subject. Funds were voted, and a Special Committee was appointed to render him any co-operation necessary. This occurred on the 26th June, 1850, and Mr. Blackburn set to work and performed his difficult task in a masterly manner.
His Report was submitted on the 9th August, 1851, and from it first originated the idea of drawing the water supply of Melbourne from a beautiful valley embosomed in the Diamond Creek and other ranges some twenty miles from town. It was then known as Rider's Swamp, but afterwards called Yan Yean, the native name of the locality. I have long believed this designation to be a misnomer, slightly orthographical, but material in meaning. I first visited the Yan Yean in 1859, in company with Mr. William Thomas, a once well-known Assistant Protector of Aborigines, now several years dead. From him I learnt that aboriginally it meant "a young man," and that the place was once a favourite retreat for the tribes of that quarter, but he could not tell me further. I subsequently often endeavoured to trace what possible etymological reason there could be for naming such a spot "the young man," and I adopted as a hypothesis that in all probability the vale of Rider's swamp used to be selected by the Aborigines as a theatre for the frequent performance of the rite of Tib-but, an extraordinary sort of hair-cropping, clay-daubing, skin-dressing, and tooth-breaking operation, by which a native youth when he arrives at puberty is propelled from the boy into the "young man," or, in other words, Yan-Yeanised. My belief is that the native proper name of the place is Yan Yan, after the chief so called, one of the eight Aboriginal magnates who sold the country to Batman. Rider's swamp formed portion of Yan Yan's territory.
Blackburn's proposal found much favour with the Lieutenant-Governor (Latrobe), though, for the time, it was considered an expensive undertaking. The scheme consisted in turning the valley into a sheet of water. Surrounded on three-fourths of its area by an amphitheatre of hills, by means of an embankment it would be absolutely enclosed, and, fed by the rainfall, the drainage of an extensive watershed, and by the River Plenty, the valley could be transformed into a lake covering a surface of 1300 acres, 2½ miles in diameter at its greatest width, a maximum depth of 25½ feet, and a circumference of nine miles. The water was to be conveyed by pipes to Melbourne. With certain modifications the Blackburn scheme was adopted, and on the 18th February, 1853, the Act 16 Victoria No. 39 of the Victorian Legislature was assented to, establishing a Board of Commissioners. Mr. Blackburn was appointed Consulting Engineer, but he died soon after the commencement of the undertaking. He was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Bullock Jackson, by whom the reservoir was completed. I often felt surprised that the Yan Yean works turned out to be such a great success under Mr. Jackson, who left the colony many years ago. I believe that much of the success was justly due to Mr. C. J. Griffiths (long dead), who, though not a professional, possessed considerable ability as a civil engineer, and, unlike other amateurs, knew well how to apply it. He devoted himself heart and soul to the Yan Yean, and saw that the work was well and properly done. It would be fortunate if another Griffiths were able to give a wrinkle or two to our engineers, for, by all accounts, there is no country in the world where water-works have been so expensively spoiled as in Victoria. Of the Yan Yean the colony may well feel proud, for, though it cost an immense sum of money, it has proved to be a good speculation.
There are two laughable incidents in connection with the Yan Yean worth noting. During the progress of the work there were several ill-boding prophets in Melbourne who predicted that the whole thing would prove a thorough failure-that the reservoir was in the wrong place—that it would either dry up or burst through the embankment and drown Melbourne. Foremost amongst the croakers was an old and worthy citizen, Dr. Wilkie, successful as an obstetrician, but very so-and-so as a politician, though for several years a member of the Upper branch of the Legislature. The doctor exhausted goodness only knows how many quires of foolscap and bottles of ink in demonstrating to a mathematical certainty that the Yan Yean never could, would, or should answer the purpose for which it was designed. Mr. James Murphy, a partner in one of the principal brewery firms, who once for a short time represented Melbourne in the old Legislative Council, had also a great "down" on the Yan Yean, and the prime Parliamentary effort of his career was a notice of motion in fact, a vote of want of confidence in the project; but his motion was not carried, and the Yan Yean was not obliged to abdicate. These were the two chief Cassandras of the time, with this difference-that the Cassandra of old foretold truly the Fall of Troy, but was not believed; while our Melbourne Cassandras were false prophets amongst unbelievers also.
