In 1927 the New Plymouth Borough engineer, Mr William Alfred Clarence Clarke, designed a comprehensive sewerage scheme to replace an antiquated system that had been operational since 1904.
The system comprised 72km of gravity fed tunnels that led to two holding tanks below Eliot Street. Eventually the effluent (by now mainly liquid) was discharged straight into the sea via an outlet pipe at the end of Eliot Street.
The system was completed in 1933 at a cost of $317,000 and was future-proofed for a population of 60,000 - at the time New Plymouth's population was just 16,000. The system operated until the 1980s when the new Carrousel treatment plant was built in the Waiwhakaiho Valley.
The pole above, located at the intersection of Upjohn Street, Tarahua Street and Coronation Avenue, was one of a number of sewer vents installed to releases gases from the underground tunnel system.
Other vents are located on Clemow Road and near the South Road - Blagdon Road corner, and there may be others still dotted around the city.
Related document:
"The poop on poop" (Taranaki Daily News 29 December 2007)
Please do not reproduce these images without permission from Puke Ariki.
Contact us for more information or you can order images online here.
The information on this website is provided for general research and reference only. While we try to keep content accurate and current, we make no guarantees about its completeness or correctness. It should not be considered a replacement for a LIM or a Property Report. Some content is supplied by third parties. Puke Ariki has not verified this content and users should check its accuracy before relying on it.The inclusion of a building on the website does not imply heritage status. See SCHED1 in the NPDC District Plan for a list of buildings that have rules about what can happen to or around them (administered by NPDC). See the New Zealand Heritage List for a list of buildings that are celebrated for their heritage significance but are not subject to rules (administered by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga). Should any corrections need to be made to the records or for more information please contact us.
