Page 13 - City of Cessnock Water Supply and Sewerage Service Utility

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This building was seventy-five (75') feet by forty-three (43') feet, twenty-
one (21') feet high. It had a twin-gable roof. The design engineer had been
Mr. J. Ewing.

The Hedden Greta new boosting electric pump, mentioned above, was in-
tended to double the flow. This particular pump was a very heavy unit weighing
13~ tons and was considered to be too heavy, for that time, to be connveyed over
local bridges. Consequently the pump was brought in a railway truck and
unloaded onto Hedden Greta Platform and thence transporterd by bullock team to
the booster site. A building, twenty-five (25') feet by Twenty (20') feet was
constructed on the Hedden Greta Hunter District Water Board site from a second-
hand shed from the Neath Pumping Station, which was being reconstructed. The
project was completed on 1st May, 1928.

The new reservoir at Pelton Heights is situated on Part of Portion No. 73,

Parish of Millfield and was completed in July 1927. The supervising engineer for
the Water Board was Mr. J.M. Corlette. This reservoir is of circular design with
a diameter of 111 feet and is built bf two (2) feet thick re-inforced concrete
wall, supported by an earth embanking surround. It was a depth of twenty (20')
feet when full, a capacity of one million, two hundred thousand gallons. (1,200.000).
This is the Hunter District Water Board's highest reservoir above sea-level. It
is 585 feet above sea-level, almost seventy (70') feet higher that the Chichester
Dam. This new Pelton storage reservoir allowed for water main services to be
extended to Paxton village on 2nd May, 1928. Millfield on 11th May, 1928 and
Abernethy on 12th June, 1928. Construction contractor was Vidor Engineering
Co. of Newcastle.

Further increasing demand required yet another reservoir (Cessnock No.2)
to be built on Bellbird Heights. This reservoir is situated on Lots 151 to 156
inclusive in Keelendi Street, Bellbird. It too is circular in design with a
diameter of one hundred and forty six (146') feet and like the Pelton Reservoir
it is built of two (2') feet thick re-inforced concrete wall, supported by an
earth embankment surround. It too has a depth of twenty (20') feet when full
and the level then is 377 feet above sea level. However, the Bellbird reservoir
is nearly twice that of the Pelton Reservoir, having a capacity of two million and
eighty-five thousand gallons. (2,085,000). The reservoir was completed on the
29th December, 1929. The Water Board supervising engineer was again Mr. J.M.
Corlette. Construction contractor was Vidor Engineering Co. of Newcastle.