Historical and Other Notes

Steve Clark from Bolwarrah posted a historical photo on social media from the time of the project (1914-1915), comparing it to contemporary photos of the Reservoir and surrounding area today. According to a piece from The Argus on October 30, 1914, construction of the Moorabool Reservoir required, at the time, "... 150 men and 100 horses employed, and these numbers will not be decreased for the next six months". The project involved the removal of homes and deviation of roads along 380 acres of land, and increased the district's water storage capacity by 150 per cent with a total of 1.365 billion gallons (around 52 billion litres) "Forty tons of steel were obtained from Belgium just prior to the war, to be used in the concrete embankment", and "the contract price for constructing the reservoir was £33,000", the article concludes. Bolwarrah is a rural locality 85 km north- west of Melbourne and 15 km from Ballan. The name is thought to be derived from a...