its roughly 8-10m high and theres a blocked off side pipe half way up.

WIRE LADDERING THE SHAFT.


The Pyramid itself is a 10ft high steel affair sitting aside the Northern Suburbs railway line. Its locked but years ago Predator made an impression of the key, so those wishing to climb in or out of it can do so.

THE PYRAMID AT NIGHT


The Pyramid tunnel dead ends simply, at a very steep drop pipe that eventually goes vertical.

THE DEAD END.


Swoo is one of Sydneys more popular drains, as unless you venture into Old Swoo or down the tidal tunnels, its virtually bone dry. Its also long enough to be fun but not so long its boring. You never walk more than 100m without seeing or doing something interesting.

Swoo, along with The Glebe Island Silos and Tarban Creek Bridgeroom shared the screen with the Toronto Canada Malting Plant, the Lower Bay Subway platform and the man of the times, Ninjalicious, during a tv show filmed by City Tv in 1998. We ended up taking the film crew down Swoo despite there being a rainstorm outside, lol.

Swoo was also featured in a Current Affair report on the Cave Clan in 2001, and it has seen at least 6 New Explorers Expos run thru it.

Its a fun little drain thats perfect proof that quite often huge long drains can be thouroughly outshined by short small ones.

A DODGY PIC OF YOURS TRULY DOING SOME SWOO DECORATING... GO THE PURPLE!

[DougCC]

One of the best things about this drain is that it's so hard to get to... it's awesome!

Cheers,

Doug

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Grilles big enough to barbecue elephants on...

This is what is called

Your Taxes At Work.

Diode must have been real excited when he found the construction site for the
Your Taxes drain, with its big game hunting inspired metalware all piled up waiting to be installed.

The drain was built not by the water board or one of the local councils as is most often the case, but rather by the State Rail Authority. Why? Well the coast of NSW that runs down between the most southerly suburbs of Sydney and the most northern suburbs of Wollongong is all escarpment and cliffs n shit, and while the railway is mostly protected, there are sections where it has come under fire from the elements of nature. The section of railline between Wombarra and Scarborough is one such section and by 1999 State Rail was getting sick of flooding from the escarpment washing the raillines away.

So, against much local opposition (http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1994/158/158p6.htm)
they built a whopping great tunnel beneath the lines and down the hill to Scarborough Beach.
This tunnel was noted for costing $ 6 million... a fair wack for a tunnel that only runs a modest 800m, but as we all soon found out, while the tree huggers, hippies and spoilt locals looked on in disdain, us explorers ended up getting ourselves a mad fuckin drain.

I was in the UK for a 6 week holiday when Diodes first pics of this big arse new drain went online. Sitting in a net cafe in drain depraved Edinburgh, i slobbered all over the keyboard while reading Diodes titbits n d/ling his dodgy flash photos,.

Arriving back in Oz i met up with Mr India and we jumped in the Kingswood n went for a fang down the coastline.
Arriving at the site we were titalated at the site of numerous concrete drainage canals running along the top of a steep hill to some kind of big concrete enclosure. Hopping the fence we peered over the wall and found a huge sump pit, with two canals emptying into it, one from either side and a natural creek waterfall dumping in from the top. Opposite the creek fall was the tunnel, hidden behind 4 huge vertically mounted grilles.... big enough to barbacue elephants on!

We made our way along the top of the tunnel until we found the second shaft, which was all decked out in reo bars and rendering boards, a ladder leading down into it. Mr India had some fun driving the Bobcat about after we found the keys in the ignition, before we headed down the main bore of the tunnel.

What we eventually came across, cemented Your Taxes as a favorite amoungst Sydney's drains.

But to start afresh for a moment.

A group of us returned a few months later once the tunnel had been completed.
The shaft Mr India and i had entered was now also grilled over, a huge removable section held in place with bolts and at other times a hardened boron chain n padlock combo offering acsess to those wily enough to remove it.

Once down in the room there was a near bone dry 12ft rectanglular concrete tunnel leading upstream and a 10ft high rock bored arch tunnel heading down.

THE ACCESS ROOM WITH CAVE CLAN CREW


Heading up the big rect lead only to a dead end, where all the grilles sat, the shallow sump pit beyond diverting all the upstream flow into the old original drain, proving once n for all that Your Taxes was built not as a creek water tunnel but rather as a floodwater tunnel.

THE UPSTREAM END AT NIGHT (WHOS A NAUGHTY BOY WITH THAT PADLOCK N CHAIN COMBO THEN...)


Doing an about turn and heading back... The main tunnel downstream of the room was excellent. A very swanky 10ft arch, with lower walls made from concrete and smooth bored rock upper section that had been finished off in spraycrete. The tunnel headed a hundred or so metres before turning a slow bend and heading downhill rapidly. Downhill to the point that your legs started to get sore after a while.

TRIOXIDE IN THE MAIN TUNNEL.


After a good 400m you reached a Y junction, with a second tunnel heading upstream to the right. When i say upstream, well you could, i guess, take that literally, as this side tunnel actually headed 16m *up* stream on a 45 degree angle. I always envisioned the fun you might have in pushing say, a Datsun 120Y down this shaft... dunno why, it just be fun i guess.

STANDING AT THE BASE OF THE KILLA SLIDE STYLEZ! (pic by Curly)


LOOKING UP THE SHAFT (pic by Infectoid)


Since this time, just after the drains completion, various ppl have abseiled down the shaft from where it emerges to the outside world. Its a fun abseil, albeit only possible thanks to a gas axe we found hidden in some nearby bushes...

TRIOXIDE PRUSSICKING UP AND MR INDIA FORWARD-ABSEILING DOWN


Heading onwards, the tunnel levels out somewhat and if its daytime you start to get a very faint glimpse of the end. I remember being completly unable to make out
what i was seeing until i pretty much reached it, so strange and unique was this tunnels final showpiece.

See, the engineers didnt want the turbulant contents of the tunnel, mid-flood, to dump directly onto Scarborough beach, cos well that'd only rile up those bloody hippies n spoilty locals now wouldnt it... So they proposed something even more controversial. They proposed to use an extra 2 odd million bucks of the tax payers money to hollow out a huge retention chamber in the side of the cliff. Typically locals n draft dodgers got all fussed up saying such a construction would destabalise the cliff, leading to landslides. Typically they got told to 'get stuffed' n state Rail built it anyways.

N what a chamber it was/is.
12 metres high, bored out of the cliff, then coated in spraycrete, lead into by the main tunnel which starts to get steeper as it approaches, the final height of the chamber achieved by essentially dropping the floor of the tunnel away by 8 metres, creating a high velocity ramp that dumped water over large churn bollards.

APPROACH RAMP AND BOLLARDS


Once standing in the chamber the water is normally around knee depth, the pit is full of clay n debris and most explorers, being Australian, end up just wading in wearing normal shoes. The Chamber is around 100m long the far end capped off by a semi circular wall topped by a skylight grille and a vertical grille over the section of tunnel that rises above the wall.

SUBMARINES EYE VIEW


LOOKING OUT AT THE WALL THAT HOLDS IT ALL IN.


Two small rcps (like 1 foot in diameter small) drain the pit out to the ocean which can usually be heard crashing onto the beach in the distance. See, one of the beauties of having so many ppl in Cave Clan is that theres bound to be someone who works for State Rail. Thus we have a key to the padlock on the outfall grille, which is nice cos it was getting to be a bit of a shit having to gas axe the chains off everytime we went to explore it.

THE OUTFALL, CLOSE UP, AT NIGHT


Id hate to see that chamber full... it would take one *hell* of a storm to do it tho. A vivid memory springs to mind of the day after the 2000 Golden Torch Awards. Everyone was hungover as hell but 25 of us ( a mixture of Sydney N Melboune CC ppl) piled into cars and exodused down to Your Taxes. Typically we spent a good hour trying to get in via the upstream shaft, but to no avail. With stragglers getting weary and those still pissed starting to doze off, we all made a last ditch attempt to find, then enter via the outfall. Typically it started to piss down rain, lol, as the 25 of us ran along the beach dodging the high tide. We found the outfall, found a way in, and climbed down into the pit, expecting to find a torrent of water... The tunnel was as dry as ever. Upon reaching the upstream end, we realised the inlet pit was still successfully diverting all three creeks worth into the small 6ft brick arch tunnel that Your Taxes was supposed to have replaced...

Its not a long tunnel, but it offers a lot between the big tunnels, huge chamber and juicy abseils... and skateboarding thru it is rad fun! Plus the drive out there is always eventful.

SMALL EXPO CREW IN THE UPSTREAM SHAFT


MR INDIA IN THE DOCKING CHAMBER