Another fine Sydney drain found by the Posse... found being the opperative... we went up it in a boat at high tide and ran out of space. Once again the SydClan did all the work.
I have been back into the drain a couple of times and I've got to be honest - I hate it! I'm not a poo-man from the Cave Clan like Silo and the like - they call me soft nowadays, but yeah, whatever... it looks good in photos without the crap
Cheers,
Doug
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This week we take steps of fearful trepidation towards the unwanted child, the nearly aborted, the little Baa Baa Blacksheep of Sydney's Drains. A mutant little creature of concrete, brick, sandstone, tidal waters and terds.
Baa, Baa, Blackwattle Bay - Part A
Most drains in Sydney are fairly clean, Australia, despite being a convict penal colony for the Great British Empire, learned to keep its storm drains terd free long before the soap dodging English had even thought about it, so while England is the land of the great and almighty Drain Shite (to pinch a Scottish word), 95% of Australia's Drains are sewage free.
Even Canadian Drains are terdier than drains in Oz.
Saying that, of all the cities in Australia, the bulk of those problem children who still spout crap out into the Pacific Ocean are in Sydney. Why? Because its got the oldest drains and the most pigheaded bureaucrats.
With this in mind, its only fair to point out that of the 196(at last count) drains that have been found and explored in the Greater Sydney Metro area (yes we' have been scraping the barrel bottom and our heads of 5ft rcps for years now) only about 6 of them are, to quote Mr. India 'Poo Flavoured'.
Of these tunnels with direct connections to the human sphincter, the worst, the most smitten, the SKANKIEST is a drain in Ultimo, just west of Sydney CBD that empties into Blackwattle Bay.
This drain has its excuses. Like Transgrinder, Darling Harbour and Tank Stream, probably the newest of the five original 1850's drains built by Sydney Council to hide creeks polluted by human waste.
Its a nasty little bugger that spans a good 4.8kms, making it the second longest drain in Sydney, after the Darling Harbour System, but where that tunnel system shines like a celebrity in a popularity contest, Blackwattle sits in the corner shunned and reviled for its many shortcomings.
While there are a few terdy drains in Sydney, Blackwattle is by far the worst. Indeed, it out shits (In terms of how much 'oh my God that’s a human turd!' waste you'll see) even the terdiest English drain, such are the state off its failed wet weather overflows. It’s a nasty environment to be in, smelly and short on air. For a 2 year period after the Cave Clan sent a letter with maps and photos to the EPA it was clean, the EPA having seemingly forced Sydney water to get down there and clean the blocked CSO's. For those two years the difference was magnificent. The drain was fresh as a daisy even despite being tidally affected. But alas, the CSO got blocked again and the flow of sewage was once more, diverted out into the tunnel. The irony was that without the sewer feed, the system, which even with that feed was fairly short on waterflow, almost dried out completely.
As it is, the tunnel is explorable in normal footwear as the flow of water is minimal. This lack of flow however contributes to the nasty environment.
The other negative aspects that detract from this system include its entry status. You can only get in via a ridiculously heavy 8-seg-pizza manhole, a ridiculously heavy cast iron grille or via the knee-deep terd soup at the outfall.
Its also full of stoop sections, long tedious stretches of 5ft rectangle... blerk!
But see, its this that separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, cos despite this drains unattractive qualities, it is also full of character, atmosphere and features that ner any other drain can provide.
Naysayers discredit it as unworthy of exploration and make up silly names for those who champion it (e.g., I got the name 'The Poo Man from Sydclan' because of this drain, lol), but in reality it is to their loss.
Of any drain ive ever seen this is the one I think would suit extraterrestrial life the best, I think I look at it this way because being as it is, its outfall crammed into a tiny cove between a collapsing decrepit shipping crane and the Sydney Fish Markets, I always thought its maudlin looking twin 5ft outlets would look amazing with a radioactive alien glow emanating from them.
THE OUTFALLS, UP CLOSE.
These sad portals into a seemingly other dimension of space and time were cursed by builders without the inspiration to make them larger than 5ft high. Stunted as they are, they spend at least 4 hours a day swimming with the fishes, completely submerged by the tide. Fortunately for us drainers tho, they empty nearly completely at low tide, averaging at shin depth. Stepping into them sees you sinking unto ankle deep sludge and the release of suphurous bubbles most people head up the right hand tunnel, as it's easier to reach. As you carefully step forth you'd' swear there were terds stuck to the tide blackened ceiling. Sloshing onwards you'll notice how thoroughly crusty this drain is, crap stuck to the ceiling, mud on the floor and barnacles all over the tidal scummed walls.
LOOKING BACK
100m up you reach an odd junction. To your left is a 7ft high brick oviform. To the right are little window arches thru to the other tunnel. Heading down the oviform gets you back out to the harbour, where you emerge under the wharf supporting the wrecked shipping crane, there isn't much to see except more barnacles n more stinky mud.
Climbing thru the windows into the other tunnel you'll find another 7ft oviform, this heading upstream. These two brick tunnels are the old Council Sewers, built in 1856 and intercepted by the twin rectangles when they were installed in the 1930's. Unless your a complete idiot you'll follow the oviform's from her on in, as the rectangles stay 5ft and continuing thru them will see you encountering ankle deep islands of toilet paper.
THE JUNCTION
By comparison, the oviform is nice. Its cleaner, at least once you get out of the high tide range and has almost no waterflow given its basically a redundant CSO. It runs a good 600m before you reach another junction. An rcp leads off to the right rejoining the oviform to the rectangles.
STILL WITHIN TIDAL RANGE
REJOIN JUNCTION
EXPO IN THE REJOIN JUNCTION ROOM… MAN, IT WAS HUMID DOWN THERE THAT DAY.
Heading on upstream you'll soon reach the famous 'Treasure Room'. This is a unique little room with the remains of a flap that used to cover the oviform upstream of it, above this a balcony with some sort of overflow window and above that, a rotten timber ceiling. The flap is long gone, only its hinges and the rust bubbled metal ring that was put over the brickwork remains. In a small puddle beneath the steel rim is the treasure. It can only be seen when the water in the puddle isn't murky. Cemented to the floor of the drain in this puddle are:
A Signet Ring.
A Brass Tap Handle.
A Tea Leave Colander.
An Ornate Tumbler Lock Key.
God knows how these artifacts got concreted to the floor. Sadly the one time the puddle was clear I didn't have a camera with me so...
THE TREASURE ROOM, WITH A COKE BOTTLE FLOATING ON THE TREASURE PUDDLE…
EXPO FOLKS HAVING A BREATHER IN THE TREASURE ROOM
Following on, the oviform becomes wet again mostly from condensation from the hundreds of tree roots that have penetrated the aging brickwork. In amongst this jungle you may also find mushrooms growing out of the walls.
ROOTS
The next odd feature is a charcoal filter for a sewer vent in the ceiling. This is mostly there so you can bang your head off it, as it's not really all that interesting otherwise.
FILTER
The end comes all too soon and you reach a knee-high weir, behind which the oviform continues its heavy flow of sewage diverted to the right via a 1ft dia pipe. Since being in England and having learned the gentle wonders of wearing Hip Waders, I fully intend on having a look up this section, aptly named 'The Beyond', but up till now, having always explored Blackwattle in normal boots there was no way I was going to go any further.
THE BEYOND