Before ETP: Braeside Treatment Plant
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Timeline item 1 - complete
1928: The search for a second site
As Melbourne grew eastward, the increasing population created the need for a second treatment plant. As a result, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) searched for a suitable site in the southeast of Victoria.
In 1928, they purchased 226 acres from Frederick Werrett in Braeside for £16,272, and 930 acres held by Arthur Syme for £84,500. This became the site of Mordialloc’s Braeside Treatment Plant, whose completion was delayed by the Great Depression.
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Timeline item 2 - complete
1940: Braeside Treatment Plant opens
In October 1940, the Premier of Victoria, Albert Dunstan, officially commissioned the Sewerage Effluent Treatment Plant at Braeside. This was despite some resistance from local communities and councils, who were concerned about the treatment plant’s proximity.
More modern than Werribee’s Western Treatment Plant, the Braeside plant was designed to service a population of 12,000, rising to 16,000. It cost about £250,000 to construct.
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Timeline item 3 - complete
1964: Decision to build another treatment plant
Braeside was reaching its capacity to service ever-increasing loads from a growing population in the southeastern suburbs. This was despite being expanded, and small neighbourhood treatment plants being set up.
The Board of the MMBW decided at the end of 1964 to go ahead with the second stage of amplification plans, and build a major sewage treatment plant in the vicinity of Carrum.
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Timeline item 4 - complete
1975: Plant ceases operation
The Braeside plant served the communities of south-east Melbourne for 35 years, until 1975 – when the Eastern Treatment Plant began operation. In that year, all the sewers that entered the Braeside plant were diverted to the Southern Eastern Trunk Sewer complex at Carrum.
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Timeline item 5 - complete
1982: Braeside Park
In 1982 the chairman of the MMBW, Alan Croxford, announced that a large part of the Braeside site would be managed by the Parks. The responsibilities were transferred to Parks Victoria, which continues to manage the site today.
It is now known as Braeside Park.
The beginning of ETP
In 1975 Melbourne’s second major sewage treatment plant, the South Eastern Purification Plant (now Eastern Treatment Plant), opened in Bangholme to replace the Braeside Treatment Plant. Together with the South Eastern Trunk Sewer, the new 1100-hectare plant was part of the overall strategy to relieve pressure on the Western Treatment Plant and service the growing eastern zone.
Much of the sewage from Melbourne’s suburbs began to flow south rather than west. Starting in Kew, the 33 kilometre-long South-Eastern Trunk Sewer intercepts the South Yarra Main and other sewers on its route to Carrum.
