POLEY


 Grid Reference Poley 1 - CU 903344 (tree)
Poley 2 - CU 942349
Poley 3 - CU 915356 (current)
Department Melbourne Water
Work Depot Warburton
Region Port Phillip East
Grading Primary
Elevation (ASL) 1240m
Height 35m
Construction Steel
Cabin size 3m x 3m
Public access to site No
In use since 194? - 1963 (tree tower)
1964 - 1993 (second tower)
1993 - (current tower)
CFA Region 13 - Central
Current Poley tower

Poley tower is one of 4 Melbourne Water towers. It is situated in the O'Shannassy water Catchment, approx 100km east of Melbourne. Its viewing area contains most of the O'Shannassy, Upper Yarra, Maroondah and smaller tributaries (Armstrong, McMahons and Starvation Creek) catchments. The original Poley Tower was a tall tree on Mt. Ritchie. The towerman would go up for a look, then travel around for a while to look at various vantage points, and return to the tree for another look. This process would be repeated a few times per day. A steel tower (6km to the east) replaced the tree in 1964. The tower was 27m (90') high and was in operation until 1992, when it was replaced because of loss of viewing area due to tree growth. The current tower was erected 3km to the west, on Cold Water Hill. It stands 35m (115') tall and now covers also a greater area of State Forest, public and private land.
After it's completion, it was discovered that the lightning protection system was insufficient and work was undertaken to rectify the problem.
In 1994, most of the Melbourne Water Catchments became National Parks but Melbourne Water still has full control over management of the Catchments and the closed Catchment policy is still in force.
The running costs of the tower are shared with the DSE.
Melbourne is one of the very few cities in the world with a water supply coming from closed Catchments. This ensures Melbourne of very good quality drinking water. Some of the Catchments have been closed to the public since the start of this century and this results in beautiful Old Growth Forests of mainly Mountain Ash, (Eucalyptus Regnans).
To protect these forests from devastating bushfires, Melbourne Water have had their own Towers for fire detection. Early detection of wild-fires is vital for Melbourne Water. A wild-fire effects the harvest of water for many many years. In the first few years the water yield increases but is polluted and after the re-growth starts to take of, the water yield drops dramatically as the young eucalyptus saplings consume all the water they can get.

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements

Remains of 1st Poley Tower History rotting away
1st Poley Tower 		Remains of ladder
1st Poley Tower
2nd Poley Tower
in snow		 Mapboard and scope
inside current
Poley tower 		Scope
inside current
Poley tower


Thumbnails below are of the dismantling of the second Poley tower in November 2002.
The tower is sold to a gun club; they will use it to launch clay targets.
Cabin
4 tonne		 Top section
2.5 tonne		 2nd section
3.5 tonne		 3rd section
?? tonne		 4th section
before dismantling

All photos and information supplied by Andre Belterman
Andre manned the current tower for 4 years from 1994 -1998

The tower had a detailed structure inspection in July 2008 and the tower's overall condition is considered to be very good to excellent.

Poley tower was in the path of the devastating Black Saturday (7th Feb 2009). Graeme Seppings reported a smoke sighting not far to the West of him. It's believed that it was a spot fire from the Murrindindi fire. Graeme evacuated the tower and just as well, because 90% of the O'Shannassy catchment was burnt. Although the site was burnt over, the tower was inspected after the fires and considered to be structual safe due to the large clearing around the base.

Remains of 1st Poley Tower
after the fire has passed
Supplied by Andre Belterman		 Clearing around the tower
Supplied by Andre Belterman		 From the air
Supplied by Cameron Padgham


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