Aerial Ropeway

OVERVIEW

Most of the materials for the construction of the wall were supplied on site, including earthfill and most of the timber. Cement, sand and stone were brought from other sources via the railhead at Mt Evelyn, and transported the 7 km by the aerial ropeway system previously used during the construction of the Maroondah Dam. According to the Board's Annual Report for 1926-27.

Te contract for its construction was let to Geo. W. Kelly and Lewis Pty Ltd for 6000 pounds. The Board owned its own private siding on the State railway system, comprising a single standard gauge line. Cement was loaded onto a flat conveyor and transported to the unloading terminus at the construction site via an Aerial Ropeway (flying fox).

There were 200 buckets on the line, carrying an equivalent of 5 bags of cement each. Each bucket took about 52 minutes to reach the site, providing about 16 tons of cement per hour. The mixed concrete was then transported along the corewall line in skips conveyed on an Aerial Cableway spanning the dam wall. The skips dumped their loads direct into the formwork for the wall.

The Board had already acquired a range of equipment for the O'Shannassy and Maroondah projects, and at Silvan took the 'unusual course' of building a compressing and crushing plant at the site, and piping compressed air to the quarry in order to operate the machines.

REMAINS OF THE AERIAL ROPEWAY INFRASTRUCTURE

The pictures below were taken in 2010 and 2011 and show the remains of the Aerial Ropeway infrastructure and crushing facility. A collapsed mast and concrete base are visible, as is the wreckage of the unloading platform. These artefacts are sited adjacent to the oveflow car park, opposite the main gates to the Park.