Yan Yean Reservoir

Yan Yean Reservoir
File:Whittlesea Yan Yean Reservoir.jpg the Yan Yean reservoir with Whittlesea in the foreground
Coordinates
Type	reservoir
Primary inflows	Toorourrong Reservoir via aqueduct (off stream storage)
Primary outflows	Plenty River
Basin countries	Australia
Water volume	30 mio m³ (30,000 ML)

File:Yan Yean Reservoir in Victoria.jpeg

Photograph, lightly coloured, of the Yan Yean Reservoir, Victoria 1859.

Yan Yean Reservoir is the oldest water supply for the city of Melbourne, Australia. It is 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of the city and is built on the Plenty River, a tributary of the Yarra River. An embankment 9.5 metres (31 ft) high holds back 30,000 megalitres (1,100×10^⁶ cu ft) of water.

The reservoir is managed by Melbourne Water as part of the water supply system for Melbourne.

History

Work began in 1853 at the height of the gold rush and it took four years to construct at a cost of £750,000.

The reservoir was designed by James Blackburn, an English Civil Engineer and former London sanitary inspector who was transported to Tasmania as a convict following charges of embezzlement. After being pardoned he came to Melbourne in 1849.

The Toorourrong Reservoir system, constructed in 1883–1885, supplies water to Yan Yean via an aqueduct.

At the time of its completion in 1857 it was the largest artificial reservoir in the world. Photographer Fred Kruger was commissioned by the government to provide images of the extensive works for display at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886.