At 7 o'clock on Sunday night the new concrete water tower erected at Wangaratta at a cost of £3800 suddenly collapsed, and fell with a loud crash, portion falling on the verandah of Mr. L. R. M'Donald's house. The tank, which was 104 feet high, and had a capacity of 240,000 gallons in three compartments, had been erected about six months. First the floor of the top chamber gave way; then, amidst tongues of flame and smoke, caused by the fusing of electric wires, two-thirds of the structure fell. Mr. L. R. M'Donald, signalman at the railway station, was standing at his gate, 30 yards away, when he saw the tank falling. He reached the door of his house, and was knocked down by the concussion. His mother was on the verandah, and his wife and child were imprisoned in the diningroom, the doors of which were jammed. Fortunately they escaped injury. The tank, which was about three parts full, had not been taken over by the engineer from the contractor. (1)
Wangaratta water tower one week before it collapsed, March 1925.
Photographer: G. E. Roberts, Wangaratta
Museums Victoria https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/772801
The Age report noted that - The electric lighting system of one section of the town was thrown out of order. The Cathedral, where people had assembled for evening service, was in darkness. In a few minutes 1500 people were on the scene of the collapse. (2)
There were various people reported who were impacted by the collapse - there was Mr L. R. McDonald, his wife Mrs McDonald, who was in the kitchen and was treated for shock; Mr McDonald was reported to have been talking to a W. McDonald; Mr McDonald senior was said to be with the baby in the dining room and Mrs McDonald senior was reported to have been on the verandah and was thrown heavily down, but beyond shock sustained no injuries. (3) L.R. McDonald was Leslie Roy McDonald, the signalman. He was born in 1898 to William and Lily Ann (nee Churchill) McDonald at Mount Egerton. His father was also employed with the Victorian Railways and may have been the man he was talking to when the tower collapsed, which does not explain how he was also in the dining room with the baby. Leslie had enlisted in the Army, in the Railway Unit, on May 7, 1918 at the age of 19 years and 10 months; his address was Railway Cottage, Whitehorse Road, Deepdene. Leslie embarked at the end of August, served in England and France and Returned to Australia July 1919. In 1922 he married Mary Ialean Kirk. Perhaps not surprising, they left Wangaratta soon after the water tower collapsed and in 1926 are listed in the Electoral Roll at Whitehorse Road, Deepdene, presumably living with his parents. Mary sadly died on May 18, 1935, aged only 36 years old, leaving behind their three children, Leslie, Ian and Joan. At the time of her death the family was living at 42 Nungerner Street, Balwyn. Leslie died in 1993, aged 95. (4)
Wangaratta Water Tower collapsed 5.4.25.
Photographer: G. Roberts Studio.
Museums Victoria https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/768014
The Age also reported -
The tank was portion of a scheme to improve the water supply of the west end of the town. Its capacity was 240,000 gallons, and the shell was 8 inches thick. The tank was divided into three equal sections by two floors. When the first floor was being put in, at 33 feet from the ground, the scaffolding gave way, and apparently weakened the wall. For several days there had been some water in the top and bottom sections of the tank, but none in the centre. It was hoped that the defects could have been remedied with the balance of the money held by the trust, but the total collapse puts a new aspect on the matter, and it remains to be settled whether the contractor will have to rebuild the tank or whether the trust will have to incur the additional expense of the whole loss. Already over £8000 has been borrowed for the improved scheme, without benefit to the ratepayers so far, although the works have been in progress for eighteen months. (5)
What went wrong? As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the wall had already been weakened. The Age later reported -
The reinforced concrete water tank which collapsed on Sunday evening has been inspected by Mr. F. Neville, engineer of the Water Commission; Mr. J. T. Noble Anderson, engineer of Wangaratta Water Works Trust, and A. A. Hargreave, contractor for its construction. Mr. Anderson has notified the contractor that the conditions of contract require him to replace the structure. In a further report to the water works trust Mr. Anderson states that he was misinformed when he reported that there was no water in the second chamber of the tank. He ascertained that it contained 17½ feet of water, weighing 180 tons, and that the floor itself gave way. This floor also fell when under construction. Negotiations were proceeding between the engineer and contractor to have this floor strengthened by a central pillar when the tank collapsed. Mr. Anderson states that he did not know how the water came to be in the second section of the tank. (6)
The Construction and Local Government Journal: the weekly supplement to Building and the Australasian Engineer covered the story in June 1925 and were clearly not impressed with either the construction or the aesthetics of the tower -
This service reservoir was constructed in three sections with two intermediate floors, the latter being carried, without intermediate support, by the outer walls, which also sustained the pressure due to the various superimposed heads of water. By comparison with an ordinary reinforced concrete column with its essential hooping these thin 8-inch walls would appear to be rather inefficient for purposes of weight sustaining, when they have also to resist large secondary stresses. (7)
The residents of Wangaratta will at least have some consolation for the loss of their water tank, in the knowledge that their skyline will look better without it; for surely something less of an eyesore than this 106 feet length, of Brobdignagian (8) stove-pipe could have been devised to serve the same purpose. Much less architectural treatment has been provided than is commonly, given to a chimney stack. (9)
This image shows how close the fallen water tower was to the McDonald's house, and how lucky they were to escape serious injury.
The Australasian, April 11 1925 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140772794
A month later the Construction and Local Government Journal had more to add -
This fallen monstrosity stands - or rather lies - as a warning to those who would trifle with this scientific building material. While it remains to be proved wherein the real responsibility lies, the disaster should deter others from copying this design for a storage reservoir, from structural considerations, even if not from the aesthetic. After completion, one of the floors was found to be weak. The section above was filled by mistake, and the floor giving way under the strain near one side, the falling avalanche of water burst out the wall and a total collapse of the water tower resulted. (10)
So who was to blame? There was protracted negotiations to establish liability and how everyone could move forward. It wasn't until August 1928 that the issue was resolved -
Finality has been reached in the negotiations in connection the concrete tank which collapsed in April, 1925, the Wangaratta Waterworks Trust has settled its action as against the contractors (Messrs A.A. Hargrave and Co.) Under the settlement the contractors will bear half the loss on the collapsed water tower. The trust with the approval of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission and its consulting engineers (Messrs B.A. and D.B. Smith), has entered into a contract with Mr. A.A. Hargrave for the construction of a new water tower at a cost of £4000. The new tower will be constructed on the old site and the work of construction will begin immediately, and will be completed within six months. When completed the tower will resemble in appearance the Wodonga water tower. It will be 100ft. high, and will be of 100,000 gallons capacity. (11)
The Water Tower, almost completed.
The Argus, March 9 1929, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3992195/468312
The tower was completed around March 1929, four years after it collapsed. (12)
The 1929 water tower can be seen in the centre of this photograph. The brick water tower on the left is the railway water tower, constructed in 1873, the year the railway arrived in Wangaratta. (13)
Railway Yards, Wangaratta. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co.
State Library of Victoria image H32492/1289
Trove list - I have created a short list of articles in the collapse of water tower at Wangaratta, access it here.
Footnotes
(1) Benalla Standard, April 7, 1925, see here.
(2) The Age, April 6, 1925, see here.
(3) See my Trove list, here, for the various reports.
(4) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com; Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Leslie's Attestation papers, National Archives of Australia, see here; Mary's death notice, The Age, May 20, 1935, see here.
(5) The Age, April 6, 1925, see here.
(6) The Age, April 11, 1925, see here.
(7) Construction and Local Government Journal, June 17, 1925, p. 7, see here.
(8) Brobdignagian - Brobdingnag was the country of giants in Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels - hence brobdignagian meaning colossal
(9) Construction and Local Government Journal, June 17, 1925, p. 19, see here.
(10) Construction and Local Government Journal, July 1, 1925, see here.
(11) The Argus, August 29, 1928, see here.
(12) The Argus, March 9, 1929, see here.
(13) The rail line from Benalla to Wangaratta opened October 28, 1873; Wangaratta to Wodonga opened November 21, 1873 (Harrigan, Leo J Victorian Railways to '62 (Victorian Railways, 1962), p. 285)
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