Prospect Hill Reservoir

Not to be confused with Prospect Reservoir.

Prospect Hill Reservoir, also known as Prospect water tower or water tower hill, is a heritage-listed water tower situated in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Built in 1934, the tower is one of the few concrete elevated reservoirs in Sydney, which features Egyptian-style doorways and serves the proximate suburban communities.

Prospect Hill Reservoir
Tower in image is pale-grey on the left.
Location	East of Prospect Reservoir, Prospect, City of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33°49′17″S 150°54′55″E
Elevation	116 metres (381 feet) ASL
Built	1934
Architect	The Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage
Architectural style(s)	Egyptian Revival architecture
Owner	Sydney Water; Water NSW
New South Wales Heritage Register
Official name	Prospect Hill Reservoir (Elevated)
Type	State heritage
Designated	14 August 2000
Location of Prospect Hill Reservoir in Sydney

History

The water tower as seen from Reconciliation Road.

A reservoir was built in 1915 near its site, but was then deconstructed in 1936. In 1957, another tower was built just right next to it, which is darker grey in colour and slightly taller. In the 1960s/1970s, a roof was installed on the water tower to support higher water quality. It was listed in August 2000 in the New South Wales Heritage Database.

Design

The tower is physically similar to Dural Reservoir (1938) and Berowra Reservoir (1939), all have stepped or tapered sides and doorways at the bottom and top with Egyptian inspired door-frames. The platform above of tower for the staircase, which leads to the top of the reservoir, has a steel frame. Features of the tower include davit, handrails and inlet and outlet valve chambers. The tower is supplied by pumping water from the main Prospect Reservoir.

Geography

The tower is situated within the Prospect Nature Reserve in Reservoir Road, just east of Prospect Reservoir, although it is inaccessible for the public. Surrounded by Australian bushland, it is one of the highest points of Prospect Hill and can be observed from Prospect Highway and other areas nearby, due to its steep, prominently elevated, edged location.

The pale grey water tower can be seen faintly at centre-right of this image, just front of Prospect Reservoir at a precipice.

References

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Prospect Hill Reservoir (Elevated) (WS 0095), entry number {{{id}}} in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 24 July 2019.