The Guildford West pipehead and water supply canal is a heritage-listed sewerage infrastructure and water supply canal located at Frank Street, Guildford, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is also known as Headworks; Industrial Archaeological Site. The property is owned by Sydney Water, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 15 November 2002.
History Colonial history As early as 1817 retired army officer Lieutenant Samuel North was granted south of Parramatta and south of today's suburb of Guildford. He named his property Guildford in honour of the Earl of Guildford. An area of west of Woodville Road was reserved by Governor Phillip and then passed to the Church and Schools Corporation. John Thomas Campbell, administrative assistant to Governor Macquarie in 1823 also received a grant of of land. Campbell's land which he called "Quid pro Quo", lay west of Woodford Road and south of Rawson Road. William and John Lackey also received grants in the area in 1838. Their property was known as Woodville. Then in 1843 Henry Whitaker purchased North's Guildford property along with several neighbouring properties and called his land Orchardleigh.
The Quid pro Quo estate was subdivided for sale into four blocks in 1832. Additional subdivisions occurred in the 1860s and 1870s with land being purchased by Holroyd and Sherwin. Phillip's reserved area was subdivided in 1871. By 1870, a small settlement had developed with a school at William and John Lackey's Woodville and by 1880 a church had been erected.
In 1876, a railway station opened to the north, west of Woodville Road and at the west end of today's Guildford Road. As a new settlement began to develop around the railway station, the earlier settlement became known as "Old Guildford". Near the railway station the land of Stimson was subdivided in 1876 and 1884 and the new settlement of Guildford emerged. It was not until 1913 that Guildford began to grow into a busy town. A brickworks established in 1915 and the subsequent building industry contributed to its growth. New shops and houses were built for the increasing population. While the building boom lasted into the 1920s, a 1928 aerial photograph shows that much of the surrounding region was still undeveloped.
The Upper Nepean Water Supply Scheme A Commission was appointed in 1867 to resolve the problem of water shortages which had been exacerbated by the region's increasing population and periods of drought. The Commission recommended implementation of the Upper Nepean Scheme. After years of debate, this particular scheme was sanctioned by the English civil engineer W. Clark, who had been employed by the government to assess the various options. According to this scheme, water would be directed from the Nepean River and its tributaries (the Avon, Cataract and Cordeaux) through a system of tunnels, canals and aqueducts known as the Upper Canal, down to Prospect Reservoir and from there through the Lower Canal to the Pipehead Basin. The Pipehead Basin was the junction at which the Lower Canal joined the pipeline that would convey water to the screening facility at Potts Hill Reservoir and from there to the Crown Street Reservoir and reservoirs at Woollahra, Paddington and Waverley.
Pipehead's construction The NSW Public Works Department began contracting work on construction of the Upper Nepean Scheme in 1880. The following year the government purchased the narrow strip of land for the Pipehead Site from the area's major estates, land probably used for grazing and timber. According to technical documents from 1884, the Pipehead Basin was to be a "simple reservoir built of brick with a mass concrete floor, on a roughly square plan with rounded corners". It would have a strainer which spanned its width supported by the reservoir walls and 5 pylons and included a wrought iron grating to prevent course matter from reaching the water supply mains.
In 1888 the first water supply main from Pipehead to the Potts Hill Site became operational. This 72" pipe, known as Main No. 1, was constructed of "wrought iron riveted pipes, connected with steel collars with lead joints". In the same year the Pipehead Site was fenced and work commenced on the Pipehead Basin (which was completed in 1893). According to a c.1888 plan, the Pipehead Site consisted of the Basin, the canal and pipework and the perimeter fence with its 3 gates. There were no buildings on the plan: no residences, offices or other structures.
Increasing demands on the water supply and efforts to upgrade sections of the mains in other areas led to the establishment of a second water supply main from Pipehead to Potts Hill. Main No.2 was constructed from 'mild steel pipes with angle iron flanged joints, and coated internally with asphaltum. It became operational in 1900. A water main for direct supply to Ryde was completed in 1909. For the first time, this allowed water to bypass the Potts Hill screening chamber. It would be screened instead in a single chamber that had been added to the Pipehead Basin in c.1903–05. A Venturi Meter was added to the Ryde main in c.1906 and a small valve house was constructed above it.
From 1902 to 1912 the Lower Canal was relined and the level of water was raised by 1.5m, increasing the canal's capacity by approximately 75%. The Potts Hill screening chamber found difficulty coping with the increased supply of water and it became a "major hold up point in the water supply network". In order to resolve this problem a new screening facility was built at the Pipehead Site – with 3 Pipehead Basins completed in 1913, 1918 and 1928–29. The Potts Hill screening station was then dismantled. Cranes were introduced to operate the screening at Pipehead. These included the earliest crane (a transversing jib crane with an oil motor) possibly dating to 1909, a new travelling crane which was in operation by 1915 and a locomotive crane which was installed in 1916. After electricity powered the site in 1917 these cranes were converted to electric power and by 1922 there were 4 cranes in operation on the site.
A third water supply main from Pipehead to Potts Hill, Main No. 3, was completed in 1925. It was constructed from electrically welded steel pipes with collars and "full-run" lead joints. However the Pipehead to Potts Hill mains were considered so silted that, in 1926, they had to be relined. Supply was again being amplified to meet consumer demand and a new temporary woodstave main was proposed. The preference for woodstave over steel was intended to avoid the delays anticipated by the need to obtain pipes. This new main was completed by the end of 1927. With supply still being amplified in 1929 the Chief Engineer proposed construction of a 72" water supply main between the Upper Canal and Pipehead. Work began on the new main in 1931 but the Depression interrupted the project. Work resumed in 1933 under a special unemployment relief programme and the main was completed by 1937. The temporary woodstave main ceased to operate in 1938 and was gradually dismantled and/or filled with sand from 1939 to 1941.
Expansion of the site A parcel of land (4 acres, 2 rods and 31.75 perches) between the Pipehead Site and Parkes & Palmer Streets was purchased in 1906 as an addition to the site. There was a cottage on this land, situated about west-northwest of the Basin. At the same time the section of Sydney Street which divided this land from the Pipehead Site was also acquired.
Around 1910 a detailed survey was undertaken of the Pipehead Site. This showed the site had two cottages. The first was originally built for the caretaker probably s as a "typical unpretentious working class residence" with four rooms, timber cladding and a bull-nosed verandah. By 1910, there were plans to convert this into an office. The second cottage was purchased in 1906 with the Sydney Street property. This had been built as a private residence with brick foundations, pine weatherboard cladding, corrugated galvanised iron, brick fireplaces and a four panelled pine entrance door. This was evident in aerial photographs of 1928, 1951 and 1961. It was removed some time in the 1960s and the area on which it stood was cleared by bulldozers to make way for a stores and workshop area.
The detailed survey plan of 1910 also indicated the footprint of a third cottage or "new residence" (facing Parkes Street to the south of the Basin). The plan also showed the site held a 'machine shop, carpenter's store, general workshop/store' (built 1905). There was a "boosting plant" with a second boosting plant in the planning. An elevated tank of was proposed for construction, to be used in conjunction with the two boosting plants. This tank was installed in 1913.
Work began on the new or third cottage in 1911 and was completed by 1913. Documents for this show a "spacious house plan, characteristic for upper middle class residences in outer suburbs of the time". The plan featured three bedrooms, an office, large board and dining room, sitting room, two verandahs and an amenities wing.
A 1915 survey plan of the Pipehead Site showed the elevated tank and original cottage (situated to the north of the screening basin) had, by this time, been demolished. Sydney Water's 2005 conservation management plan suggests that the original cottage footprint is "still identifiable in its original location".
The Pipehead Site was again expanded in 1928–29 with acquisition of four land allotments () between Albert, Bowden and Frank Streets. This had previously been owned by orchardists Daniel and Edwin Wakeley. At the same time, part of Frank Street which separated these two purchases from the original Pipehead Site was also acquired and still more land was purchased in 1949.
The Carpenter's Store in the 1910 survey plan and 1928 aerial photograph was no longer shown in a 1951 aerial photograph. Sherwood Pumping House in the 1928 aerial photo had been removed by 1951 and replaced with new structures which housed Boosting Plants. The 1951 aerial photo shows addition of several auxiliary structures near the 1906 cottage and a large new building with a hipped roof east of the Canal.
In the 1950s there were 2 new structures built: a large rectangular building in the north-west portion of the site (between the Canal and Palmer Street) and a smaller rectangular building adjacent the Boosting Plants. Also a new 84" steel pipeline was completed from Prospect to Pipehead in 1958. Aerial photographs show a number of changes made to the site between 1961 and 1970. The boosting stations north of the Basin were removed as was the 1905 workshop building. This was replaced by a Water Pumping Booster c. 1967. The second cottage (bought in 1906) and large rectangular 1950s building were demolished and the northwest portion of the site completely cleared. New buildings in this area included the Old Store Building, Storage Shed, Asset Management Workshop and Storage Building. The pre-1950s building with the hipped roof to the east of the Canal was replaced with the present Main Building and Conference Room 3 in c. 1967. A residence was built for the Resident Site Operator and so were a Pipeline Control Room, Geological Office and Laboratory and several smaller structures.
In the years 1970–78 a Geological Sample Storage Shed and Water Pumping Station No. 189 were built and two of the main screen basins were replaced by a set of 4 rotary drum screens. Supply from Pipehead to Potts Hill was enhanced by the construction of an additional supply tunnel in 1972. A second Geological Sample Storage Shed and "Hellodrome" were built between 1978–86 and No. 1 and No. 2 screening decks were enclosed by a steel shed in 1981.