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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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View across Mill Pond to the Botany Water Works...

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

View across Mill Pond to the Botany Water Works 1890

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City of Sydney Archives

[054\054150]

(SRC17819)

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Botany Water

Subjects

Lakes Water supply

Structures

Mill Pond

Buildings

Botany Pumping Station

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City of Sydney Archives

The City of Sydney Archives holds items from as early as 1842 when the Municipal Council of Sydney was established, and manage, preserve and provide access to more than 1 million items, including documents, photographs, maps, plans and data. The collection consists of City of Sydney corporate archives, items collected from the community relating to the City of Sydney local area and published reference material. Use the links to go directly to the City of Sydney's website.

Botany

Visited by James Cook and Joseph Banks in 1770, but rejected as a site for the colony in 1788 by Arthur Phillip, Botany remained an important source of water and a site for varied industry throughout the nineteenth century, before becoming a transport hub in the twentieth. Throughout, a close-knit community has survived.

Water

Finding and securing enough water for Sydney's needs has been a challenge since the arrival of the Europeans in 1788, and over two centuries water supply has prompted some of the largest engineering schemes undertaken in Sydney.

Water supply

Lakes

Mill Pond

Dam constructed by Simeon Lord in the watercourse draining into Botany Bay beside what is now Southern Cross Drive.

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Botany Pumping Station

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Pumping station with three steam powered pumps constructed to pump water to reservoirs at Crown Street and Paddington from 1859. Remains of the building can still be seen beside General Holmes Drive, Botany.