120 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
File: aquacave.txt
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Cont: Description of Aquacave, a recently discovered big drain in
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Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, by <predator>. December 1999
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Finally I had my motorbike back from the motorbike shop in Kew NSW (which had
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the approrpiate name of "Far Kew") and could hit Brisbane again. I met Ogre
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in his luxury Brisbane apartment an hour earlier than he expected because I
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forgot to wind my watch back one hour when I crossed the QLD/NSW border, duh,
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so he was still half-asleep when he opened the door. I said hello to Dirge
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while I got the blood circulating in my legs again after sitting on the 400cc
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Predabike for the last four hours... those gloves I found in Charity Creek
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room (under Victoria Road, Ryde) made excellent motorbikin' gauntlets.
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Brisbane had turned it on for me again. Rain, that is. I was itching to do
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this new drain that I'd heard Ogre and Trioxide raving about on the web ring,
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but it was pissing rain. Dirge hadn't done the power station yet and was
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headding back to Sydney the following day and wanted value for her Brisbane
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Railpass dollar. We decided to have another look at the Tennyson Power
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station. We got off at Milli-Vanilli-Silly-Billy-Yeerongpilly station and
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trudged out to the powerhouse.
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We scanned the perimeter for a secluded site where we could enter. Ogre, being
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the big beast he is, couldn't fit through the tight squeeze which permitted
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Dirge and I into the sub-basement, and he pulled off a heroic climb up the
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bars and through a gap four metres off the ground, and also disposed of some
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chicken wire, before getting in.
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The place hasn't changed much since I was last there (see: Tennyson.txt) and
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this time we went all the way to the very top of the roof, in the freezing
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rain and wind. There was an amusing situation where, at one end of the
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plant, we looked down at the dwelling where the security guard lives, to
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determine the whereabouts of the guard dog which was responsible for the dog
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shit distributed throughout the place. There it was, being fed its bowl of
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dinner, by none other than the security guard wearing only his black hipster
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underpants and a wristwatch. Well, there's no likelihood of being busted here,
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we grinned, and kept exploring until we ran out of light.
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**
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Dirge and Ogre went home to their rooftop party and I got the train to Bowen
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Hills Station, which is about 250m from the entrance of Aquacave. The entrance
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is at the corner of Sneyd St and Campbell St, Bowen Hills (Gregorys: 250-F1)
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down a steep embankment near a Queensland Rail depot. I got there in the dark
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and it had stopped raining, but the tunnel spewed a torrent down the canal. I
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weighed it up: it's an unfamiliar drain, probably with a big catchment (turns
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out it services most of Fortitude Valley so the floating payloads could be
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unpleasant too) it's night time, the clouds are threatening, and if I go in
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there and it rains, I'll probably die. Aw, shit.
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Yes, the threat of death keeps <predator> out of drains, but only so he can
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come back the next day - which, fortunately, was on a bright sunny morning
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while the tide was out. It made the whole journey worthwhile.
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Aquacave is the best drain I have explored in Brisbane. It is better than
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Batcave, better than Brisbane Darkie and One Hundredth, all of which are quite
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worthwhile drains. Aquacave is long, has lots of interesting rooms, ancient
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sections and shape changes, a nice loop, and is vertically user-friendly for
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almost all of its length.
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The first part, up to the junction, is roughly hacked in a straight line
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under Sneyd St, straight out of the tuff, with cement-bevelled sloped
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bottom edges. At other points the tuff has been hewn into large blocks and
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these make up the walls.
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At the junction these bevels become too steep to walk on. You have to
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negotiate a large step to take the right hand fork, and it's loud due to all
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the water flowing over it. This fork takes you up the 2m concrete rectangular
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section to a large (6m tall, 20m long, 10m wide) arched red brick room beyond
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which is another 2m concrete section, which promptly takes you to the grilles,
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which are probably in Victoria Park someplace and from which I have not heard
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any reports of an exit without two people to lift them.
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I went back to the junction and took the left fork. The shape changes to 3m
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high, moulded concrete with a sloping invert and concreted-in beams in the
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roof every couple of metres. This converts into a 2.5m old round pipe, which
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is soon replaced by a welcoming, much older and larger section with its
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own natural lighting, and what appears to be bluestone block flooring and
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walls, about 2.5m high by 3m wide. This comes quickly to another junction,
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the right continuing on as is, the left is a debris-strewn 2m round concrete
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pipe, similarly well lit.
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I followed this round one through several small corner rooms, via a room
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which has a weird pointy-edge-upstream, wedge-shaped steel plate conduit
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duct, with lifting bolts on top, across the middle of the drain at about
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waist height. The round tunnel section then comes to a concrete room which
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connects with the old bluestone conduit section, and also connects to an
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even older bluestone section 1m wide, 2.5m high (finally they got the height
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and width the *right* way around!) with eroded bluestone or brick floors,
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and beveled top shoulders. I frequently placed my foot where I expected floor
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to be, and only ended up landing at the bottom of a half-metre deep puddle,
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awkwardly loading my foot or bruising my ankle.
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This is a old, long, serpentine section, interrupted periodically by 2 x 1 x 3
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concrete rooms with new (1990s) manholes and stepirons. It is also interrupted
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by a strange concrete section 4m high, 1m wide at the bottom half, and 2m
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wide at the top half. Shape changes galore, and they don't stop there. Some
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of the bluestone wall sections slope gently outwards, and have these annoying
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iron cross-bars at chest height every few metres. Once the bluestone-upright
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segment ends, it is replaced with another shape change, first of the permanent
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shrinkers - a kind of dished bowl shape with vertical walls and a shallow
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domed roof.
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I was conscious of the time and the tide, and after a couple of hours up this
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excellent tunnel I tagged up on some PVC conduit and headded home via the
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other side of the bluestone loop. On the way out I noticed the shape of the
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exit had changed - the dished bottom had been replaced by a flat horizontal
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line, which means one thing - tide waters... so *that* was where the name
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came from! I made it to the exit with water almost up to the crease of my
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butt cheeks, and I was standing on tip-toe for much of the wade out. With wet
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shoes it is a bit of a scramble to climb up and out of the trench, use the
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right hand side as you face downstream, and leave happy wet footprints up
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Campbell St as you return to the rail station.
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G@tew@y Bridge will need nothing less than a battery powered angle grinder.
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The bolts are about 12mm dia SS round rod, the site is very exposed and lit at
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night.
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<predator>, Cave Clan Sydney Branch, 22/12/1999
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