Fremantle Elder Pumping Station

Location: 1 Elder Place, Fremantle

Constructed: 1913

Original use: Sewerage pumping station and public toilets

Architectural style: Federation Arts and Crafts

Designer and builder: Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Department

Heritage Place No.: 22558

Located opposite Fremantle Railway Station at the northern end of Market Street, the former Market Street Pumping Station is one of Fremantle’s earliest sewerage buildings. It tends to be listed as 1 Elder Place, although some records use 1 Elder Street and it is also known as the Elder Place Pumping Station.

The date “W.S.D. 1913” remains above the main entrance. Despite this, later Heritage Council research found that the station was constructed during 1914. The same discrepancy appears on early pumping stations in Perth, which were also completed in 1914 but carry the date 1913.

Fremantle’s sewerage problem

Fremantle’s population grew rapidly during the Western Australian gold rush. The town received a reticulated water supply in 1898 but the disposal of sewage remained a serious problem. Most properties relied on cesspits, septic arrangements or removable sanitary pans collected through the night-soil system.

These methods were particularly unsuitable for a densely constructed port town. Overflowing or poorly maintained pits and pans could contaminate the ground and water supplies, while the storage and transport of human waste created its own health and sanitation problems.

Government planning for a deep sewerage system was underway by the beginning of the twentieth century. One of the main difficulties was Fremantle’s ground level. A 1903 report noted that part of the town between Market Street, South Terrace and the ocean was too low for sewage to be carried entirely by gravity. Pumping stations were therefore needed to collect sewage from low-lying areas and force it into the main system using direct-coupled, high-level centrifugal pumps powered by enclosed electric motors.

Work on the Fremantle sewerage network increased during 1912. By June 1913, 361 Fremantle houses had been connected. This grew to 3,798 houses by the middle of 1918.

Construction and purpose

The Market Street station was one of a number of Fremantle sewage pumping stations. A station had already been constructed on Fitzgerald Terrace (now Marine Terrace), as houses in South Fremantle were connected to the deep sewerage system. Further stations followed at Market Street and Essex Street in 1914, with another constructed in Beach Street by 1916.

Sewage from the surrounding low-level district entered an underground receiving well at the Market Street station. Pumps then lifted it into a rising main, which is a pressurised pipe used where gravity alone cannot carry sewage to its destination. From there it joined the rest of Fremantle’s sewerage system and continued towards the treatment and disposal works near Robb Jetty in South Fremantle.

The original Robb Jetty sewerage works dates from around 1910 and included an ocean outfall. They were superseded during the 1950s and no confirmed physical evidence of the original treatment site is known to remain.

The old station is sometimes described as part of Fremantle’s water supply because it was administered by the government department responsible for water supply, sewerage and drainage. Its actual pumping role appears to have been connected with the deep sewerage system rather than the delivery of drinking water.

Architecture

The station was constructed in the Federation Arts and Crafts style. Although it housed machinery and underground sewerage infrastructure, it was designed as a small civic building.

Its main features include:

• rendered masonry walls

• a hipped roof covered with terracotta tiles

• a decorative half-timbered gable

• a verandah extending around approximately one-and-a-half sides

• large masonry verandah pillars

• double entrance doors

• the moulded “W.S.D. 1913” lettering above the entrance

The Arts and Crafts influence can be seen in the roof’s form, wide verandah, masonry supports and decorative gable treatment. These details helped the station blend into its public location opposite the railway station, where it was one of the first Fremantle buildings encountered by rail passengers.

Early sewerage buildings were often given more architectural detail than for later utility structures. Similar early pumping stations in Perth contained the machinery and concrete receiving tanks below ground, while public toilets were placed at street level.

The public toilets

City of Fremantle heritage records indicate that the Water Board pumping station and public toilets were constructed together. The toilets occupied the eastern side of the building, separate from the machinery area and were permanently closed sometime before 2007.

Rubbish and discarded needles are often visible inside the gated toilet area, while homeless people have sheltered or frequented the verandah on and off for years.

Market Street, Bay Street and Elder Place

Elder Place was originally part of Bay Street, named for its route around Shoal Bay, north of Ferry Point, commonly known as Willis Point. The shoreline was substantially altered when Fremantle Harbour was constructed during the 1890s.

Fremantle Council renamed this portion of the road to Elder Place in 1926, after Elder, Smith & Co, which owned a large warehouse nearby.

Market Street was named after a proposed marketplace near the site now occupied by Fremantle Railway Station, which never eventuated.

Connections with the railway and port

The pumping station now forms part of the Phillimore Street Precinct, together with Fremantle Railway Station, the Taylor Memorial Drinking Fountain and Horse Trough and other surviving buildings associated with the port and railway district.

The Taylor Memorial commemorates Ernest and Peter Taylor, two young English migrants who died in Western Australia in 1905. Their father, John Taylor of London, commissioned the fountain and horse trough. Manufactured by Doulton in England, it was intended to provide drinking water for people, horses and birds.

Smells and early sewerage concerns

Odour was a common problem throughout the early Perth and Fremantle sewerage systems. Sewage could become septic when it remained in pipes without enough oxygen, producing hydrogen sulphide. Apart from its smell, the gas corroded pipes and equipment.

Complaints about sewerage smells led to ventilation shafts being installed throughout the network. In 1912, the responsible department reported that ventilators were being erected wherever possible. At the time, some people still believed that diseases such as typhoid could be contracted by smelling sewage or night soil, adding to public concern whenever odours were noticed.

Heritage recognition and present condition

The former pumping station was added to the City of Fremantle Municipal Heritage Inventory and Heritage List on 28 September 2011. It was given a Level 1B classification, identifying it as a place of exceptional cultural heritage significance within Fremantle whose conservation is required.

The heritage assessment found that much of its original building fabric remained. Although the original machinery and underground infrastructure have not been fully documented in readily available heritage records, the building continues to show its former purpose through its design, separate toilet section and the W.S.D. lettering above the entrance.

It is one of four early Fremantle sewerage pumping station sites identified as surviving in heritage research. The others are at Beach Street, Marine Terrace and the Esplanade near Essex Street.