Buranda Ventilation Shaft

The Buranda Ventilation Shaft was constructed over the main Ipswich Road catchment stormwater drain in 1913. The brick shaft was designed by South Brisbane Council’s City Engineer, James S. Louttit on 19 July 1912 and the construction contract was awarded to builder Enos Williams. At the time of its construction, the Ipswich Road catchment was one of the largest suburban drainage systems in Brisbane, running underground for several kilometres all the way to Chardon’s Corner, where Ipswich Road and Cracknell Road intersect. Using a series of brick drains, the catchment discharged into Kingfisher Creek and the whole system was described as “monumental in concept”.

The placing of the Buranda Ventilation Shaft was as a direct result of the operations of the Diamantina Hospital, which was located across Ipswich Road at the site now occupied by the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The shaft was placed astride flaps, which were designed to close the underground drain and so prevent a spillage of effluent onto Ipswich Road and surrounding properties. This sealing of the drain at this spot would have been considered a public health priority given that the drain serviced the nearby hospital. Complaints about what the Diamantina Hospital may have been placing in the catchment system may have further prompted the call for a ventilation shaft to be erected over the flaps. Brick ventilation shafts were unusual in Brisbane. None were erected on the Brisbane’s northside and only two such shafts were built on the southside. The other brick ventilation shaft that was erected by the South Brisbane Town Council was placed in Colin Street, South Brisbane but it has since been demolished.

The Buranda Ventilation Shaft became the responsibility of the Brisbane City Council when the South Brisbane Council ceased to exist in 1925. The shaft was located on land that was largely used as a tramway depot. When the trams stopped running in 1969, the entire tramway site was put up for redevelopment. By 1977, the site had been sold by the Council to the State Government Insurance Office and while the shaft site was retained by the Council as ‘Easement A’, the shaft itself had long since ceased to have any operational use. When the planning of the Buranda Shopping Centre commenced, the centre’s developer requested the demolition of the ventilation shaft. But on the advice of four City Engineers, the Council refused to permit the destruction of the shaft thereby ensuring that “a truly unique and unusual hydraulic structure was preserved for posterity”.

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans

2. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of Title and other records

3. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

4. Lawson, Ronald 1973, Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia

5. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

6. Oliver, C.A.H. (Bill), Hydraulic Structures as Part of the Heritage Environment, paper presented to the 1994

7. Oliver, C.A.H. (Bill), notes of telephone conversation with Jack Ford, 27 February 2001

8. International Conference on Hydraulics in Civil Engineering, (Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1994)