It's amazing to know that after centuries of change that a small, but arguably the most important part of Sydney's past still exists hidden underneath our city. Have you seen the ovuform section at the GPO or been on a Tank Stream tour?
I have seen it and am so glad it has been preserved. Its eerie down there abd I couldn't help but feel sad and sorry for the poor convicts who had to work there.
I remember as a child in the 70’s being in an underground mall and looking down through a window into the Tank Stream. Sadly it looked like a sewer with a trickle of water, but I did understand the importance. It was around Martin Place (MLC?)
Thanks for sharing your story. Yes I'm pretty sure the Tank Stream Arcade was on the corner of King & Pitt Street. The MLC Centre is a block to the east of that location so would have looked really close and brand new in the 70's. I didn't know they had an open viewing section of the stream in there. I would have loved to see that.
Fun fact. As you drive into the basement of 20 bond street (OLD ASX before 2000) if you look up you will see a square concrete tube suspended in the air passing over the spiral driveway. This concrete encases a section of the tankstream.
Shit! That's what it was! I used to work there in the basement in 98 and through the move to the new building and always wondered what that was. Thanks!
Great information, I've been fascinated by the Tank Stream since I learnt about it in school. During the preparations for the 2000 Olympics a friend and I worked under the Circular Quay pedestrian deck for three months. We went under in a small aluminium boat every day and night at low tide. Under the central section of the deck is a sand and gravel beach but where the Tank Stream comes out at the western end it has gouged a deeper channel. The job was hard but quite an adventure and opportunity to see the historic stream. That friend and I still go adventuring in the same beat up aluminium boat, we recently did a five day trip exploring another Australian lake and river system.
Wow what a rare experience that must have been to have seen such a culturally significant relic from our past. Thank you for sharing and keep exploring. 👍
I used to work in the old Supreme Court building on the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets. In the basement of the building there is a plywood panel covering a recess in the wall facing St. James Road. I used to hear water constantly dripping behind the panel when I went down there to retrieve files. One day I peeked behind the panel and there was a 3 inch brass pipe in an S-bend shape. The water was dripping inside the pipe. I went upstairs and asked the Registrar what it was. He told me the pipe went directly into the sandstone and that was the spring at the head of the Tank Stream.
Wow that's amazing. To think such remanence of the spring still exist today and not many people know about it. If I'm not mistaken, the old supreme court building opened in the 1820 along with St James church next door.
@@SydneyHistory Yes, the building was originally designed to be a schoolhouse but Commissioner J.T. Bigge recommended it be repurposed as a courthouse. The first Chief Justice, Registrar and Prothonotary were appointed in 1824. However, the building was not completed until 1829. By 1845, the building was deemed inadequate and the Court moved to Taylor Square.
Thank you for your kind words, adiaus. I wish I could make more, but with work and other commitments our videos will be irregular in timing and we hope to publish about 6 to 10 a year. Thanks for watching.
Back in the late 80s for a short while Tank Stream tours were conducted. My wife worked for the Old Sydney Inn as it was called then at The Rocks so was privy to these obscure tours. We entered via a lane near Australia Square through a small gate at the bottom of a narrow stairway then along a narrow passage & came into a smallish room that was one of the tanks. They gave us hardhats to wear & when we entered the tank it had a low ceiling, I couldn't stand fully upright. The oval tunnel you featured was on one side. The floor was the carved bottom of the tank. It was truly a fascinating experience. We've still got the brochure & a few photos somewhere. Cheers for the flashback
Wow thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed a rare opportunity. I wasn't sure if the tanks were preserved or destroyed when the high rise was built. The chiselled out sandstone you seen was done by convicts in 1790 if I remember correctly. What an amazing bit of history to see in person. 👍
@@SydneyHistory I must confess I stopped your vid to write my comment. You are right about the chiselled out sandstone according to our guide. I even took a pic of the floors surface after being told about it, we are frantically searching our shoe boxes of photos looking for these pics. You are obviously a true blue proud Sydneysider 💙 If you can get a chance to see it in person you should. We were lucky, you are deserving. We've been watching your vids for a while now & will continue to do so. You are articulate, accurate & entertaining. Keep it up
Yeah it's a great tour goes for about an hour and a half. Very informative and best of all its free, but you have to book on the GPO heritage tours website. They run them at 11.45 am Tuesday to Saturday.
An interesting and fascinating article. Very well researched. We all tend to forget what these areas would have looked like before back in those times.
This is an excellent, highly informative piece, with graphics and maps that taught me more about the Tank Stream than ever before. Right from the beginning, access to clean water was always made easier for the rich, and harder for the workers and the poor. I appreciate the hard work that clearly went into this video.
Thank you for your nice comment it means a lot. It is amazing the detail and accuracy in the historical maps that were made by the early settlers right from the beginning.
Love you informative videos!! I thought I recognised some of your early Tank stream imagery. It looks like some of the creeks near me on the upper reaches of Darling Mills creek at Castle Hill. Then I saw the track closed shot at 2:48 and it was taken near Eric Mobbs Reserve. It is a great area to walk. Plenty of early history down near Pye Avenue and the quarries in Northmead which were used to build Parramatta Jail.
Yes, you are spot on. When I was writing the script and doing my research the walk near Eric Mobbs Reserve came to mind. It was the only area that I know of that could portray the green lush fresh water stream and moss covered rocks. I agree it's a great walk and a hidden Sydney gem. I was wondering if anyone would recognise it and you got it.
as a wild teenager we used to pop the lid in the road that led to the tank stream in the lane right next to the official entrance in australia square searched it all the way to the harbour ,very low...
Wow, that would have been wild to go down there. Did you see the natural sandstone base cut into a V shape. That was made like that in 1790, only 2 years after the first ships landed.
Glad you liked it. Yes fortunately they made detailed maps back then and we are able to track it down. The internet has made all this possible too making many different sources of info available.
Getting into the Tank Stream was a lot easier and a LOT less riskier before 9/11 - now the entrance in the lane next to the ASX has motion trackers/infra red camera up the wazoo. Don't even THINK of popping that manhole..
Learnt a lot from your video, very well put together! I once had a relative who stayed at the Tank Stream hotel (shown in 7:35) and I had no idea why it was called that - now I know, obviously a nod to the Tank Stream.
Yes the Tank Stream Hotel I'd appropriately names because it's on a site that is pretty much in front of where the three tanks large tanks we're cut into the bedrock. A lot of people walk through this spot everyday and have no idea of the significance of the location.
Sydney Cave Clan used to have a lot of great info on the Tank Stream, Transgrinder (Tunnel which goes under Opera House), Bankstown Bunker and other underground curiosities. Unfortunately think someone got to them post 9/11 and a lot of the content vanished forever. Oh wow. You only had 1 photo underground. They went down through the tanks themselves from what I can gather from memories of the photos.
Wow, I've never heard of them. They access to these sort of places sure did tighten up after 9/11. I seen another RUclips video recently of a couple of guys in a blow up boat go through the St James lake and climbed this collapsing ladder on the other side. It was the best underground video I've seen recently. Can't remember what it was called now.
@@SydneyHistory The *Transgrinder* is probably what brought attention from authorities to them. I can't even find mention of it online today. It's a drain tunnel ground out of the sandstone which goes directly under the main hall of the Opera House down the middle of the stage and the middle of the room. In the basement there is a steel checker-plate cover over it.
Fascinating place from old Sydney town. They didn't muck around with litterers back then a public flogging. They should bring that back lol the city is disgusting with maccas wrappers and drink containers.
Yes a little. Busby's bore was Sydney's second water supply starting operation from about 1830. The water was piped in from a Centennial Park swamp and distributed in Hyde Park where Park Street is today.
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed the vid. Yeah some of them take months of researching and double checking and verifying against multiple sources. There's a lot of crape sources out there I can tell you. I do enjoyed making them very though.
Thank you. The tanks were about 100 metres to the south of the Tank Stream Bar location marked with a plaque on the wall. The Tank Stream itself is under the laneway in front of the entrance of the Tank Stream Bar where it then transitions under Pitt Street and out into the Quay.
Yes, I think there was five or so in the pavement are they the ones you're talking about? I tried to find them but I think they are all gone now. There was one near the cenotaph in Martin Place but that ones gone now.
@@SydneyHistory When I was at Uni, I created an 'audio tour' that was a 10 minute piece, tracing Tank Stream above ground through the current CBD. I used those lights as a guide and still keep my eye out for them when I'm in town, but I do think they're mostly gone. From what I remember there maybe be one in lobby of the Angel City Recital Hall, and one in a Hunter Street building. Any on the main footpath would be been removed thanks for continuous construction.
As a Sydney Greeter, I often take visitors on a walk along the route of the tank stream. You mention the ballot. Is it still happening and if so how do I enter? Thanks
That would a have been a fine walk. The tours still happen about once a year, but you have to go into a lottery. I think 1000s register and only a 100 or so are chosen. I think you can register at the Sydney Water website.
Fresh water is the determining factor in any new city location. Farming and crops demand it in addition to people. What happened to Sydney's tank stream is truly TRAGIC. 😞😞 M 🦘🏏😎
![[4K] WALKING SYDNEY DOWNTOWN | 🇦🇺 SYDNEY AUSTRALIA #walking, #sydney , #australia](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zu-HyvoScls/mqdefault.jpg)
![[4K] WALKING SYDNEY DOWNTOWN | 🇦🇺 SYDNEY AUSTRALIA #walking, #sydney , #australia](/img/tr.png)
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It's amazing to know that after centuries of change that a small, but arguably the most important part of Sydney's past still exists hidden underneath our city.
Have you seen the ovuform section at the GPO or been on a Tank Stream tour?
I have seen it and am so glad it has been preserved. Its eerie down there abd I couldn't help but feel sad and sorry for the poor convicts who had to work there.
I’ve seen the tank stream when CentrePoint was being built
I did the Tank Stream tour many years ago when I was in my teens.
I remember as a child in the 70’s being in an underground mall and looking down through a window into the Tank Stream. Sadly it looked like a sewer with a trickle of water, but I did understand the importance. It was around Martin Place (MLC?)
Thanks for sharing your story. Yes I'm pretty sure the Tank Stream Arcade was on the corner of King & Pitt Street. The MLC Centre is a block to the east of that location so would have looked really close and brand new in the 70's.
I didn't know they had an open viewing section of the stream in there. I would have loved to see that.
I remember that, too! And yes, it was in the Tank Stream Arcade.
Fun fact. As you drive into the basement of 20 bond street (OLD ASX before 2000) if you look up you will see a square concrete tube suspended in the air passing over the spiral driveway. This concrete encases a section of the tankstream.
That's awesome information. Thanks for sharing.
Shit! That's what it was! I used to work there in the basement in 98 and through the move to the new building and always wondered what that was. Thanks!
@@TheOnlyPommyman With John Dawson B3 or Gordon B1?
Great information, I've been fascinated by the Tank Stream since I learnt about it in school. During the preparations for the 2000 Olympics a friend and I worked under the Circular Quay pedestrian deck for three months. We went under in a small aluminium boat every day and night at low tide. Under the central section of the deck is a sand and gravel beach but where the Tank Stream comes out at the western end it has gouged a deeper channel. The job was hard but quite an adventure and opportunity to see the historic stream. That friend and I still go adventuring in the same beat up aluminium boat, we recently did a five day trip exploring another Australian lake and river system.
Wow what a rare experience that must have been to have seen such a culturally significant relic from our past. Thank you for sharing and keep exploring. 👍
I used to work in the old Supreme Court building on the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets. In the basement of the building there is a plywood panel covering a recess in the wall facing St. James Road. I used to hear water constantly dripping behind the panel when I went down there to retrieve files. One day I peeked behind the panel and there was a 3 inch brass pipe in an S-bend shape. The water was dripping inside the pipe. I went upstairs and asked the Registrar what it was. He told me the pipe went directly into the sandstone and that was the spring at the head of the Tank Stream.
Wow that's amazing. To think such remanence of the spring still exist today and not many people know about it. If I'm not mistaken, the old supreme court building opened in the 1820 along with St James church next door.
@@SydneyHistory Yes, the building was originally designed to be a schoolhouse but Commissioner J.T. Bigge recommended it be repurposed as a courthouse. The first Chief Justice, Registrar and Prothonotary were appointed in 1824. However, the building was not completed until 1829. By 1845, the building was deemed inadequate and the Court moved to Taylor Square.
I walked the way for years wondering how it came to be named as such. Thank you!
It was a pleasure making this video and the Tank Stream is a story worth telling. Thanks for watching.
Thank you for uploading again. Your videos are so informative and high quality and I love learning about Sydney from you!
Thank you for your kind words, adiaus. I wish I could make more, but with work and other commitments our videos will be irregular in timing and we hope to publish about 6 to 10 a year. Thanks for watching.
Back in the late 80s for a short while Tank Stream tours were conducted. My wife worked for the Old Sydney Inn as it was called then at The Rocks so was privy to these obscure tours. We entered via a lane near Australia Square through a small gate at the bottom of a narrow stairway then along a narrow passage & came into a smallish room that was one of the tanks. They gave us hardhats to wear & when we entered the tank it had a low ceiling, I couldn't stand fully upright. The oval tunnel you featured was on one side. The floor was the carved bottom of the tank. It was truly a fascinating experience. We've still got the brochure & a few photos somewhere. Cheers for the flashback
Wow thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed a rare opportunity. I wasn't sure if the tanks were preserved or destroyed when the high rise was built. The chiselled out sandstone you seen was done by convicts in 1790 if I remember correctly. What an amazing bit of history to see in person. 👍
@@SydneyHistory I must confess I stopped your vid to write my comment. You are right about the chiselled out sandstone according to our guide. I even took a pic of the floors surface after being told about it, we are frantically searching our shoe boxes of photos looking for these pics. You are obviously a true blue proud Sydneysider 💙 If you can get a chance to see it in person you should. We were lucky, you are deserving. We've been watching your vids for a while now & will continue to do so. You are articulate, accurate & entertaining. Keep it up
Thank you for watching and your kind words. I'm working on another video at the moment, but it's still a few months away.
History is neat.
Yes it is. Thank you for watching.
There is a section of the Tank stream that was accessible from under the State theater.
So, from the very foundation of the city, the eastern suburbs were self-excluding.
Wonderful local history, thanks!
Thanks for watching glad you liked it.
Great insight! Lots of information i didnt know about nor about the museum at martin place GPO! Thank you
Yeah it's a great tour goes for about an hour and a half. Very informative and best of all its free, but you have to book on the GPO heritage tours website.
They run them at 11.45 am Tuesday to Saturday.
@@SydneyHistory Oh wow thank you!
Man….lived in Sydney all of my life and I learn more and more about it great video 🤙🏽
Glad you enjoyed it!
An interesting and fascinating article. Very well researched.
We all tend to forget what these areas would have looked like before back in those times.
Thank you for watching. Yes i find it fascinating how it once was and they are great stories that need to be told. 👍
This is an excellent, highly informative piece, with graphics and maps that taught me more about the Tank Stream than ever before. Right from the beginning, access to clean water was always made easier for the rich, and harder for the workers and the poor. I appreciate the hard work that clearly went into this video.
Thank you for your nice comment it means a lot. It is amazing the detail and accuracy in the historical maps that were made by the early settlers right from the beginning.
Your videos are fantastic. Thank you
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed them. More will come in the future, no time atm. 😞
Cool thanks Mike a bit more info that i will file away and probably forget, but it was very interesting cheers.
No worries! I've already forgot it. 😂
Love you informative videos!!
I thought I recognised some of your early Tank stream imagery.
It looks like some of the creeks near me on the upper reaches of Darling Mills creek at Castle Hill.
Then I saw the track closed shot at 2:48 and it was taken near Eric Mobbs Reserve. It is a great area to walk. Plenty of early history down near Pye Avenue and the quarries in Northmead which were used to build Parramatta Jail.
Yes, you are spot on. When I was writing the script and doing my research the walk near Eric Mobbs Reserve came to mind. It was the only area that I know of that could portray the green lush fresh water stream and moss covered rocks. I agree it's a great walk and a hidden Sydney gem.
I was wondering if anyone would recognise it and you got it.
Well presented.
Thank you. 😊
as a wild teenager we used to pop the lid in the road that led to the tank stream in the lane right next to the official entrance in australia square searched it all the way to the harbour ,very low...
Wow, that would have been wild to go down there. Did you see the natural sandstone base cut into a V shape. That was made like that in 1790, only 2 years after the first ships landed.
excellent production
Thank you.
This channel is great keep up the awesome work!
Thanks for that was really very interesting. I always wanted to know what happened to the tank stream exactly like your video showed
Glad you liked it. Yes fortunately they made detailed maps back then and we are able to track it down. The internet has made all this possible too making many different sources of info available.
Getting into the Tank Stream was a lot easier and a LOT less riskier before 9/11 - now the entrance in the lane next to the ASX has motion trackers/infra red camera up the wazoo.
Don't even THINK of popping that manhole..
Learnt a lot from your video, very well put together!
I once had a relative who stayed at the Tank Stream hotel (shown in 7:35) and I had no idea why it was called that - now I know, obviously a nod to the Tank Stream.
Yes the Tank Stream Hotel I'd appropriately names because it's on a site that is pretty much in front of where the three tanks large tanks we're cut into the bedrock.
A lot of people walk through this spot everyday and have no idea of the significance of the location.
🎉excellent 👌 great factual history 👏 winner 🏆 is Sydney!!
Thank you glad you enjoyed.
Great vid
Love the history.
Thank you it's a great history.
Amazing. Thank you!
Thank you for watching.
05:36 footage from No1 Martin Place & Fullerton Hotel tank stream display.
Spot in. I did a tour of Sydney GPO at the time of filming this video which included part of the stream and some reminents.
Very interesting, thanks!
Glad you liked it.
Great video!
Thank you for watching, glad you liked it.
Great to hear your voice again Mike!
Thanks Ken. Hope your doing well mate. 👍
Sydney Cave Clan used to have a lot of great info on the Tank Stream, Transgrinder (Tunnel which goes under Opera House), Bankstown Bunker and other underground curiosities. Unfortunately think someone got to them post 9/11 and a lot of the content vanished forever.
Oh wow. You only had 1 photo underground. They went down through the tanks themselves from what I can gather from memories of the photos.
Wow, I've never heard of them. They access to these sort of places sure did tighten up after 9/11. I seen another RUclips video recently of a couple of guys in a blow up boat go through the St James lake and climbed this collapsing ladder on the other side. It was the best underground video I've seen recently. Can't remember what it was called now.
@@SydneyHistory The *Transgrinder* is probably what brought attention from authorities to them. I can't even find mention of it online today. It's a drain tunnel ground out of the sandstone which goes directly under the main hall of the Opera House down the middle of the stage and the middle of the room. In the basement there is a steel checker-plate cover over it.
Fascinating place from old Sydney town. They didn't muck around with litterers back then a public flogging. They should bring that back lol the city is disgusting with maccas wrappers and drink containers.
Mike that is a great video. Do you know anything about busby's bore ?
Yes a little. Busby's bore was Sydney's second water supply starting operation from about 1830. The water was piped in from a Centennial Park swamp and distributed in Hyde Park where Park Street is today.
Getting pretty desperate to do that tour… I’ve been trying for years!!!!!!😢
I hear ya. Luck of the draw. Got to be in it to win it.
How do you enter now i used to have access to the lottery but now i cant find it@@SydneyHistory
I feel like they haven't run it for some years now ?
There is a tank stream also in Parramatta
Cool, does it still exist? Where is it?
@@SydneyHistory it was behind the Ferguson centre in Parramatta. Maybe they covered it over like everything else that has history behind in.
Opps I thought this was going to be a video streaming a water tank associated with the Sydney water supply. Interesting video nonetheless!
😂 sorry to disappoint. Glad you got something out of it.
wow what a messed up story - fantastic work telling the story. I was gripped the whole time. Must of been hard work finding this info?
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed the vid. Yeah some of them take months of researching and double checking and verifying against multiple sources. There's a lot of crape sources out there I can tell you. I do enjoyed making them very though.
@@SydneyHistory A crape source? It sounds kind of delicious really haha
cant believe u caught the earthquake on video @03:07
🤣
the tanl stream bar is inside of on the old tanks.... see you did your reearch bro
Thank you. The tanks were about 100 metres to the south of the Tank Stream Bar location marked with a plaque on the wall. The Tank Stream itself is under the laneway in front of the entrance of the Tank Stream Bar where it then transitions under Pitt Street and out into the Quay.
I think U can C part of it in the tank stream bar
Oh wow, I didn't know. Might have to go and check it out one day.
Does anyone remember the blue lights that were installed to mark where the stream was?
Yes, I think there was five or so in the pavement are they the ones you're talking about? I tried to find them but I think they are all gone now. There was one near the cenotaph in Martin Place but that ones gone now.
@@SydneyHistory When I was at Uni, I created an 'audio tour' that was a 10 minute piece, tracing Tank Stream above ground through the current CBD. I used those lights as a guide and still keep my eye out for them when I'm in town, but I do think they're mostly gone. From what I remember there maybe be one in lobby of the Angel City Recital Hall, and one in a Hunter Street building. Any on the main footpath would be been removed thanks for continuous construction.
I lived in Sydney from 1968 to 71 , then went back to NZ my regret is wish i was still there what a great place
Yes it is an amazing place. Has changed a lot since then. You should come back for a visit I'm sure you would love it.
So... Governor Brisbane was ironically a Blues supporter!
😆
Great to see some more content highly informative as always
Thank you. I try to make as many as I can. It's really enjoyed from research to filming and producing. Thanks for watching.
As a Sydney Greeter, I often take visitors on a walk along the route of the tank stream. You mention the ballot. Is it still happening and if so how do I enter? Thanks
That would a have been a fine walk. The tours still happen about once a year, but you have to go into a lottery. I think 1000s register and only a 100 or so are chosen. I think you can register at the Sydney Water website.
What's the bridge street connection?
The stream flowed out to the harbour, so to cross it they built a bridge which became known as bridge street.
Palmer & co 🙂🙃
Yes it's a nice place. Have you been?
Yep many times after Mr Wongs. Great hidden away place.
ABsolute bulls^&t first settlers were 850 convicts and their guards in 1788 and the first free settlers were 5 single men and two families in 1793
Fresh water is the determining factor in any new city location. Farming and crops demand it in addition to people.
What happened to Sydney's tank stream is truly TRAGIC. 😞😞
M 🦘🏏😎