Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1

Brisbane’s unpaved streets became quagmires in heavy rain and the Municipal Council (incorporated 1859) built its first stormwater drain in Albert Street in 1860. The inadequacy of stormwater drains exacerbated the flooding of the town in 1863. The Council constructed the Wheat Culvert (designed by Municipal Surveyor Christopher Porter) at Adelaide and Albert Streets intersection in 1863. These drain constructions, however, were only stopgap measures and most CBD drains at that time were built by private citizens to suit the needs of their own properties. One such drain ran through the Adelaide street property of Robert Armour. Wheat Creek traversed Armour’s property and so he enclosed the creek in a 6ft x 4ft egg-shaped drain. The lack of a coordinated system of stormwater drains exacerbated flooding of the town in 1870, following a series of severe storms. 

As a result, the Council drew up plans to properly drain parts of the CBD, but the plans had to be shelved due to lack of funds. Thus prior to 1875, the only other Municipal drainage undertaking was the “Corporation Culvert”, that enclosed Big/Wheat Creek from the bridge located at the Adelaide and Creek Streets intersection and then downstream to its outfall close to the Brisbane River. Robert Armour’s private drain had been built to match the upstream dimensions of the “Corporation Culvert”. 

Another series of violent storms and accompanying flooding in February 1875 finally brought the drainage issue to crisis point. Brisbane’s main shopping precinct, located in Queen Street, flooded three times and shop basements filled with water and stock was ruined. The situation was made worse by the fact that most of the water poured into the town’s centre from the swamp in Tank Street (until 1866, the town’s water supply storage), which had become a cesspool due to it being misused as a dump for refuse and animal waste. Such was the unhealthy nature of the waters that flooded Queen Street that City Surveyor Joseph Fowles became sick after constantly touring the floodwaters and he died a few months later. Fowles, who had 13 years of service to Council was used a scapegoat. He was blamed for the poor drainage and so was sacked by the Municipal Council while he absent due to his serious illness.       

Following agitation by building owners and Council representatives, the colonial government passed the Brisbane Drainage Act on 13 July 1875. On 21 August 1875, the colonial government’s new Engineer of Harbours and Rivers, William David Nisbet, presented a report on a drainage plan for Brisbane. Nisbet’s plan was for 10 underground stormwater drainage contracts throughout the town centre. These drains would collect and enclose the natural water flows of the area, discharging all stormwater into the Brisbane River. 

Such was the urgency for these stormwater drains that the first contract was put out for tender on 2 September 1875, eleven days before Nisbet had even completed the preparation of the design drawings for the new drains. The contract for the Brisbane Drainage Contract Number 1 was awarded on 20 October 1875 to Thomas M. Walters, Henry Paten, James Campbell and R. Armour. The latter is probably the same man who built a private culvert under his Adelaide Street property. 

The witness to the signing of Contract Number1 was Joseph Stanley who had been co-opted to Nisbet’s office, from his own duties as Assistant Draftsman in the Railway Extension Section of the Commissioner for Railways. On 31 October 1876, Stanley was appointed, by the colonial Secretary for Works, as a surveyor in Nisbet’s Department of Harbours and rivers. It was Stanley who prepared most of the drawing plans for Nisbet’s drainage contracts. In 1879, Stanley was appointed, by the Governor-in-Council, as the Resident Engineer for Brisbane.  

The Contract No.1 drain was Brisbane’s first relief drain, relieving flow in the “Corporation Culvert” and the open watercourse running through properties between Adelaide and Queen Streets. The brick Contract No. 1 drain was completed in March 1877. This drain was designed as, and remains, the main outfall for what is now Brisbane’s CBD, collecting flow from the 1863 Wheat Creek Culvert, the “Corporation Culvert” and from Robert Armour’s private drain. It runs under part of Adelaide Street from just south of the intersection with Albert Street down to Creek Street and then under Creek Street to the river.

Tenders were called for a further five of Nisbet’s planned stormwater drain designs, with the remaining four proposed contracts never proceeding. These five tenders were awarded during the period March 1876 through to October 1877. 

In 2001, the Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1 was identified as being of heritage significance by the Institution of Engineers Australia (Queensland Division) in its 2001 publication Engineering Heritage Inner Brisbane – A Walk/Drive Tour. In 2002, Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1 was one of several stormwater drains identified as having heritage significance by the Brisbane City Council in its City Assets Study. The Adelaide Street segment of this stormwater drain was also investigated recently as part of the planning process for the Inner Northern Busway and the resultant report recommended this drain for heritage listing.

It is a brick underground stormwater drain laid below Adelaide and Creek Streets and then to the Brisbane River. The length below Adelaide and Creek Streets consists of an egg-shaped cross-section 6ft [1,830mm] x 4ft [1,220mm] is 1,657’-6”, laid at a slope of 1 in 42. The length below Creek Street consists of a 9ft [2,740mm] circular cross-section, was 1,184’-6” [362m], laid at a slope of 1 in 252.

1. Brisbane City Council, Report on Line 28 BCC Stormwater Drain by City Surveyor Christopher Porter, (Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, 2000)

2. Brisbane City Council, Maps – Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1, Plan No.1, D-1-33

3. Brisbane City Council, Maps – Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1, Plan No 2 E14, D-1-34

4. Brisbane City Council, Maps – Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1, Plan No.3 E17, D-5-14

5. Brisbane City Council, “Stone and Brickwork Drainage Conservation Management Study” in City Assets Study, (Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, 2002)

6. Brisbane City Council, Camera Investigation of the Culvert at corner of Adelaide and Albert Streets, (Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, date unknown)

7. Institute of Engineers Australia (Queensland Division), Engineering Heritage Inner Brisbane – A Walk/Drive Tour, Brisbane, Institute of Engineers Australia (Queensland Division), 2001

8. Oliver, Charles, amendments to draft Heritage Unit citation on Brisbane Drainage Contract No. 1, October 2007

9. Richard E.L., “Early Brisbane Stormwater Drainage to 1887” in Queensland Division Technical Papers – 17 September 1982, (Brisbane: Institution of Engineers [Queensland Division], 1982)

10. Richard E.L., “Stormwater Design Standards of the Department of Works and Brisbane City Council” in Queensland Division Technical Papers – June 1990, (Brisbane: Institution of Engineers [Queensland Division], 1990)

11. The Queensland Blue Book, V&P of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1876-1879