Photograph by unknown photographer, showing water works near Hobart Town, Tasmania, c.1865

Photograph of water works.

This photograph is part of an album entitled "Views in the Australian Colonies: New Zealand and the South Sea Islands", which was owned by a Captain Thomas Edward Green (1829-1924), who was part of the Military Train in New Zealand from 1863 to 1867. The album may have been compiled at a later date.

The photograph shows the 1861 Fern Tree Inn overlooking part of the newly constructed augmentation of Hobart Town,'s water supply, as it passed through the settlement of Fern Tree on the south-eastern slopes of Mt Wellington. The water supply infrastructure depicted included timber troughing descending the hill to a timber aqueduct spanning the headwaters of Longhill Creek. The aqueduct was supported by 2 rock piers. By 1881 this infrastructure had been replaced by sandstone troughing and aqueducts to the left. The 2 rock piers are the only remnants still in place and can be viewed from either the adjacent Pipeline Track or Huon Road.

PH.136-1981