Share
Clip description
This clip features the Werribee Sewage Farm (now known as Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant) west of Melbourne, which treats the city’s water by land and grass filtration. Open channels guide the sewage across the farm’s acreage and link to smaller channels which allow the water to flood the field and be filtered. Animated segments show how seepage runs into the effluent drain and the network of drains that channel the treated effluent out into Port Phillip Bay. A water sample from the outlet drain is compared with samples of tap water and sewage.
Curator’s notes
At the time of the film, Werribee’s 26,000-acre treatment plant was processing over 90 per cent of Melbourne’s sewage. Today, the Western Treatment Plant treats just above 50 per cent.
The animated sequences in this clip were made by Harrie and Will Owen of Owen Brothers Animated Films.
