By Luke Voogt
A Portarlington resident has unearthed photos revealing a family connection with Breakwater’s historic aqueduct, following recent plans to build parklands around the landmark.
Paul Betts sent two century-old photos to the Indy this week, one depicting the newly finished aqueduct in 1916.
The other depicts his grandfather Thomas, who drove the little locomotive which carted sewer pipes from Marshall Station to the site in 1915.
Mr Betts, 70, was happy to read last week that Barwon Water’s plans to build parklands include leaving the landmark standing.
“I think a long time ago there was talk about taking it down,” he said.
Mr Betts welcomed the plan for parklands, saying “it should have been done years ago”.
“It would be wonderful to go wandering across on Sunday,” he said.
Mr Betts said people who regarded the aqueduct as just an old sewer pipe “don’t know their history”.
“It’s a real iconic bridge – where would you see another one?”
The aqueduct has long been in poor condition, and authorities prohibited access to the structure since 1995 due to the risk of falling concrete.
But the last thing Mr Betts wanted to see was “another plaque saying, ‘saying this was here’” in Geelong.
“If they can fix it why tear it down?” he said.
“We haven’t got much in the way of old stuff in Geelong.”
