GSA Guide - Tower Mill and water tanks Claimed

Tower Mill and Water Tanks

Colonial building and second water supply for Brisbane.

Windmill to treadmill and water tanks of 1870-1880s.

Windmill and water tanks 19th century sites.

Albert Park and its heritage buildings.

The end of Albert Park at the bend in the road are examples of 19th Century buildings in Queensland.

The Tower Mill and the water tanks which were the first reticulated water supply for Brisbane City. This replaced the polluted tank at Tank Street (that caused bouts of typhoid in the city). 

The Tower Mill was originally designed as a windmill with sails, but there was inadequate wind velocity to power the sails and it became a punishment treadmill for the convicts.  The water tanks date from 1870-1880s

A round motel to mimic the old Tower Mill was constructed in the 1960s.

Fencing - Windmill and water tanks.

Brisbane Tuff was extensively quarried from Kangaroo Point and elsewhere for kerb and channelling, as a facing stone and locally as a fencing.  This forms the feature wall and plaque to the Tower Mill.

Water tanks.

Due to the rapid growth of Brisbane the 1850s and 1860s it became evident that a new supply was necessary for the city to solve the issue of the inadequate and polluted water from the tank in Tank Street. 

The decision was to build a dam on Enoggera Creek and gravity feed the city from a reservoir on Windmill Hill.

Construction of the dam on Enoggera Creek began in 1864 and the dam is in use today.  The water supply was connected to the city in 1867, but did not supply all of the city.  A small reservoir built from bricks on the hill immediately adjacent to the Windmill was completed in 1871, but did not serve all of the city. Accordingly the walls of the reservoir were raised in 1872, and a second much larger structure was completed in 1872.  These were both decommissioned in 1962 and are now used to stage opera productions due to their unique acoustic properties.

The walls were constructed using bricks on a cement base. Due to their small size, these bricks appear to be hand-made as machine made bricks were not introduced into Brisbane until late 1872 or early 1873.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Windmill_Brisbane

The Tower Mill is the oldest remaining colonial structure in Brisbane city.

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