The Historic Ryde Water Pumping Station has recently been recognised with an Engineering Heritage National Market by Engineers Australia.
The Heritage Marker ceremony, which took place on the morning of Tuesday, 24th October, recognised the significance of the Water Pumping Station and its adjoining site in shaping Sydney into a liveable city and securing water supply for now, and in the future; crucial as Sydney’s population steadily rises towards 8 million by 2050.
Sydney Division President of Engineers Australia, Julie Mikhail said the Pumping Station was recognised for its vital role in suppling water to the Northern Suburbs of Sydney and for its technical, historical and aesthetic heritage significance.
“The site has a remarkable history and reflects a series of world class engineering feats and innovation in its design and construction.”
The original steam-powered Ryde Pumping Station No.1 operated from 1891 to 1930. To increase capacity for the increasing water demands of a growing northern Sydney, Pumping Station No. 2 was commissioned on 15 September 1921, which was also steam-powered and built on the same site as Pumping Station No. 1.
Since the delivery of Station No. 2, the site has stood as the largest and longest-operating water pumping station in Sydney.
The Station and surrounding site introduced a number of innovations to the industry, including the early use of turbine-powered pumps, concrete chimneys, Australian-made structural steel, electrically-welded steam piping, pneumatic ash collection, and pulverised coal for fuel boilers. In 1981 the Station was fully converted to utilise electricity, and has since been continually upgraded and modified with the latest technologies to provide a reliable water supply to northern suburbs of Sydney.
The project around the Station also involved a number of prominent people, including Edward Orpen Moriarty, Cecil West Darley, J. Trevor Jones, William James Millner and John Moore Smail.